Spending money to support the market? The crypto buyback season is here, with 12 projects collectively initiating token buybacks
Is this round of buybacks a bet on long-term value, or a helpless move under market pressure?Author: Fairy, ChainCatcher
Editor: TB, ChainCatcher
The crypto industry is ushering in a "buyback season."
With prices nearing freezing point, buybacks have become a new self-rescue method.
Currently, multiple projects have begun large-scale token buybacks, spending lavishly to support the market. Is this round of buybacks a bet on long-term value, or a helpless move under market pressure?
The Buyback Wave: 12 Projects Initiate Token Buybacks
In traditional financial markets, stock buybacks are often seen as a sign of a company's confidence in its own prospects, and the crypto industry is borrowing this logic. According to incomplete statistics, 12 projects have recently initiated or completed buyback plans. These projects span various fields such as DeFi, infrastructure, and public chains, with differing amounts and methods of buybacks.
Recent buyback projects overview (will continue to monitor and supplement):
Why the Surge in Buybacks?
The current state of the crypto market may be the direct driving force behind this wave of buybacks. Since the beginning of 2025, global macroeconomic uncertainty combined with an overall correction in the crypto market has led to significant declines in many token prices, with some projects' tokens even hitting historical lows. Faced with a sluggish market and insufficient investor confidence, buybacks have become a strategy for project teams to stabilize ecosystems and reshape market expectations.
More importantly, buybacks send a key signal to the market—project teams still have confidence in their future development and are willing to invest funds to maintain token value, rather than letting prices continue to plummet.
As crypto KOL Fei Fan said, "Buybacks might save altcoins. If even the project team doesn't believe in their own tokens, why should the market?"
Market Divergence: Is it Value Injection or Drinking Poison to Quench Thirst ?
However, buybacks are not a panacea; they are more like a litmus test for market confidence. There is a clear divergence within the industry regarding whether the buyback wave can truly drive market development or is merely a short-term price stimulus.
On one hand, supporters argue that buybacks are a positive feedback from project teams regarding their own value, which helps enhance market trust; on the other hand, skeptics believe that buybacks are merely temporary price support and do not truly address long-term growth issues.
Crypto KOL qinbafrank believes that the emergence of the buyback wave signifies that project teams are beginning to value token value injection. In the past year, small-cap tokens have experienced strong liquidation, forcing project teams to adopt healthier growth paths—either focusing on real innovative value realization, lowering valuation starting points to allow secondary market investors to share in growth dividends, or injecting a portion of revenue into the token economic model to enhance token value. He compares the buyback wave in the crypto market to the buyback wave in the US stock market, believing that if this trend continues, it will have a positive impact on industry development.
The skepticism is equally strong. Crypto KOL Big Fish stated, "Buybacks are just a short-term benefit and cannot truly support long-term value. Instead of consuming funds for buybacks, it would be better to invest in product development and ecosystem expansion to build a more sustainable growth model." In his view, the enhancement of market value fundamentally relies on continuous innovation, rather than simple supply and demand regulation.
In this regard, Messari researcher MONK analyzed the limitations of buybacks. He pointed out that projects like RAY, GMX, GNS, and SNX have programmatically bought back millions of dollars worth of tokens, but these tokens are currently valued far below the buyback cost. MONK stated that buybacks are unrelated to price trends, which are mainly driven by revenue growth and narrative formation.
Buybacks Are Not the Answer, But a Trial
The buyback wave may not solve the deep-seated issues in the crypto industry; the true healthy development of projects relies on their own execution, innovation, and changes in the industry environment.
Perhaps, buybacks are just the prologue. The future of the industry requires more substantial breakthroughs to define it.
