A new report highlights how Decentralized Physical Infrastructure Networks (DePIN) are catching the eye of traditional equity investors with their revenue growth.
Recently released as The DePIN Token Economics Report by Tom Trowbridge, authored by the co-founder of Fluence and host of the DePINed Podcast, the report details how DePIN impacts real-world services including equity investors.
DePIN’s Scale and Revenue Traction
DePIN includes over 1,000 projects and 3 million providers delivering services like Wi-Fi, energy, and compute, as per the report.
Hardware costs have fallen 95% in recent years, bringing devices like routers to $500, while open-source software competes with centralized firms, Trowbridge notes. DePIN Scan reports Helium’s 145,000 users generated $350,000 in Q4 2024 revenue, while Hivemapper’s demand tripled due to new mapping devices.
Geodnet reports $3 million in annualized revenue, using an 80% buy-and-burn rate which hit an all-time high on January 25, 2024. Hivemapper’s growth shows DePIN’s potential. Helium claimed $70 million in revenue but faced an SEC charge on January 25, 2025, for misleading investors about clients like Lime, Nestlé, and Salesforce according to Trowbridge.
Why Traditional Investors Are Interested
Equity investors, once hesitant to value token projects, now see DePIN as a viable option, according to Trowbridge. The report states this investor group, much larger than alt-coin investors, values DePIN’s tangible services and revenue metrics. Geodnet’s $3 million revenue itself provides a clear benchmark.
DePIN’s token models further support this interest. Buy-and-burn mechanisms, used by Geodnet (80%), Glow (100%), Render (95%), and Hivemapper (50%), link revenue to token value.
Geodnet’s $500,000 Q4 2024 revenue bought the same tokens at $300,000 in Q3 2004, showing price growth. The report further highlights that the Fiat-linked rewards, like Fluence’s $10 per core monthly and Storj’s $1.50 per TB, stabilize income.
DePIN’s token economics are under review by equity investors. Trowbridge stresses simplicity, noting models should fit on one page to avoid confusion. Buy-and-burn offers on-chain revenue verification, vital in a sector without regulation or audits. Helium’s SEC charge underscores transparency needs, with Trowbridge noting Geodnet’s 80% buy-and-burn rate builds more trust than Nodle’s 5%, per the report.
Staking also appeals to investors. Fluence requires $12,000 per CPU in FLT—48,000 FLT at $0.25 or 12,000 at $1—while Filecoin mandates 30% of supply staked, and IO.net needs 200 IO tokens per GPU, valued at $250 to $1,200.
DePIN’s revenue focus shifts crypto from speculation to utility, per the report. With 32 million tokens and volatile meme coins, DePIN’s model stands out. Trowbridge writes, “DePIN will change the crypto narrative as projects offering real-world services are scaling faster and offering better services at lower prices than centralized competitors.”
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