盘点8大熊市“现金牛”项目：最多者年内回购2.83亿美元

Original｜Odaily Planet Daily (@OdailyChina)

Author｜Wenser (@wenser 2010)

As global stock markets undergo phased adjustments, the crypto bear market continues. In this bleak market landscape, however, some crypto projects still demonstrate strong cash-generating capabilities.

According to Tokenomist data, since January this year, eight crypto projects including Hyperliquid, Meteora, and Pump.fun have seen their token buyback scales far exceed supply increases. Among them, HYPE's buyback alone reached $283 million, accounting for 3% of its supply. In the same market environment, the survival conditions of crypto projects couldn't be more different. Odaily Planet Daily will briefly review these eight "cash cow" projects that continue to generate cash flow, providing readers insight into the true "buyback champions" of the current crypto market.

The "Eight Titans" of the Bear Market: Perp DEX, DeFi, and Memecoin Launchpad Make the List

According to Tokenomist data, as of June 30, the eight projects with token buyback scales exceeding circulating supply growth are:

• MET: Buyback ratio 71%; Supply growth +13%;
• PUMP: Buyback ratio 7%; Supply growth -24%;
• GMX: Buyback ratio 21%; Supply growth +1%;
• RLB: Buyback ratio 10%; Supply growth -8%;
• MPLX: Buyback ratio 8%; Supply growth -8%;
• HYPE: Buyback ratio 3% (valued at $283 million); Supply growth -11%;
• LIT: Buyback ratio 1%; Supply growth 0%;
• AAVE: Buyback ratio 1%; Supply growth +1%.

Among them, Meteora (MET) has the largest impact on circulating supply, which grew only 13% to 535.4 million tokens, while buybacks reached 71% of January's supply at 336.2 million tokens. Meanwhile, Hyperliquid (HYPE) had the largest buyback capital at $283 million, equivalent to 3% of its token supply, while its supply decreased by 11% during the same period. Details are as follows.

Hyperliquid: $283 Million in Buybacks Year-to-Date

According to CryptoBriefing data, since the beginning of 2026, Hyperliquid's token buyback amount has reached $283 million, setting a record for the largest buyback capital in the industry. As of July 3, cumulative buybacks have exceeded $1.1 billion.

On March 20 last year, Hyperliquid officially launched its token buyback mechanism, stating that 97-99% of trading fees would be used to purchase and burn HYPE tokens. As of October last year, HYPE buybacks had reached $645 million. Quarterly data shows a gradual increase: Q3 2025 at $316.76 million; Q4 2025 at $255.05 million; Q1 2026 at $192.25 million. Previously, the average monthly buyback was between $65 million and $85 million.

To date, Hyperliquid has repurchased and burned 44 million HYPE tokens, approximately 4.4% of total supply.

Currently, the HYPE token price is around $70. According to DefiLlama data, as of July 5, Hyperliquid's cumulative fees stand at approximately $1.412 billion, with a total TVL of about $5.854 billion; annual fees are approximately $1.072 billion.

Pump.fun: Over $71 Million in PUMP Token Buybacks Year-to-Date

In March 2024, the meme craze ignited by the Solana ecosystem swept the entire crypto market, making Pump.fun the hottest meme coin launchpad at the time. Although the meme coin frenzy has since cooled, Pump.fun has remained active in the crypto market through token launches, product updates, and creator revenue-sharing mechanisms, solidifying its position as a cash cow project.

Data shows that Pump.fun has cumulatively repurchased over $400 million in PUMP tokens, covering approximately 145.5 billion PUMP tokens, with the buyback program launched in July 2025 and lasting 346 days.

Since April this year, Pump.fun has allocated 50% of its net revenue to token buybacks and burns, with the remaining revenue used for operations, hiring, and acquisitions.

DefiLlama data shows that since its launch in January 2024, the platform has generated approximately $1.13 billion in fees and $1.05 billion in revenue, with fees in the last 30 days dropping to about $18.66 million.

Currently, the PUMP token price is around $0.0016.

Lighter: Over 15 Million LIT Tokens Repurchased Year-to-Date

As another on-chain Perp DEX platform following Hyperliquid, Lighter's answer is a combination of "compliance + buybacks."

Recently, Lighter founder and CEO Vladimir Novakovski announced his appointment to the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) Innovation Advisory Committee. Earlier, Lighter officially announced integration with Robinhood Wallet, allowing users to trade perpetual contracts directly through the wallet. Combined with positive buyback news, the LIT token price has seen significant gains recently.

