We always hear teams DUMPING tokens But few realize there's a small handful where teams are BUYING back tokens The purpose of these buybacks range from • Token burns • Lock & stake • Ecosystem Funds Let's look at a few • $AERO • $AAVE • $HYPE • $INJ • $NEAR And these projects aren't just buying back their tokens for number to go up Most times these buybacks directly reflect ecosystem incentives and overall network growth. Let's look into each of these 5 key examples AERODROME FINANCE––– Aerodrome's model is one of the more direct pipelines in DeFi: A share of protocol trading fees flows straight into its Public Goods Fund and Flight School program They use that revenue to buy AERO on the open market. But the AERO doesn't just get burned and forgotten, it gets locked as veAERO. That's the actual point of the mechanism: converting protocol revenue into long-term governance power It's less about shrinking supply and more about concentrating influence with the protocol itself. Most recently, the Public Goods Fund executed a buyback worth roughly $140K on Sept 3, 2026. AAVE––– Aave's buyback program is structured as a continuous, revenue-funded operation rather than a one off event. It launched around April 2025, initially run by the Aave Finance Committee and TokenLogic They execute open market AAVE purchases on a recurring basis using real protocol revenue. Then on June 25, 2026, Aave shipped Aavenomics 3.0, automating the program entirely, funded by 100% of protocol + GHO revenue. Now it runs continously unless governance halts it. More Aave use = More AAVE bought back automatically It reduces reliance on emissions-based incentives, using real lending/borrowing revenue to create sustained demand instead. As automation went live in June 2026... The program's acquired over 205,000 AAVE (~1.28% total supply) since inception. HYPERLIQUID–––– Hyperliquid takes the most aggressive approach of the five projects listed here. Its Assistance Fund routes up to 99% of all trading fees, spot and perps combined, directly into HYPE buybacks. The utility angle is scale: as Hyperliquid expands into new markets... Fee revenue grows, and the buyback flow grows proportionally with it. As of Aug 31, 2026, Hyperliquid's buybacks totaled roughly $370M year-to-date for 2026. INJECTIVE PROTOCOL–––– Injective's approach is participatory rather than purely mechanical. This is thru its monthly Community Buy-Back Here's how it works: Users voluntarily commit their own INJ into a pool in exchange for a pro-rata share of ecosystem revenue (paid out in USDT and other tokens). Once committed, that INJ is permanently burned for good The purpose is twofold: Itt gives holders a direct yield-like incentive tied to real ecosystem revenue Simultaneously making burns a community-driven event than just protocol execution behind the scenes Most recently, September 2026's Community Buyback round burned 25,200 INJ, continuing the monthly cadence. That's on top of the former Burn Auction model, which had already burned 6.78M INJ (~7% of supply) NEAR PROTOCOL–––– NEAR's buyback isn't structured around a fixed dollar budget like Aave's or Hyperliquid's, Rather it's a direct % of captured protocol revenue Meaning buyback size scales directly with network usage rather than a governance-set allocation. This matters because it ties buybacks to real efficiency gains, specifically from NEAR Intents, Which has been improving revenue capture per unit of transaction volume. From July 2026, roughly 24% of NEAR's captured revenue over the 30 days was feeding the buyback flow In other words, as NEAR's underlying tech gets more efficient at capturing value, the buyback mechanism gets stronger. –––– Five different mechanisms. Same underlying signal. Teams with real revenue are choosing to buy their own tokens back instead of just emitting more. This shows a protocol that's putting it's money where the utility is🔑