Despite $791 million in Hyperliquid redemptions, circulating supply increased by 0.43%

Hyperliquid bought back $791 million worth of HYPE tokens this year, yet circulating supply still rose 0.43%, highlighting how buybacks can be offset by token emissions. Crypto analyst Ignas noted that buyback figures reflect repurchase spending while circulating supply tracks tokens actually released to the market, so the two metrics can diverge. Pump.fun illustrated the same gap more starkly, repurchasing $407 million of PUMP while its circulating supply grew 29.5% since the start of the year. Aave bought back $11.2 million worth of AAVE over the same period. The comparison matters because investors often treat buybacks as deflationary, and the next thing to watch is net supply changes across these protocols rather than gross repurchase totals.