What is DePIN?

Decentralized Physical Infrastructure Networks (DePIN) leverage hardware resources + blockchain to establish a shared economy + economic incentives dual-sided market. This approach enhances resource utilization, reduces infrastructure costs, and empowers AI, communications, storage, and energy sectors.

As of February 6, 2025, there are 1,561 DePIN projects worldwide, with a total market capitalization of $30 billion. However, this remains less than 0.1% of the $1 trillion global infrastructure market, indicating massive potential for future growth. The surge in AI computing demand is expected to make the AI + DePIN sector one of the most critical growth areas in 2025.

With capital investment, technological breakthroughs, and business model implementations, the DePIN ecosystem is transitioning from the token incentive stage to the large-scale application phase. In 2025, the core challenge for the DePIN sector will be how to meet real market demand and achieve sustainable growth.

Operating Model

Currently, DePIN is still in its early development phase, primarily involving crypto-native users. Several aspects, including device scale, data validation, and market demand, still require optimization.

By 2025 and beyond, DePIN is projected to significantly improve hardware expansion, data quality, identity verification, economic models, and demand-side growth. These enhancements will accelerate the adoption of Web2 and enterprise-level applications, paving the way for widespread mainstream use.

Infrastructure

1. Middleware Solutions

As hardware supply chains mature, the primary challenge for DePIN projects will shift towards effectively connecting devices with blockchain networks.

Middleware solutions will be key to addressing this challenge by offering development tools, SDKs, and infrastructure that lower the entry barriers for projects and accelerate development.

For example, DePHY and W3bStream provide open-source hardware and off-chain computing protocols, respectively, enabling seamless device-to-blockchain integration while fostering innovation within the DePIN ecosystem.

In 2025, DePIN middleware is expected to evolve further, supporting massive device integration while enhancing data processing capabilities and tokenomics design.

Source: https://w3bstream.com/

2. Demand-Side Solutions

As DePIN infrastructure matures, real-world applications will expand, driving sustained ecosystem growth. This evolution will involve industry-specific integrations, particularly in smart devices, IoT, and related fields.

Liquidity solutions for DePIN, such as PingPong and Parasail, will enhance native token utility, optimize liquidity, and provide economic security through re-staking mechanisms.

By 2025, with the adoption of these solutions, DePIN is expected to expand across multiple blockchain networks, enhancing network stability and overall ecosystem attractiveness.

Source: https://www.parasail.network/

Current Development Status and Future Potential

Market Capitalization

As of February 6, 2025, the DePIN sector has 1,561 projects with a total market capitalization of approximately $30 billion, indicating it is still in its early development phase (Source: depin.ninja). While some projects like TAO, RENDER, and FIL have surpassed $1 billion in market value, DePIN’s total market share remains below 0.1% of the $1 trillion global infrastructure market. This suggests that DePIN is still in its infancy, with vast growth potential and untapped opportunities.

Source: https://depin.ninja/ (February 6, 2025)

Rankings

Most of the top 10 DePIN projects by market capitalization are concentrated in the storage and computing power sectors. AI has emerged as a core theme in this cycle, as DePIN naturally fulfills AI’s needs for decentralized data and computing resource sharing. With increasing demand, AI DePIN projects have emerged, integrating global computing, storage, networking, and energy resources to provide robust infrastructure support for AI model training, inference, and deployment.

Looking ahead to 2025, the top 10 DePIN projects will likely continue to focus on decentralized computing, storage, data sharing, and energy resources, particularly driven by AI applications. As AI’s demand for computing and storage grows, decentralized computing platforms, storage networks, and energy solutions will become core infrastructure supporting AI model training and inference. Projects such as Filecoin, Render, and Powerledger are expected to strengthen their market positions further.

However, sectors like decentralized energy DePIN and smart hardware + DePIN currently face weaker market demand, making it unlikely for them to rank among the top 10 DePIN projects in market capitalization.

