SEC staff says mature crypto networks can fund token buybacks as repurchases hit record $638M

Token buybacks reach a record $638 million

Crypto projects spent about $638 million buying back their own tokens through late August 2026, according to Allium Labs data reported by CryptoSlate. A buyback is when a project uses its own money to buy its token from the market.

That total is a record. It is up from $545 million over the same stretch of 2025.

The figure landed alongside new guidance from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. On Sept. 25, SEC staff published crypto FAQs that address how buybacks fit with securities law.

The buyback numbers at a glance

• About $638 million in token buybacks through late August 2026, compared with $545 million in the same period of 2025.
• Hyperliquid accounted for roughly $370 million and Pump.fun about $200 million. Together they made up close to 90% of the total.
• SEC staff published the buyback guidance on Sept. 25, 2026.

What the SEC staff FAQs say

The SEC's Division of Corporation Finance addressed buybacks in a new set of FAQs covering networks that are already functional.

Staff said an issuer's buyback announcement for a non-security crypto asset on such a network falls outside the promises of "essential managerial efforts" at the center of the Howey test. The Howey test is the legal test used to decide whether something counts as an investment contract.

The same answer warns younger projects. On a network that has not yet reached functionality, pitching a buyback as a source of yield or returns can feed into an investment-contract analysis.

The answer rests on two built-in assumptions: a functional system, and a token that already sits outside securities law. It also carries the weight of staff views, which the SEC describes as lacking legal force.

Under the agency's March interpretation, a network counts as functional when its native token can be used according to its programmed utility.

How a project moves from fundraising to buybacks

The SEC's March interpretation says a token can be sold as part of an investment contract while a team raises money against promises of managerial work. That contract can end once buyers stop expecting profits from those promised efforts.

The pending Regulation Crypto Assets proposal would let projects raise up to $5 million over four years under a startup exemption. A larger fundraising exemption would allow up to $75 million every 12 months, with disclosure requirements attached to both.

Proposed Rule 400 adds a transition filing called Form TR. In it, an issuer certifies on EDGAR, the SEC's filing system, that it has completed or permanently ceased its promised managerial efforts and stopped making new ones. The issuer files it directly, and the agency could later contest whether the conditions were met.

In its paperwork estimates, the SEC assumes about 475 issuers a year could rely on that safe harbor, based on 15% of the roughly 3,165 projects launched in 2024. Comments on the proposal close Oct. 20.

Where the buyback money is going

Pump.fun says half its revenue goes to buying and permanently burning PUMP tokens. Burning means sending tokens to a place where they can no longer be used, which removes them from supply. Its dashboard shows roughly $500 million in annualized revenue, about $462.5 million in cumulative purchases, and 167.7 billion tokens destroyed, equal to 16.8% of the original supply.

At the current run rate and allocation, CryptoSlate says that implies around $250 million in annual purchases, about 6.4% of Pump.fun's displayed $3.91 billion fully diluted valuation.

Hyperliquid has bought and burned roughly $1.3 billion of HYPE since launch. Its documentation says more than $1 billion in annualized fees now flows into programmatic HYPE purchases.

Uniswap switched on protocol fees on Ethereum mainnet in December 2025 and has since extended them to other chains. Outside searchers collect accumulated fees only by burning UNI tokens.

Aave acquired more than 205,000 AAVE, about 1.28% of supply, for roughly $42 million in its first ten months, according to the report.

Why burns do not always mean less supply

CryptoSlate notes that Hyperliquid funds staking rewards from a reserve of future emissions even as trading fees burn HYPE. In that setup, a protocol that burns 5% of supply while issuing 8% through emissions and unlocks ends up diluting holders, even with a large headline buyback.

The report says a more useful measure for these tokens is net burns against new issuance, before comparing the result to valuation.

What is confirmed

• Token buybacks reached about $638 million through late August 2026, based on Allium Labs data, up from $545 million a year earlier.
• SEC staff published buyback FAQs on Sept. 25, 2026, covering networks that are already functional.
• Staff views are not binding law, something the SEC itself states.
• Regulation Crypto Assets and Rule 400, including Form TR, are proposals. Comments close Oct. 20.

What is still unclear

The FAQ rests on assumptions that a network is functional and that its token already sits outside securities law. Token status still depends on facts and circumstances.

The guidance covers staff views that lack legal force, so it is not a final court-like ruling. In the proposed transition process, the SEC could later challenge whether an issuer actually met the Form TR conditions.

The figure of about 475 issuers a year is the SEC's own assumption used for paperwork estimates, not a confirmed count of projects.

Why this matters

Put together, the sources describe a path from securities-regulated fundraising to a mature network that can spend real revenue on its own token. CryptoSlate notes the structure rewards teams that define their build as a finite list of milestones they can complete, and discourages marketing that frames buybacks as returns before the product works.

The Form TR covers projects that abandoned their roadmaps as well as those that finished them. The buyback FAQ applies only once a network is functional.

What happens next

Comments on the Regulation Crypto Assets proposal close Oct. 20, according to the report.

Sources

• CryptoSlate