SEC · CryptoSlate
SEC clears regulatory hurdle as crypto token buybacks hit record $638 million
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Crypto projects spent about $638 million with token buybacks through late August 2026, according to Allium Labs data.
Key facts
- At the current run rate and allocation, that implies around $250 million in annual purchases, about 6.4% of Pump.fun's displayed $3.91 billion fully diluted valuation
- Crypto's record remains small next to Wall Street, where S&P 500 companies spent $1.02 trillion on repurchases in the 12 months through September 2025
- Hyperliquid has bought and burned roughly $1.3 billion of HYPE since launch, and its documentation says more than $1 billion in annualized fees now flows into programmatic HYPE purchases
- Governance then debated cutting the annual budget from $50 million to $30 million as revenue softened
Summary
02 SEC staff says mature networks can buy back non-security tokens without triggering Howey by itself. 03 Hyperliquid and Pump.fun account for nearly 90% of 2026 crypto buybacks. That is already a record, up from $545 million over the same stretch of 2025. On Sept. 25, staff at the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) addressed the legal tension that has shadowed those programs since they began.