Source: https://www.coingecko.com/en/categories/depin (February 6, 2025)

Incentive Mechanism and Revenue

Between 2022 and 2023, DePIN primarily relied on token incentives to attract early supply-side participants, encouraging individuals to provide hardware resources (storage, bandwidth, computing power, etc.) in exchange for token rewards. However, concerns arose regarding the sustainability of this model, leading investors and industry observers to question how DePIN could move beyond a mining-based token incentive model and transition towards commercially valuable applications.

By 2025, DePIN’s growth is expected to shift from supply-side expansion to demand-driven adoption. The key challenge is no longer how to attract more resource providers, but how to ensure real market demand and effective commercialization. According to depin.ninja, DePIN projects are gradually generating revenue through real-world demand, with AI infrastructure emerging as a primary driver of commercial adoption.

For instance, in 2024, the surge in AI industry demand for computing power, storage, bandwidth, and data accelerated the growth of the DePIN sector. According to depin.ninja, the top three revenue-generating DePIN projects were all related to AI computing infrastructure, including:

Aethir: A decentralized cloud computing platform tailored for gaming and AI, providing GPU computing services.

Virtuals Protocol: An on-chain AI agent network, facilitating the decentralized creation and commercialization of AI agents.

IO.Net: A decentralized GPU computing network, supplying computing power for AI applications.

Source: https://depin.ninja/ (February 6, 2025)

The demand for AI computing power is experiencing exponential growth. Currently, AI training and inference computing resources are largely controlled by a few tech giants such as NVIDIA, Google, and AWS. Decentralized computing marketplaces like IO.Net and Render Network help somewhat fill this gap. By 2025, DePIN computing infrastructure is expected to play a crucial role in the AI industry, reducing computing costs while enhancing computing resource availability through globally distributed nodes.

At the same time, as AI technology advances, the demand for data continues to grow. Emerging sectors such as decentralized data marketplaces (e.g., Ocean Protocol) and decentralized AI training platforms (e.g., Bittensor) are expected to experience rapid growth in 2025.

Source: https://io.net/

Investment

According to Messari data, in 2024, several well-known investment firms actively invested in the DePIN sector. Multicoin, Framework, a16z Crypto, and EV3 were among the most committed investors, collectively making over eight investments throughout the year, with each DePIN portfolio raising over $100 million.

In 2024, DePIN-related projects raised a total of over $5 billion, with funds primarily flowing into AI computing, decentralized storage, and decentralized wireless networks (DeWi). Seed and Series A rounds saw rapid growth, but investor focus in the DePIN sector has shifted from concept-driven to profit-driven, favoring projects with real commercial models.

In 2025, the capital market’s interest in DePIN will remain high, but investment logic will become more cautious. Projects solely relying on token incentives will find it difficult to secure large-scale funding. At the same time, those with real business models, stable revenue sources, and sustainable growth potential will be more attractive.

In 2025, the capital market’s interest in DePIN will remain high, but investment logic will become more cautious. Projects solely relying on token incentives will find it difficult to secure large-scale funding. At the same time, those with real business models, stable revenue sources, and sustainable growth potential will be more attractive.

High-growth DePIN ecosystems: AI computing (e.g., IO.Net, Aethir), DeWi (e.g., Helium, Pollen).

DePIN platforms with real user demand: DePIN logistics (e.g., Teleport), DePIN sensor networks (e.g., Hivemapper).

Source: https://messari.io/report-pdf/9de6bbfaa6ad1a782fd94f70a6e8385f569689f7.pdf

Public Blockchains

The development of DePIN relies on underlying public blockchains to provide security, scalability, and transaction settlement capabilities. Different DePIN projects choose various blockchain ecosystems to build their infrastructure.

Current Landscape

Solana Ecosystem: Solana’s high throughput and low latency make it a preferred choice for AI computing-focused DePIN projects, such as:

• IO.Net – A decentralized AI computing network enabling GPU resource sharing.
• Render Network – A decentralized rendering computation platform where supply and demand settle transactions via Solana.

