Morning Minute is a daily newsletter written by Tyler Warner . The analysis and opinions expressed are his own and do not necessarily reflect those of Decrypt. And c heck out our daily news show 'FOMO HOUR' covering all of the top stories and market action.
Sep 21 Sep 23 Sep 25 Sep 26 Sep 28 $87.2k $85.7k $84.2k $82.7k 24h High High $85,089 24h Low Low $82,581 Vol Vol $1.4B Market projections Odds by Myriad Today $82,000 to $84,000 $82k–$84k 72 % chance This week Below $84,000 Below $84k 57 % chance This month $82,000 to $84,000 $82k–$84k 72 % chance → Buy Bitcoin with USDT Powered by Jupiter $ 50 $ 100 $ 500 Buy Price data by CoinGecko CoinGecko More Bitcoin news and projections → ⚖️ SEC Clears Token Buybacks for Crypto Networks
The SEC’s Division of Corporation Finance updated its crypto FAQ Friday with the most consequential line it has written all year. Once a network is functional, announcing a token buyback does not amount to a promise of “essential managerial efforts.”
The Howey test asks whether you're buying something expecting a company to work and make you rich. If yes, it's a security. The SEC just said announcing a buyback isn't that kind of promise. It’s a huge deal for protocols who have essentially been in limbo ever since the prior administration’s war on crypto.
The staff went further. Maintaining, upgrading, or growing a functional network doesn’t satisfy Howey either. Neither does promoting what a network currently does, or making vague aspirational statements that don’t tout profit. Gabriel Shapiro, a securities attorney at MetaLeX Labs and former general counsel at Delphi Labs, said the buyback section “goes further than I expected” and that securities laws are starting to look opt-in as the SEC applies them to crypto.
Now, there’s a hard line on the other side. If a network isn’t functional yet and the issuer pitches a buyback as a source of yield or returns for holders, that can still trigger securities laws. So the guidance is a filter, not a blanket pass. Ship a working product and buy back your token, you’re fine. Promise returns before you have a product, you’re exposed.
So who are the winners of this announcement? DefiLlama tracks buyback programs at HYPE, PUMP, ENA, AAVE, SKY, LDO, PENDLE, AERO, RAY, JTO, NEAR, ETHFI, SYRUP, LIT, ASTER, KMNO, MET, CC, CARDS, PONS, and STONK, among others. Every one of those runs a live product with revenue. Hyperliquid routes USDC reserve yield into HYPE buybacks under AQAv2. Pump.fun has burned $451 million, about 16.6% of supply. Pons sends roughly 80% of V1 revenue to buybacks. Ethena’s holders voted to route 95% of net revenue to ENA. These were all built in a legal gray zone. They just came out of it.
The guidance quietly endorses the model the industry spent this year converging on: tokens as claims on protocol cash flow rather than bets on future development. That’s the revenue meta, and it now has regulatory approval. Time to re-rate all the good project tokens higher…