Original Article Title: "Top 8 Bear Market Cash Cow Projects: Top Performer Repurchases $283 Million Within the Year"

As the global stock markets experience a phase of correction, the crypto bear market continues. However, amidst a bleak market, some crypto projects still maintain a strong ability to attract funding.

According to Tokenomist's data, since January of this year, 8 crypto projects including Hyperliquid, Meteora, and Pump.fun have conducted token buybacks far exceeding the increase in their token supply. Among them, HYPE's buyback amount is as high as $283 million, accounting for 3% of its supply. In the same market environment, the survival status of crypto projects varies significantly. In this article, Odaily Planet Daily will provide a brief overview of the above 8 "cash cow" projects that continue to generate cash flow, allowing readers to understand the true "buyback kings" in the current crypto market.

Bear Market Cash Attraction "Eight Titans": Perp DEX, DeFi, Memecoin Launchpad Make the List

As per Tokenomist's data, as of June 30, the 8 projects with token buybacks exceeding the circulating supply growth within the year 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% (Value $283 million); Supply Growth -11%;

· LIT: Buyback Ratio 1%; Supply Growth 0%;

· AAVE: Buyback Ratio 1%; Supply Growth +1%.

Among these, Meteora (MET) has had the greatest impact on the circulating token supply with a buyback effect, as its supply has only grown by 13%, currently reported at 535.4 million tokens, while the buyback amount has reached 71% of the token supply in January, totaling 336.2 million tokens. Meanwhile, Hyperliquid (HYPE) has the largest buyback fund size at $283 million, equivalent to 3% of its token supply, while its token supply decreased by 11% during the same period. Below are detailed introductions of each project.

Hyperliquid: $2.83 Billion Buyback Fund Size Reached Within the Year

According to CryptoBriefing's data, Hyperliquid's token buyback amount has reached a staggering $2.83 billion since the beginning of 2026, setting an industry record for the largest buyback fund size. As of July 3, the total buyback amount for its token has exceeded $11 billion.

On March 20 last year, Hyperliquid officially launched its token buyback mechanism, mentioning that 97-99% of the Hyperliquid transaction fees are directly used to buy back HYPE tokens and burn them. By October last year, the HYPE token buyback fund had reached $6.45 billion. Looking at quarterly data, the buyback size has shown a growing trend: $3.1676 billion in Q3 2025; $2.5505 billion in Q4 2025, and $1.9225 billion in Q1 2026. Previously, the average monthly buyback fund was between $65 million and $85 million.

Currently, the Hyperliquid platform has burned 44 million HYPE tokens through buybacks, accounting for approximately 4.4% of the total supply.

Currently, the HYPE token price is trading at around $70. According to DefiLlama data, as of July 5, the Hyperliquid platform has accumulated approximately $14.12 billion in fees, with a total TVL of around $58.54 billion, and annual fees of around $10.72 billion.

Pump.fun: Over $71 Million Buyback of PUMP Tokens Within the Year

In March 2024, the Meme craze ignited within the Solana ecosystem swept across the entire crypto market, and Pump.fun quickly became the hottest Meme coin launchpad at the time. Despite the subsequent cooling of the Meme coin craze, Pump.fun has always been active in the crypto market and has positioned itself as a cash cow project through token launches, product updates, creator royalties, and other mechanisms.

Data shows that Pump.fun has repurchased over $400 million worth of PUMP tokens, covering approximately 145.5 billion PUMP tokens. The buyback plan started in July 2025 and has been ongoing for 346 days.

Since April this year, Pump.fun has started using 50% of its net revenue to buy back and burn tokens, with the remaining revenue used for operations, recruitment, 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 decreasing to around $18.66 million.

Currently, the PUMP token is trading at around $0.0016.

Lighter: Plans to Buy Back Over 1,500 LIT Tokens This Year

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

Recently, Lighter's founder and CEO, Vladimir Novakovski, announced joining the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) Innovation Advisory Committee as a committee member; earlier, Lighter announced integration with Robinhood Wallet, allowing users to directly trade perpetual contracts using the wallet. Coupled with the token buyback, the LIT token has seen a good price increase recently.

According to an announcement from Lighter on July 1st, since the start of the year, the first buyback transaction was initiated, and approximately 15.5 million LIT tokens have been bought back and burned, accounting for 6.3% of the total circulating supply.

According to DefiLlama data, Lighter has accumulated approximately $68 million in fee revenue, with a TVL of around $507 million; the protocol's income in the last 30 days was approximately $2.38 million.

Currently, the LIT token is trading at around $2.59.

Aave: Buyback Funds Exceed $13.7 Million This Year

On April 9, 2025, the Aave buyback proposal was passed with an overwhelming support rate of 99.63%. According to the proposal, Aave will buy back $1 million weekly over the next six months, with the first buyback executed on April 10.

