TLDRBitwise CIO Matt Hougan says crypto valuations could double if more protocols tie revenue directly to token demandHyperliquid sends close to 99% of its fee revenue toward HYPE purchases and burnsUniswap has burned about 7.5 million UNI through protocol fees since December 2025Aave bought back more than 205,000 AAVE using $42 million in its first 10 monthsThe SEC holds a meeting on Aug. 14 to discuss possible new rules for crypto asset offeringsBitwise Chief Investment Officer Matt Hougan said on Aug. 12 that crypto valuations outside Bitcoin could rise if more projects link token value to protocol revenue. He made the comment in a new memo.Hougan pointed to five projects already using this approach. They are Hyperliquid, Uniswap, Aave, Pump.fun and Lighter.He expects more decentralized finance apps and layer 1 networks to copy this model over the next one to two years.How the Revenue Model WorksMany governance tokens once gave holders voting rights without linking token demand to protocol fees. Buyback and burn systems try to fix that by using fees to buy tokens and remove them from supply.Hyperliquid is one clear example. Its Assistance Fund takes trading fees and converts them into HYPE, which then gets burned.Hougan estimates that close to 99% of Hyperliquid’s fee revenue goes toward this fund. The platform has already routed more than $1.16 billion in fees into HYPE purchases.Hougan compared this setup to stock buybacks. The comparison has limits, since token holders do not carry the same legal claims as company shareholders.Uniswap, Aave and Pump.fun Take Different PathsUniswap expanded its burn system after a December 2025 governance vote called UNIfication. That vote burned 100 million UNI from the treasury and turned on protocol fees.By July, Uniswap governance said fees had funded about 7.5 million more UNI in burns. That was worth close to $25.6 million based on figures in the proposal.On July 27, voters approved turning on more fees across networks including Ethereum, Arbitrum, Base, BNB Chain, Polygon, Optimism and Robinhood Chain.Aave runs a different program. Records show it bought back more than 205,000 AAVE in its first 10 months, using $42 million in funding.Aave founder Stani Kulechov said in June that all revenue from Aave products and GHO goes to the AAVE token. He also said the team is building an automated buyback system called Aavenomics 3.0.Pump.fun uses a simpler split. The platform sends half of its net revenue toward buybacks and burns of its PUMP token.Crypto.news reported that Pump.fun made $10.03 million in weekly fees and burned $5.02 million worth of PUMP between Aug. 3 and Aug. 9.Solana is weighing similar changes. A proposal called SIMD 0553 would replace the network’s flat fee with a new charge that gets burned, which could raise daily burns from around 648 SOL to between 7,500 and 9,000 SOL.Hougan linked these shifts partly to a friendlier U.S. regulatory setting. He pointed to the Ripple case and changes in SEC leadership as part of that trend.The SEC will hold a meeting on Aug. 14 to discuss possible new rules for certain crypto asset offerings. The agenda does not say the rules will directly address token revenue sharing.The post Bitwise CIO Says Crypto Valuations Could Double on Token Revenue appeared first on Blockonomi.