Jupiter & Helium Expose Token Buyback “Meta” — Why It Never Works in Crypto
Jupiter and Helium are forcing a troublesome however more and more unavoidable dialog in crypto: token buybacks typically look efficient on paper, but fail when provide dynamics overwhelm demand.
In current weeks, each initiatives have moved to reassess buyback packages after spending tens of tens of millions of {dollars} with little seen impression on token costs, exposing a broader structural downside throughout DeFi.
Buybacks vs. Supply: Why Helium and Jupiter Are Changing Course
Helium confirmed in early January that it has halted HNT buybacks funded by Helium Mobile income, regardless of producing $3.4 million in October 2025 alone.
Founder and CEO Amir Haleem said the market confirmed little response to open-market purchases, prompting the crew to redirect capital towards subscriber development, {hardware} growth, and elevated service offload utilization.
an replace on HNT buybacks: the market doesn’t appear to care about initiatives shopping for their tokens again off the market, so we’re going to cease losing our cash below the present situations
Helium + Mobile generated $3.4M in October alone and I’d fairly we use that cash to develop the…
— amir
(@amirhaleem) January 2, 2026
Helium had shifted to every day automated buybacks in late 2025, burning tokens bought with income from cell subscriptions and community knowledge utilization.
That program adopted earlier treasury-funded burns and was designed to tie actual enterprise exercise to token provide discount. While knowledge credit score burns from community utilization stay in place, buybacks tied to cell income have now been paused.
Jupiter is going through an identical reckoning, because the Solana-based DEX aggregator spent greater than $70 million on JUP buybacks in 2025, funded by roughly half of its protocol payment income.
With JUP buying and selling close to $0.21, down virtually 90% from its early-2024 high, Jupiter founder Siong publicly asked the neighborhood whether or not buybacks ought to be halted.
what do you all suppose if we cease the JUP buyback?
we spent greater than 70m on buyback final yr and the worth clearly didn’t transfer a lot.
we are able to use the 70m to provide out for development incentives for present and new customers.
ought to we do it?
—
SIONG (@sssionggg) January 3, 2026
The frequent thread is provide, as Jupiter’s circulating provide has expanded sharply, pushed by airdrops, staking rewards, and scheduled unlocks.
Roughly 700 million JUP entered circulation by way of January 2025 alone, whereas ongoing ASR rewards added persistent inflation, with buybacks absorbing solely a fraction of that issuance.
As critics throughout Solana DeFi have identified, shopping for tokens in the open market does little when new provide persistently exceeds what’s being eliminated. In that surroundings, buybacks develop into exit liquidity fairly than long-term worth seize.
This dynamic has fueled a broader critique of what some describe as “chart portray.” Buybacks can create short-term assist or narrative momentum, however with out structural demand, they wrestle to carry.
Why Buybacks Alone Struggle to Support Crypto Tokens
Several market contributors argue that buybacks solely work when they’re paired with causes to carry the token, similar to necessary utility, lowered emissions, or direct participation in money flows. Otherwise, merchants merely promote into predictable shopping for strain.
At the identical time, defenders of buybacks notice they don’t seem to be inherently flawed. In conventional finance, buybacks are supposed to return extra capital when fairness is undervalued, to not offset aggressive dilution.
In crypto, nonetheless, tokens hardly ever symbolize possession, and future buybacks are discretionary fairly than assured.
For Helium, the problem is aligning its rising off-chain enterprise with on-chain worth. The community now supports practically 600,000 cell subscribers and generates regular knowledge credit score burns by way of service offload.
The crew’s present technique prioritizes increasing actual utilization, with the expectation that increased community exercise will ultimately strengthen token economics. Buybacks stay an choice, however solely as soon as development and money flows materially outpace issuance.
Jupiter’s state of affairs is extra advanced, because it operates some of the worthwhile DeFi platforms, with deep liquidity, massive TVL, and a rising suite of merchandise, together with perps, lending, and a cell pockets. Yet JUP stays largely elective.
Analysts argue that with out tighter integration into the protocol’s core features, buybacks alone can’t soak up inflation or anchor worth.
Proposals circulating inside the ecosystem give attention to lowering emissions, tying rewards to income, and making JUP an asset for severe customers fairly than a passive governance token.
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