CRYPTO'S EARLY-STAGE BUYBACK PROBLEM

Summary from the TLDR Crypto newsletter

It's unusual for three-year-old startups with thin moats to be returning capital to investors the way mature companies like Apple do. Hyperliquid sends 97%+ of fees to buybacks (~$2B), Pump burns 50% of revenue, while Amazon reinvested for 20 years and Google is raising debt to fund growth despite massive cash flow. Early buybacks mean either teams see no reinvestment opportunities (bad for growth assets) or fee pools are so contestable that tokens must bribe holders with their own revenue to retain them.