The Hottest Altcoins to Watch in Q1 2026: Recent Buybacks, Token Burns, and Unlock Events

Jakarta, Pintu News – The altcoin industry has seen a significant surge in tokenomic changes recently. Ahead of the altcoin season which is expected to rise dramatically by 2026, many altcoin projects have started making important changes to their tokenomic structure to attract more retail and institutional investors from around the world.

Top Altcoins with the Biggest Buyback and Unlock Programs to Watch Out for

Latest Update on the Biggest Altcoin Buyback and Burn:

Uniswap

In 2025, the Uniswap protocol recorded a trading volume of around $1 trillion. Uniswap Labs closed the year by burning 100 million UNI coins from its treasury at the end of December 2025-valued at over $578 million.

Read also: Top 5 Meme Coins That Soared This Week Amid Growing Investor Interest

This massive burn coincides with the possibility of UNI prices starting to bottom out after volatile market movements throughout 2025.

Fluid

After experiencing exponential growth in 2025, the Fluid protocol initiated a FLUID token buyback program and extended the initiative to provide long-term benefits for holders.

Jupiter

Team Jupiter (JUP) proposes to halt the buyback program to shift focus to project growth initiatives.

Helium

The decentralized wireless network has stopped its Helium token buyback program.

Big Token Unlocks to Watch Out For

Hyperliquid

On January 6, 2026, core contributor Hyperliquid (HYPE) unlocked approximately 3.25% of HYPE’s total token supply, valued at approximately $307 million. This inflationary event adds to the circulating supply and puts pressure on HYPE’s bullish outlook.

As a result, the token price fell by about 5% on January 8, 2026 and was briefly trading around $26.

Ethena

The Ethena (ENA) community unlocked 2.37% of ENA’s total circulating supply on January 5, 2026. This additional supply of around $40 million increased selling pressure on the token, which caused the ENA price to drop 7% on January 8 and briefly traded around $0.22.

Read also: BNB Price Predicted Difficult to Fall in 2026? Here are 3 Strong Reasons

Toxenomic Changes

Aave

The Aave protocol has grown into one of the largest asset lending and borrowing platforms in the Web3 world, both on Ethereum and other networks.

In response to this growth, AAVE announced plans to start distributing non-protocol revenue to token holders.

Why the Altcoin Tokenomic Change is an Important Factor in 2026

A decrease in the supply of circulating tokens of an altcoin, amidst increased demand, fuels the market’s bullish sentiment.

After seeing Bitcoin’s underperformance in the fourth quarter of 2025, the altcoin market is expected to outperform the rest of the sector in 2026. The shift of capital away from the precious metals industry, along with the increase in global money supply, is expected to trigger a massive short squeeze and fulfill Wall Street’s expectations of a crypto supercycle.

In addition, the broader altcoin market is also expected to receive regulatory clarity in the United States-possibly before the end of the first quarter.

Therefore, a more risk-on investor attitude would be a great benefit to altcoins that have strong buyback and burn programs, as has been seen with Binance Coin and Shiba Inu (SHIB), each of which has burned a large portion of its supply in recent years.

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*Disclaimer

This content aims to enrich readers’ information. Pintu collects this information from various relevant sources and is not influenced by outside parties. Note that an asset’s past performance does not determine its projected future performance. Crypto trading activities have high risk and volatility, always do your own research and use cold cash before investing. All activities of buying and selling bitcoin and other crypto asset investments are the responsibility of the reader.

Reference:

• CoinEdition. Top Altcoins with Latest Buybacks, Burns, and Unlocks to Consider in Q1. Accessed on January 9, 2026