As of July last year, the protocol had already spent $10 million to buy back 50,000 AAVE tokens at an average cost of $199.74. Based on the then-market price of $264, this portion of the treasury reserve has generated approximately $3 million in unrealized gains.

This year, following the massive $290 million security incident involving KelpDAO, Aave experienced a bad debt issue that briefly triggered a "DeFi trust crisis." In just under a week, over $170 billion in Total Value Locked (TVL) flowed out, and the platform faced a potential $8.5 billion deposit run. Subsequently, through founder subsidies and the DeFi United fundraiser, Aave successfully navigated the crisis. However, both the AAVE token and platform's TVL inevitably suffered significant impacts.

Notably, in October last year, Aave's buyback of AAVE tokens surpassed 100,000 tokens, costing approximately $24 million. In March this year, Aave proposed a reduction in the "annual buyback budget from $50 million to $30 million," which was eventually approved. Currently, Aave has repurchased over 200,000 AAVE tokens. At the end of last month, Aave CEO Stani mentioned that the team is designing Aavenomics 3.0, planning to introduce a new automated, non-discretionary buyback mechanism, stressing that they "will never sell AAVE at a discount of more than twenty percent."

According to DefiLlama data, as of July 6, Aave Protocol has accumulated $2.218 billion in fees; TVL is currently around $13.4 billion.

Currently, the AAVE token price is around $89.

Meteora: Cumulative Buyback Funds Exceed $45 Million This Year

In December last year, Meteora announced that it had allocated 10 million USDC for buyback purposes in Q4 2025, repurchasing approximately 2.3% of MET. The total supply will continue to undergo autonomous buybacks from the same address.

According to Tokenomist data, the MET token's circulating supply increased from 4.728 billion on January 1, 2026, to 5.354 billion (total supply of 10 billion), marking a 13.2% growth. Meanwhile, Meteora officially bought back 336.2 million tokens worth $45.75 million, accounting for 71% of its initial token supply.

In February this year, Meteora faced a scandal after being exposed for insider trading by on-chain sleuth ZachXBT. However, it managed to overcome the situation due to its strong presence in the Solana ecosystem and close ties to the Jupiter ecosystem, allowing it to remain active in the crypto market. Recently, its second quarter LP incentive program has just concluded, and rewards will be distributed soon.

According to DefiLlama data, its total trading volume is around $322.2 billion; TVL is currently at $320 million; and its protocol revenue for the past 30 days is $1.92 million.

Currently, the MET token price is around $0.17.

GMX: On-Chain Buyback Funds Reach $14.88 Million in the Year

Back in July 2024, GMX initiated a proposal to start a buyback of GMX tokens and distribute them; last November, GMX proposed to increase the buyback and distribution fee coverage from 27% to 90%, and raise the GMX Treasury's allocation ratio to 73%, to support the token buyback and airdrop mechanism. It is expected that the monthly GMX buyback amount will increase to 345,534 tokens, with a buyback value of $8.489 million.

As of October 23 last year, GMX had bought back approximately 1.33 million tokens; subsequently, the GMX team continued to buy back tokens. In March this year, GMX DAO adjusted the buyback and liquidity through a governance plan to restore price discovery.

According to an announcement released by GMX's team on July 1st, between March 5th and June 30th this year, they spent $1.965 million to buy back 313,650 GMX tokens at an average price of $6.27 per token, with Q2 buyback funds amounting to $1.41 million. According to Tokenomist data, GMX's current buyback ratio is about 41.22%.

Based on DefiLlama data, GMX's total trading volume is close to $33 billion; TVL is currently at $175 million; and the protocol's revenue in the past 30 days is around $662,000.

Currently, the GMX token price is around $5.86.

In addition to the above platforms, the token buyback mechanisms of Rollbit, an online gambling platform focusing on "GambleFi," and Metaplex, a Solana-based NFT platform, are more niche.

For the former, the RLB token undergoes an hourly automatic buyback and burn process, primarily using platform revenue (casino 10%, sports betting 20%, 1000x futures 30%, among other proportions) to buy RLB on the open market. After purchase, 90% is permanently burned (reducing supply), and 10% is distributed to Rollbots NFT stakers (rewarding holders). According to information on the official website, the accumulated token buyback value over the past six months is approximately $12.5 million.

Currently, the RLB token is trading at $0.065.

The latter conducts a monthly protocol fee buyback of 50% in MPLX, with the repurchased tokens allocated to the Metaplex DAO treasury (held rather than immediately burned, enhancing scarcity and governance value); the remaining 50% is allocated to foundation development. Currently, the MPLX token is trading at $0.036.

Of course, token buybacks and burns do not necessarily guarantee price increases and are also subject to market trends, news events, product updates, token unlocks, and other factors. However, in the current subdued market conditions, a crypto project that can sustainably generate a stable cash flow is already a rare "cash magnet."

Original Article

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