Hyperliquid is redirecting about 90% of its yield, from roughly $5 billion to $5.5 billion in USDC, back to the protocol after costs to fuel annual HYPE buybacks of approximately $135 million to $160 million, supplementing the existing roughly $771 million per year from trading-fee buybacks.

Earlier in May, Circle and Coinbase agreed to retire Hyperliquid’s USDH stablecoin in favor of USDC as the primary reserve asset, with Coinbase serving as treasury deployer for USDC and Circle handling cross-chain deployment.

The first AQAv2 payment is scheduled for October 3, which will test early performance and validate whether the yield-driven buybacks operate as advertised.

AQAv2 was activated after a vote by validators (about 69.08% approval), redirecting yield from USDC reserves into automatic buybacks and burns of the HYPE token, with Circle handling deployment and Coinbase managing cross-chain infrastructure.

Circle commits to staking 500,000 HYPE tokens to align incentives with HYPE’s performance, not solely USDC’s footprint on Hyperliquid.

The Hyperliquid Assistance Fund has already purchased about 45.07 million HYPE for roughly $1.1 billion at an average cost near $24.90, indicating an aggressive pre-AQAv2 buyback program.

Together with trading-fee buybacks, the USDC-yield stream is expected to create an annual buyback engine exceeding $900 million, roughly four to five times the buyback activity seen on major chains like Ethereum or BNB Chain.