Hyperliquid commands nearly half of crypto buybacks, says Citrini

Hyperliquid has accounted for nearly half of all token buyback activity across the crypto market in 2025, according to a new report from Citrini Research, which has highlighted the decentralized exchange’s revenue model as one of the strongest in the sector.

According to Citrini’s Substack publication released Monday, more than 90% of the fees generated by Hyperliquid are directed to the protocol’s Assistance Fund, which uses the proceeds to purchase HYPE tokens on the open market.

The research firm said the scale of the program sets Hyperliquid apart from most crypto projects and has turned HYPE into a token backed by what it described as meaningful cash flow generation.

“Unlike the memetic majority of crypto (bitcoin included), HYPE generates legitimate cash flow.”

Citrini said the buyback mechanism is attractive on its own, but argued that the size of the Assistance Fund is what makes the model stand out. The firm estimated that Hyperliquid repurchases have represented close to half of all token buybacks recorded across the digital asset industry this year.

At the same time, Hyperliquid (HYPE) has continued to outperform much of the market. Data from crypto.news showed the token recently reached an all-time high near $75 and was trading more than 8% higher over the previous 24 hours during Thursday’s Asian trading session.

Revenue growth continues to support buybacks

Recent developments around Hyperliquid’s treasury infrastructure could further strengthen the buyback program.

As reported earlier by crypto.news, HYPE climbed more than 12% on June 8 after Coinbase activated its role as the official USDC treasury deployer on Hyperliquid.

Coinbase said it had enabled the AQAv2 framework through two designated treasury wallet addresses and assumed responsibility for deploying the decentralized exchange’s USDC reserves.

According to Coinbase, the framework routes most of the yield generated from Hyperliquid’s USDC treasury back into the protocol ecosystem. The exchange previously estimated that the arrangement could increase Hyperliquid’s annual revenue by as much as $200 million.

Because Hyperliquid directs up to 99% of protocol revenue toward HYPE repurchases through its Assistance Fund, any increase in treasury income could expand the amount available for future token buybacks.

Additional interest has also come from prominent industry figures. BitMEX co-founder Arthur Hayes has once again been linked to HYPE after a wallet associated with him reportedly withdrew tokens from Bybit, following his earlier exit during a market correction, according to blockchain tracking reports covered by crypto.news.

Institutional interest keeps building

Beyond protocol revenue, Citrini pointed to growing investor participation through exchange-traded products linked to Hyperliquid.

The research firm highlighted recently launched Hyperliquid ETFs from Bitwise and 21Shares as another source of market attention. Data from SoSoValue shows the two products generated nearly $600 million in trading volume and attracted more than $136 million in net inflows during their first three weeks of trading.

Despite Hyperliquid recently overtaking Solana on a per-token price basis, Citrini noted that Solana’s market capitalization remains more than twice the size of HYPE’s. Even so, the firm argued that Hyperliquid still has room to capture additional market share within the decentralized derivatives sector.

“The Hyperliquid runway is wide,” Citrini wrote. “We think there is still significant market share to be captured.”