Perpetuals exchange Grvt burns 1.1 million tokens in first buyback
The burn removed 0.96% of circulating GRVT, worth about $233,000 at Oct. 26 prices, as Grvt prepares to relaunch as an investing app built on tokenized fixed income.
- Grvt's token issuer bought and burned 1.1 million GRVT, 0.96% of circulating supply, according to its dashboard.
- Cryptocurrency projects spent almost $640 million on token buybacks in 2026 through late August, according to Allium Labs.
- Grvt plans its Earn yield product by end-October and a relaunch as Grvt 2.0 by end-November.
Grvt, a self-custodial perpetual futures exchange, burned 1.1 million of its GRVT tokens after buying them on the open market, the company said Oct. 19, as cryptocurrency projects spend record sums buying back their own tokens.
The buyback is the first of five announcements Grvt plans before the end of November, when it intends to relaunch its exchange as an investing app that pays yield on balances also used to trade.
Token buybacks hit a record as tokenized fixed income grows
Buybacks have become a larger use of protocol revenue. Cryptocurrency projects spent almost $640 million on them in 2026 through Aug. 25, versus $545 million a year earlier, according to Allium Labs data cited by the Financial Times.
Hyperliquid and Pump.fun accounted for nearly 90% of that spending, the same Allium figures show.
Grvt's next products depend on tokenized assets, a market the IMF still calls small. Tokenized fixed income reached about $48 billion by July 31, including $17.5 billion in money market funds, according to the IMF Global Financial Stability Report.
The IMF also warned that tokenized fund shares reused as margin collateral can speed liquidations in stress.
By the numbers
| Metric | Value | As of | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| GRVT burned in first buyback | 1.1 million tokens | Oct. 19, 2026 | Etherscan |
| Share of circulating GRVT supply | 0.96% | Oct. 20, 2026 | Grvt buyback dashboard |
| Value of burned tokens at Oct. 26 price | about $233,000 | Oct. 26, 2026 | Our calculation, CoinMarketCap |
| Grvt 30-day perpetual futures volume | $14.7 billion | Oct. 26, 2026 | DefiLlama |
| Decentralized perpetuals 30-day volume | $608.4 billion | Oct. 26, 2026 | DefiLlama |
| Cryptocurrency token buybacks, 2026 to date | almost $640 million | Aug. 25, 2026 | Allium Labs |
Grvt ties monthly burns to gross profit and a November relaunch
Grvt's token issuer paid for the 1.1 million GRVT with a portion of the app's gross profit, co-founder and CEO Hong Yea wrote. Future rounds are planned monthly, with size and timing at the foundation's discretion.
Each round runs through an independent execution partner and destroys tokens through the contract's burn function, Yea said. The burn transaction on Etherscan shows 1.1 million GRVT sent to the null address on Oct. 19.
The burn equaled 0.96% of circulating supply and 0.11% of the 1 billion total, according to Grvt's buyback dashboard. At $0.2122 on Oct. 26, the tokens were worth about $233,000, our calculation based on CoinMarketCap data.
GRVT traded 54% below its $0.4615 all-time high on Oct. 26, according to CoinMarketCap. The token confers no ownership or profit rights, the company said Oct. 20.
Grvt Earn, targeting returns of up to 11% from fixed income cash flows, is due by the end of October. Perpetual futures on stocks, currencies and commodities follow in November.
Grvt handled $14.7 billion in perpetual futures in the 30 days to Oct. 26, or 2.4% of decentralized volume, according to DefiLlama. Hyperliquid handled $199.7 billion.
How we got here
- July 30, 2026: GRVT began trading and set its all-time high of $0.4615, according to CoinMarketCap.
- Aug. 31, 2026: The Financial Times reported record token buybacks of almost $640 million, based on Allium Labs data.
- Oct. 8, 2026: The IMF published its tokenization chapter, putting tokenized fixed income at about $48 billion.
- Oct. 19, 2026: Grvt burned 1.1 million GRVT on-chain and announced its Grvt 2.0 schedule.
"Tokenization is a promising technology in early days of limited deployment," Jamie Selway, director of the SEC's Division of Trading and Markets, said in a speech on Oct. 14.
Selway expects at least four futures exchanges to start trading perpetual futures on securities this quarter, the product Grvt plans for November.
Earn launch and the next monthly round are the tests to watch
Grvt said it will name the fund partners behind Earn's targeted yield on launch day, due by the end of October.
The dashboard should show a second monthly round by the end of November, when Grvt 2.0 and a 2027 roadmap are due. Grvt has not disclosed its gross profit.
How we reported this: Grvt supplied the buyback details and schedule; we checked the burn on Etherscan and took market data from CoinMarketCap and DefiLlama on Oct. 26. Our calculations: 1,100,000 × $0.2122 = $233,420; $14.704 billion / $608.396 billion = 2.4%.
Source: grvt.io