Ethereum & Layer 2 Ecosystem: Ethereum is favored for its decentralized security, with some DePIN projects choosing to expand via Ethereum Layer 2 solutions, such as:

• Aethir – A decentralized cloud computing platform utilizing Arbitrum for lower-cost computation services.
• Other Layer 2 solutions, such as Optimism and zkSync, are also being explored by select DePIN projects.

Cosmos Ecosystem: Due to its cross-chain communication capabilities (IBC, Inter-Blockchain Communication), Cosmos has attracted decentralized computing projects, such as:

• Akash Network – A decentralized cloud computing platform allowing users to rent or provide computing resources.

Helium & DeWi Sector:

• Helium has migrated from its independent blockchain to Solana to improve scalability.
• Pollen Mobile and other DeWi (decentralized wireless) projects are still exploring the optimal on-chain architecture.

Source: https://docs.helium.com/solana/

2025 and Beyond

1.More DePIN Projects Adopting High-Performance L1 or L2

Solana remains the primary choice for DePIN projects requiring high throughput, such as computing power, storage, and bandwidth.

Ethereum Layer 2 solutions (Arbitrum, Optimism, Base) are attracting more decentralized governance and data verification-focused DePIN projects.

The Cosmos ecosystem is expected to enhance cross-chain computing resource sharing further, potentially leading to a multi-DePIN parallel chain collaboration model.

2.Multi-Chain Architecture Becomes a Trend

Some DePIN projects may adopt a multi-chain architecture, e.g., computing on Solana, governance on Ethereum, and data storage on Filecoin.

Cross-chain bridge technologies (LayerZero, Axelar) will facilitate interoperability between DePIN resources across different blockchains.

3.Support from Next-Gen Blockchain Architectures

As EigenLayer (Ethereum restaking) and other new technologies mature, more modular blockchains dedicated to DePIN are expected to emerge.

Source: https://iotex.io/

Key Trends and Emerging Markets

In 2025, the DePIN ecosystem is expected to witness several significant trends:

1. Decentralized Wireless Networks (DeWi)

Helium Mobile has surpassed 130,000 users, growing at a rate of 5.6% per month, accelerating the development of decentralized 5G and WiFi-sharing networks.

Emerging DeWi projects like Dawn are exploring blockchain-powered home internet solutions that offer low-cost network access.

The combination of eSIM, mobile devices, and DePIN is emerging as a new growth area, with crypto-enabled smartphones (e.g., Solana Mobile Saga) poised to become new entry points into the DePIN ecosystem.

Source: https://dune.com/rawrmaan/helium-mobile?ref=blog.hellohelium.com (February 6, 2025)

2. AI Computing DePIN

The surge in demand for decentralized GPU computing is driving the expansion of projects like IO.Net, Aethir, and Render Network.

Decentralized AI training (e.g., Bittensor) is emerging as a new sector, providing decentralized computing power and data resources for AI algorithms.

Edge computing DePIN is developing, with more smart devices (phones, smartwatches, IoT devices) expected to join DePIN networks to contribute decentralized computing power.

Source: https://rendernetwork.com/

3. DePIN + AI Agent Economy

Integrating AI Agents + DePIN could become one of 2025’s major breakout trends. AI agent networks like Virtuals leverage DePIN infrastructure to provide decentralized computing and storage support for AI applications.

The combination of decentralized AI training and DePIN allows data contributors to monetize their data within the DePIN ecosystem for AI model training.

Source: https://app.virtuals.io/

4. Evolution of DePIN Hardware

Smart hardware + DePIN is becoming a trend, with smartwatches, AI rings, and home AI devices potentially serving as new entry points into DePIN networks.

Low-cost, easily deployable consumer-grade DePIN hardware will accelerate mainstream adoption, attracting more everyday users into the DePIN ecosystem.

Source: https://x.com/CryptoJar_Net/status/1870267138419597692

5. Decentralized Energy DePIN

Projects like Glow, Daylight, and StarPower are exploring decentralized energy management, advancing distributed energy grids and renewable energy markets.

Integrating carbon credit markets + DePIN is expected to bring more ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) applications into the Web3 ecosystem.

