Bitwise CIO Matt Hougan: Valuations of Revenue-Generating Crypto Assets Could Double

Bitwise CIO Matt Hougan argued that the valuations of certain assets could conditionally double, thanks to crypto protocols generating revenue and supporting this through token burns and buybacks.

Bitwise CIO Matt Hougan stated in a note published Wednesday that crypto assets other than Bitcoin are still priced lower than they should be. According to Hougan, the market has not yet fully adapted to the new model where protocols generate revenue and reflect this income back to token holders.

Hougan said the era of networks generating high economic activity but not transferring this revenue to token holders is over. He noted that in the new era, the primary metric for valuations will be revenue, just as it is for stocks and bonds. This trend, which he calls “revenue fever,” refers to protocols using fee revenue for token buybacks or burns.

Revenue and Token Burning Take Center Stage in the Crypto Market

Hougan’s most notable example was Hyperliquid. The CIO stated that the protocol generated over $800 million in annualized revenue last year and allocated approximately 99% of fee revenue to HYPE buybacks and burns, noting that $1.3 billion worth of HYPE has been burned since November 2024.

The note also mentioned that Uniswap generates approximately $100 million in annualized revenue, while Aave aims for $30 million in AAVE burns, equivalent to about 20% of its annual revenue. Pump.fun has generated $328 million in annualized revenue and burned $370 million worth of PUMP as of April 2026, while Lighter has bought back approximately 6% of LIT’s circulating supply and generates $67 million in annualized revenue.

Hougan mentioned that Solana’s SGP-0003 proposal could increase fee burns by up to 14 times, and transaction activity on Aptos nearly tripled with a 10-fold increase in gas fees. The prediction that valuations could double is based on the condition that this transformation is embraced by investors; the provided data has not been independently verified and the statement does not constitute investment advice.