According to Lighter's official announcement on July 1, since starting its first token buyback in January, the platform has repurchased and burned approximately 15.5 million LIT tokens, accounting for 6.3% of circulating supply.

According to DefiLlama data, Lighter's cumulative fee revenue is approximately $68 million, with a TVL of about $507 million; protocol revenue in the past 30 days is approximately $2.38 million.

Currently, the LIT token price is around $2.59.

Aave: Over $13.7 Million in Buybacks Year-to-Date

On April 9, 2025, Aave's buyback proposal passed with an overwhelming 99.63% support rate. Under the proposal, Aave would conduct weekly buybacks of $1 million for the subsequent six months, with the first buyback executed on April 10.

As of July last year, the protocol had spent $10 million to repurchase 50,000 AAVE tokens at an average cost of $199.74. Based on the market price of $264 at that time, this treasury reserve had generated approximately $3 million in unrealized gains. (Further reading: Aave Economic Model Revolution: Anti-GHO Mechanism + Token Buyback Propels AAVE Up 20%)

This year, following the massive KelpDAO security incident involving over $290 million, Aave faced a "DeFi trust crisis" due to bad debt issues. Within less than a week, fund outflows exceeded $17 billion (in TVL), and it even faced a deposit run risk of nearly $8.5 billion. Ultimately, through founder capital injections and fundraising via the DeFi United initiative, Aave successfully navigated the crisis, though the AAVE token and platform TVL were inevitably severely impacted.

Notably, in October last year, Aave's repurchased AAVE tokens exceeded 100,000, with a total cost of approximately $24 million. In March this year, Aave initiated and ultimately passed a proposal to reduce the annual buyback budget from $50 million to $30 million. Currently, Aave has repurchased over 200,000 AAVE tokens. Late last month, Aave CEO Stani stated that the team is designing Aavenomics 3.0, planning to introduce a new automated, non-discretionary buyback mechanism, emphasizing that "AAVE will never be sold at a 30% discount."

According to DefiLlama data, as of July 6, Aave's cumulative protocol fees reached $2.218 billion; TVL stands at $13.4 billion.

Currently, the AAVE token price is around $89.

Meteora: Over $45 Million in Cumulative Buybacks Year-to-Date

In December last year, Meteora officially stated that it had deployed 10 million USDC in Q4 2025 for buybacks, repurchasing approximately 2.3% of MET tokens, with future buybacks to be executed autonomously from the same buyback address.

According to Tokenomist data, the circulating supply of MET tokens increased from 472.8 million on January 1, 2026, to 535.4 million (total supply of 1 billion), a 13.2% increase. Meanwhile, Meteora's official buybacks amounted to 336.2 million tokens, valued at $45.75 million, representing 71% of its token supply at the start of the year.

In February this year, Meteora was embroiled in a controversy after on-chain detective ZachXBT exposed employee insider trading. However, the platform managed to weather the storm thanks to its deep integration with the Solana ecosystem and Jupiter, remaining active in the crypto market. Recently, its Season 2 LP incentive campaign concluded, with related rewards to be distributed subsequently.

According to DefiLlama data, its cumulative trading volume is approximately $322.2 billion; TVL stands at $320 million; protocol revenue in the past 30 days was $1.92 million.

Currently, the MET token price is around $0.17.

GMX: $14.88 Million in Buybacks Year-to-Date

As early as July 2024, GMX had initiated a proposal to buy back GMX tokens and distribute GMX tokens. In November last year, GMX proposed increasing the fee coverage for buybacks and distribution from 27% to 90%, while raising the GMX Treasury allocation ratio to 73% to support token buybacks and airdrop mechanisms. The expected monthly buyback of GMX tokens was projected to increase to 345,534 tokens, valued at $8.489 million.

As of October 23 last year, GMX had repurchased approximately 1.33 million tokens. Subsequently, GMX continued its token buybacks. In March this year, GMX DAO passed a governance plan to adjust buybacks and liquidity to restore price discovery.

According to GMX's official announcement on July 1, between March 5 and June 30 this year, $1.965 million was spent to repurchase 313,650 GMX tokens at an average price of $6.27, with Q2 buyback capital at $1.41 million. According to Tokenomist data, GMX's current buyback ratio stands at approximately 41.22%.

According to DefiLlama data, GMX's cumulative trading volume is nearly $330 billion; TVL stands at $175 million; protocol revenue in the past 30 days is approximately $662,000.

Currently, the GMX token price is around $5.86.

Beyond the platforms above, the token buyback mechanisms of the online gambling platform Rollbit, which focuses on the "GambleFi" concept, and the Solana ecosystem asset issuance platform Metaplex are more niche.