TL;DR
- Buyback Scale: The protocol has spent $75M over six months repurchasing SKY tokens using its USDS stablecoin to cut circulating supply and strengthen market value.
- Price Impact: Since the February launch, SKY’s price has climbed 8.1%, peaking at 9.6 cents in July before easing with broader market trends.
- Industry Trend: Projects like WLFI and PUMP have also rolled out substantial buyback programs to stabilize prices and boost investor confidence.
Crypto protocol Sky, formerly known as Maker, has committed $75 million over the past six months to an aggressive token buyback program that has coincided with an 8% rise in the value of its SKY token. The initiative, launched in late February, aims to reduce circulating supply and bolster market confidence in the rebranded platform.
Sky Protocol used 5.5 million USDS in August to buy back 73 million SKY.
Almost 75 million USDS has been spent on buybacks since the program started. pic.twitter.com/708vzq2bnU
— Sky (@SkyEcosystem) September 1, 2025
Six Months of Strategic Buybacks
The protocol revealed that in August alone, it deployed 5.5 million of its USDS stablecoin to repurchase 73 million SKY tokens. This increased the total amount spent on buybacks to 75 million USDS since the start of the program. The strategy mirrors a common approach in both traditional finance and crypto markets, where reducing token supply can create upward price pressure. The buyback’s largest monthly spend occurred in March, when $18.31 million was allocated.
Market Impact and Price Performance
When the buyback program started on February 24, SKY traded just above 6.3 cents. Since that time, it has increased by 8.1% to be priced at more than 6.85 cents, based on on-chain data. The token hit a peak of 9.6 cents in late July, getting close to its all-time high of just above 10 cents established in December.
However, it later declined alongside broader market trends and did not participate in the mid-August recovery seen in some other assets. At the time of writing, SKY trades at $0.07, increasing nearly 10% in the last 24 hours.
Comparisons with Peer Tokens
While SKY has posted steady gains since the buyback began, other decentralized finance tokens have shown varied performance. Uniswap’s UNI token rose 6% and Aave’s AAVE surged 25.8% over the same period, both benefiting from the mid-August rebound. SKY’s trajectory suggests that while buybacks can support value, broader market sentiment remains a significant factor in price movements.
Industry Trend Toward Buyback Programs
The protocol’s approach aligns with a growing industry trend. On the same day as the protocol’s August update, World Liberty Financial proposed using all protocol fees to buy back and burn its WLFI token, which has fallen over 16% since its debut. Similarly, memecoin platform Pump.fun has spent $66.5 million on buybacks since mid-July, helping its PUMP token climb nearly 70% from late-July lows.
