Svmuu News: Well-known trader Ansem posted on X, stating that buybacks actually have little effect on token prices.
Ansem further noted that Hyperliquid’s annualized revenue is $800 million, while Pump.fun’s is $440 million; however, HYPE’s FDV stands at $65 billion, whereas PUMP’s FDV is only $1.4 billion. Both teams regularly use a portion of their operating profits for buybacks, yet their price-to-sales (PS) ratios differ dramatically.
This disparity does not stem from the actual revenue generated by their operations, but rather reflects the market’s “trust premium” toward the teams—a trust determined by their actions and decisions in the market. Hyperliquid never makes empty promises; it focuses solely on delivering products and generously rewards core users who contribute the most to the platform based on established metrics. In contrast, Pump.fun generated $1 billion in revenue, raised another $1 billion in an ICO, and promised users airdrops—yet has yet to deliver on those promises. Although they are one of the most successful and profitable businesses in the crypto industry, they lack a social consensus with their core user base and therefore cannot achieve the “trust premium” that Hyperliquid enjoys.
Thus, what determines a business’s valuation is not only “tangible value”—composed purely of revenue and other metrics—but also “intangible value.” Trust, memetics, and attention are all crucial in the market, yet they are currently discussed far too little.