Crypto investors weigh token value capture as Weiss Ratings highlights Ripple, Circle split

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Crypto token value capture

Highlights

Ripple's valuation surged from $15 billion in March 2025 to $50 billion in March 2026, driven by stock buybacks, while XRP remains about 60% below its July 2025 peak of $3.65.
Circle earns roughly $191 million monthly—about $2.3 billion annually—from USDC reserves, but token holders receive no share of interest income, which accrues to shareholders.
Projects like Hyperliquid, Uniswap, and Aave adopt direct revenue linkage, with Hyperliquid routing about 97% of platform fees to token buybacks, enhancing value capture for tokenholders.

Revenue linkage shapes token strength

As outlined by Weiss Ratings, the central distinction in crypto is whether a token functions like a revenue-linked asset or merely like a product claim with no participation in underlying profits.

In its example, Ripple's corporate valuation rises sharply while XRP remains far below its prior peak. The text says private investors valued Ripple at $15 billion in March 2025, $28 billion in June 2025 and $40 billion in November 2025, before the company bought back $750 million of stock in March this year at a valuation of $50 billion. XRP, by contrast, closes August stronger after a more than 50% jump between Aug. 17 and 24, yet it is still about 60% below its July 2025 peak of $3.65 and down about 50% over the past year.

The article argues this gap reflects business design rather than market anomaly. It says Ripple's revenue accrues to shareholders, not XRP holders, while the company also holds roughly 38 billion to 40 billion XRP, about 40% of total supply, and has used token-related proceeds to help fund stock buybacks. On that basis, Weiss presents XRP as an example of a token whose market value can diverge materially from the economics captured by the company behind it.

Investor implications for crypto selection

Weiss extends the same logic to Circle and USD Coin, saying holders of the stablecoin can redeem one token for one dollar but do not receive the interest income generated when Circle places reserve dollars into short-term U.S. Treasury bills. The text says about $74 billion of USDC is in circulation and that Circle earns roughly $191 million over the past 30 days from those reserves, equal to about $2.3 billion annually, with that income belonging to shareholders rather than token holders.

By contrast, the piece points to projects such as Hyperliquid, Uniswap and Aave as examples where token structures more directly connect platform performance to tokenholder value. Hyperliquid is described as routing roughly 97% of fees into open-market purchases of its own token each day, while Uniswap and Aave are said to adopt versions of that approach in January.

For investors, Weiss says the practical test is whether the token has a written claim on revenue, whether a separate company with shareholders sits above the project and what exact mechanism makes the token appreciate if the platform succeeds. The broader implication for the crypto sector is that token selection increasingly depends not just on adoption or technology, but on who actually captures the cash flow when a network grows.

In our earlier article on Binance’s $100 million investment in Circle and its five-year USDC promotion agreement, we explained how the deal paired discounted equity financing with expanded distribution for USDC on a major exchange. We also noted the mixed market reaction: Circle shares rose on the announcement, but analysts questioned what the structure signaled about late-cycle behavior and the durability of the growth narrative.

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