Source: https://www.starpower.world/

Challenges

Despite the rapid growth of the DePIN sector, its adoption and widespread implementation face several key challenges:

1. Capital and Business Model Sustainability

While DePIN initially relies on incentive mechanisms to attract users, establishing a sustainable business model for long-term development remains a critical issue. Many projects are still exploring balancing decentralized operations with traditional business models’ demands.

2. Technical Complexity

DePIN projects depend on advanced technologies such as decentralized computing power, wireless networks, storage, and sensors, all of which involve significant implementation and deployment challenges. At large-scale applications, ensuring network stability and efficiency becomes a major obstacle. From storage to computing, from communication to energy, each DePIN solution must integrate various types of physical hardware and decentralized protocols, placing high technical demands on hardware manufacturers, network developers, and node operators.

For example, deploying decentralized computing power is challenging, as efficiently reusing idle computing power is not easy. Large-scale AI model training relies heavily on computational stability, where any interruptions could result in high sunk costs. Additionally, computing power delivery involves complex technical details, making it difficult to establish an efficient market matching system like Uber or Airbnb. Furthermore, NVIDIA’s CUDA software ecosystem and NVLINK multi-GPU communication architecture create high switching costs for alternatives. NVLINK’s physical distance constraints further require GPUs to be concentrated within the same data center, posing a significant challenge to the feasibility of decentralized computing power.

3. Hardware Costs and Maintenance

Decentralized networks often rely on independent individuals or small businesses to provide hardware resources. However, the cost of purchasing, maintaining, upgrading, and repairing equipment is significant. Unstable devices or poor maintenance could negatively impact network quality and user experience.

4. Infrastructure Development

Building decentralized infrastructure requires many physical devices, such as routers, storage units, and sensors, often distributed across various locations. However, traditional telecom providers and data center giants already control vast infrastructure networks, making it challenging for DePIN projects to deploy and maintain devices efficiently.

5. Network Effects and User Adoption

For decentralized networks to demonstrate their value, they must reach a critical mass of users, making early user incentives crucial. If too few users join initially, or if incentive mechanisms are insufficiently attractive, it could hinder network effects, slowing adoption and commercialization.

Additionally, market acceptance of the DePIN model remains uncertain. In practical applications, convincing enterprises or individuals to switch to DePIN-based infrastructure and bear high initial costs remains a significant challenge.

6. Regulatory and Compliance Issues

Decentralized projects may face different regulatory policies in various regions, particularly in sectors like data privacy, cybersecurity, and energy. Unclear or unstable regulations could pose risks to the long-term growth of DePIN projects.

7. Competition and Collaboration with Traditional Operators

DePIN competes with traditional operators such as cloud computing providers, telecom companies, and energy firms, which possess greater resources, technical expertise, and market influence. The ability to find collaboration opportunities instead of direct competition will be crucial for the future of decentralized infrastructure.

These challenges highlight that DePIN adoption and implementation require overcoming technical, economic, and social barriers. However, if successful, decentralized infrastructure has the potential to bring transformative changes to the global economy.

Conclusion

In 2025, DePIN is at a critical transition phase from early exploration to large-scale application. With the rapid growth of AI computing, decentralized storage, wireless networks, and energy management, the market demand for DePIN ecosystems is becoming increasingly evident. Although its current market capitalization is only $30 billion, representing less than 0.1% of the global infrastructure market, continuous capital investment, accelerating technological breakthroughs, and emerging business models are laying the foundation for future growth.

The explosion of AI computing demand has positioned AI + DePIN as one of this cycle’s most significant growth areas, with expanding applications in decentralized GPU computing, data sharing, and edge computing. Meanwhile, emerging sectors such as DeWi (decentralized wireless networks), energy DePIN, and smart hardware are also gaining traction.

Despite challenges in business model validation, market education, and regulatory compliance, DePIN’s decentralization, shared economy model, and sustainable growth potential make it a key player in transforming global digital infrastructure. DePIN is poised to become a fundamental pillar of the Web3 ecosystem, ushering in a new era of open, efficient, and sustainable global infrastructure networks.