TL;DR
- Total buyback volume in 2025 exceeded $1.4 billion, according to CoinGecko.
- Hyperliquid (HYPE) dominated the activity, repurchasing $644 million, nearly 50% of the total.
- Projects like LayerZero (ZRO) and Pump.fun (PUMP) also executed massive buybacks.
The cryptocurrency market is experiencing unprecedented token buyback activity in 2025, exceeding $1.4 billion in aggregate volume between January 1 and October 15. According to a new CoinGecko report, the main driver of this trend was the decentralized exchange Hyperliquid (HYPE).
The HYPE team repurchased $644 million of its own tokens on the open market, accounting for nearly 50% of all buyback activity recorded in the crypto ecosystem this year.
Hyperliquid is not alone in this strategy. The cross-chain communication protocol LayerZero (ZRO) positioned itself as the second-largest buyer, initiating over $150 million in buybacks following its anticipated airdrop. It is closely followed by Pump.fun (PUMP), the popular memecoin launcher on Solana, which spent $138 million to remove 3% of its total supply.
Other notable players in the Solana ecosystem, such as the DEXes Raydium (RAY) and Jupiter (JUP), were also active, accumulating over $160 million in combined buybacks.
The Strategy: Reduce Supply and Demonstrate Confidence
This buyback trend is used as a powerful financial tool to stabilize or boost an asset’s value. As the CoinGecko crypto buybacks report highlights, these coordinated purchases by the issuer reduce the circulating supply available on the market, making the asset verifiably scarcer and, therefore, potentially more valuable. Furthermore, buybacks act as a strong price catalyst, as they demonstrate the team’s own confidence in the project’s future and help absorb existing selling pressure.
A clear example of the impact of these actions was the recent case of Ethena (ENA), whose token outperformed the entire market after its founder purchased $25 million worth of ENA. Although GMX (GMX) ranks 11th by total volume, its strategy of repurchasing 13% of its circulating supply (often redistributed to the community) shows the profound impact these tactics have on tokenomics and investor confidence.
