DeFi protocols did $166M in buybacks in August alone and annualized over $1.2B. The game’s no longer the old “fat-protocol” era where tokens did nothing. It’s led by names printing real revenue and buying back their own tokens like public companies buying back stock. – @HyperliquidX does $1.1B annualized and throws 99% of it into daily $HYPE buybacks – @ethena_labs’s pushing a $310M program off $500M+ annualized revenue – @RaydiumProtocol burned 26% of supply – @JupiterExchange’s buying 1.1% of supply yearly with 3-year locks – @pumpdotfun bought back $137M $PUMP that offset 8.4% supply – @aave’s on a $52M annual schedule The bullish angle: usage → revenue → buybacks → scarcity → higher price → more users. → A feedback loop that rewards long-term holders and filters out the ponzinomics. For me, this cycle’s blue chips of the revenue coin meta look like: – $HYPE always the benchmark – $JUP, $PUMP, $RAY leading Solana’s revenue engines – Ethereum side has $ENA, $SKY, $AAVE, $UNI, $LDO building consistent fee sinks – Base got $AERO and $ETHFI showing the same pattern 2020–2023 was yield farming, 2025–2026 might be revenue farming. I’m picking tokens tied to platforms that actually earn.