According to Allium Labs data, crypto projects spent approximately $638 million on token buybacks through late August 2026, marking a new record, up from $545 million in the same period of 2025. Hyperliquid contributed about $370 million and Pump.fun approximately $200 million, together accounting for nearly 90% of the total. On September 25, staff at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Division of Corporation Finance clarified that a buyback announcement for a non-security crypto asset on an already functional network falls outside the 'essential managerial efforts' of the Howey test. However, the SEC staff also warned that for younger projects on networks not yet functional, marketing buybacks as a source of yield could still contribute to an investment-contract analysis. The SEC's March interpretation defines a network as functional when its native token can be used according to its programmed utility.