Revenue-driven buybacks could double crypto valuations

Bitwise Chief Investment Officer Matt Hougan told investors on Wednesday that crypto valuations outside Bitcoin could at least double as more protocols use fee revenue to fund token buybacks and burns. He named Hyperliquid, Uniswap, Aave, Pump.fun and Lighter and noted he expects decentralized finance applications and layer-1 networks to adopt similar revenue-capture mechanisms over the next 12 to 24 months.

Hougan described a shift to a revenue-driven model in which network activity and protocol fees feed into native token value and noted many investors have not priced in that change.

Hyperliquid, a decentralized exchange, reported more than $800 million in revenue last year and uses roughly 99% of that revenue to repurchase and burn its HYPE token. On Aug. 6 the platform reported $169 million in second-quarter revenue and directed $141 million of that toward HYPE buybacks.

Uniswap tied protocol fees to its native token after a governance overhaul called UNIfication that was approved on Dec. 22, 2025. Under the mechanism, collected fees can be claimed by burning UNI, creating a direct path from protocol revenue to reductions in token supply.

Aave’s governance redirected protocol receipts to token buybacks. The Aave DAO’s initial buyback program acquired more than 205,000 AAVE during its first 10 months. On June 25, Aave founder Stani Kulechov stated the team is designing an automated, non-discretionary buyback mechanism and wrote, “100% of Aave Protocol and GHO revenue goes to the $AAVE token. This was established in the Aave Will Win proposal.”

Hougan attributed the recent uptick in revenue-sharing designs to a more permissive U.S. regulatory environment after years in which projects avoided explicit revenue-sharing features because of securities-law concerns. He noted on Aug. 5 that clearer guidance could allow crypto to expand even without passage of the CLARITY Act.

Some market participants say stronger links between protocol revenue and token economics could provide conventional valuation inputs, such as revenue tied to protocol usage. Token holders generally do not have the same legal claims to cash flows that shareholders have, and community-set tokenomics can change through governance votes.

Protocol revenue figures, governance proposals and the development of automated buyback mechanisms are among the specific metrics and actions being used as these revenue-capture models are implemented.