Foreign media report that Hyperliquid’s HYPE does not rely on one-time burns or temporary team decisions to support its token economy, but instead continuously channels protocol fees into an on-chain buyback system. The article suggests this approach results in significantly stronger buyback intensity for HYPE compared to most major tokens, explaining the market’s sustained interest in its token model.
97% of fees go toward buybacks
According to the article, fees paid by users when trading on Hyperliquid are first directed into a protocol treasury pool called the Assistance Fund. This pool then automatically uses 97% of the fees to buy HYPE on the open market, with the entire process executed by on-chain logic without reliance on manual team intervention.
The article states that the purchased HYPE tokens are held by the liquidity pool, effectively reducing the active circulating supply over time. All buyback transactions are visible on-chain, and the rules are publicly disclosed by validators, making the execution process relatively transparent.
The total repurchase volume has exceeded $1.3 billion.
The data shows that, as of May 2026, the pool had cumulatively used over $1.3 billion to repurchase HYPE. At the peak price, the held HYPE amounted to approximately 28.5 million tokens, valued at around $1.5 billion.
- Total repurchase amount exceeds $1.3 billion
- Holding approximately 28.5 million HYPE tokens
- Average monthly buyback amount is approximately $65.5 million.
The article also notes that around October 2025, the average daily repurchase amount was approximately $1 million, with a single-day peak of $3.97 million. In 2025, Hyperliquid accounted for 46% of all token repurchase activity in the cryptocurrency industry.
Governance voting to increase the buyback ratio
The article states that a governance vote in December 2025, supported by 85% of validators, decided to increase the buyback allocation ratio for certain fee categories to 99% and committed to permanently burning a portion of the tokens in the treasury.
According to the text, this means the related arrangements are no longer merely adjustable operational policies but have been incorporated into governance commitments. Additionally, the repurchase and subsequent destruction of tokens lead to a more direct reduction in token supply.
The annualized intensity is approximately 7% of the market capitalization.
The article notes that the market has traditionally been cautious about token buybacks, as many projects' buybacks are merely temporary measures or dependent on team decisions, with funding not necessarily coming from genuine revenue. In contrast, HYPE’s buyback funding comes directly from protocol trading fees and automatically increases or decreases in line with platform trading volume.
The article estimates, on an annualized basis, that HYPE’s current buyback intensity is approximately 7% of its market capitalization, higher than similar mechanisms for Ethereum, BNB, and Solana. It concludes that if platform trading activity remains strong, the high proportion of fee buybacks will persist; if trading volume declines significantly, the support provided by this mechanism will weaken accordingly.