The Rise of DePIN: A Review of Distributed Infrastructure Projects Not to Be Missed in 2024-2025

Distributed Physical Infrastructure (DePIN) is transforming our understanding of blockchain applications. Unlike other crypto sectors, DePIN is not just a token game but a real infrastructure network connecting to the physical world. As of December 2025, the total market capitalization of DePIN has exceeded $3.2 billion, with a daily trading volume approaching $300 million. What does this number reflect? It signals major investment institutions are entering aggressively — Borderless Capital launched a $100 million DePIN Fund III in September 2024, specifically hunting for such projects.

The Essence of DePIN: Connecting Digital and Reality

The core logic of DePIN is simple: incentivize ordinary people with tokens to contribute physical resources (servers, networks, computing power, storage) to build decentralized infrastructure. This model breaks the traditional monopoly of centralized enterprises — users are both service providers and share in the ecosystem value.

What role does blockchain play here? It provides three things:

1. Immutable records — every transaction and contribution is verifiable
2. Automated contracts — smart contracts automatically distribute rewards without intermediaries
3. Cross-chain interoperability — different DePIN projects can cooperate

Practical applications are already landing: solar-powered homes directly sell electricity to neighbors; storage networks allow ordinary people to earn income from idle hard drives; computing networks provide AI models with processing power while rewarding contributors.

Hardware Decentralization: The Pillar of DePIN

All great DePIN projects share a common feature: dispersed deployment of hardware. What are the benefits? Eliminating single points of failure, increasing system resilience, and reducing service costs.

Look at real-world cases:

• Helium Mobile has attracted over 335,000 subscribers, forming a decentralized wireless network through community-deployed hotspots
• Meson Network has gathered over 59,000 nodes worldwide, turning idle bandwidth into a distributed content delivery network

The power of this model lies in: participants earn rewards, platforms gain reliable infrastructure, and the ecosystem achieves true democratization.

DePIN Projects Landscape 2024-2025

Computing and Application Layer

Internet Computer (ICP) — Turning the entire internet into a “programmable computer”

ICP’s idea is somewhat radical: why deploy web applications on centralized cloud services? Why not run directly on public blockchains?

The team built a globally distributed computing platform based on this concept. Developers can directly build and deploy decentralized applications on-chain without relying on Amazon, Google, or similar providers. In 2024, ICP launched major upgrades like Tokamak, Beryllium, Stellarator, greatly enhancing network performance.

Data highlights:

• Current price: $2.99 (down -2.22% in 24h)
• Circulating market cap: $1.63B
• Yearly performance: down -73.24%

This decline may seem alarming, but it’s important to understand the context — most DePIN projects are adjusting in a bear market. ICP’s core technology and application prospects remain unchanged, with a roadmap targeting AI capabilities and Solana cross-chain integration by 2025.

Bittensor (TAO) — Turning machine learning into “crowdsourcing”

Bittensor’s work sounds more sci-fi: building a global distributed AI model training network. Participants contribute computing power and data, earning TAO tokens based on the value of the information they provide.

This is a true peer-to-peer AI marketplace — no central authority, with the network nodes deciding which models are valuable. In 2024, Bittensor integrated Proof of Intelligence and Mixture of Experts architectures, making AI service collaboration within the network more efficient.

Data highlights:

• Current price: $216.30 (down -4.46% in 24h)
• Circulating market cap: $2.08B
• Yearly performance: down -56.65%

Though also adjusting in the bear market, TAO’s market cap remains healthy, reflecting market confidence in decentralized AI infrastructure for the long term.

Storage and Data Layer

Filecoin (FIL) — Turning hard drives into “cloud storage”

Filecoin’s game plan is straightforward: users need to store data, miners provide hard drive space. Through verification mechanisms, the network ensures files are genuinely stored, and payments are made in FIL tokens.

In 2024, Filecoin’s major move is launching the Filecoin Virtual Machine (FVM), transforming the network into a programmable platform. Developers can deploy Ethereum-compatible smart contracts on FVM, creating new applications. The total value locked (TVL) in the ecosystem has surpassed $200 million.

Data highlights:

• Current price: $1.24 (down -3.21% in 24h)
• Circulating market cap: $901.16M
• 24h high: $1.28

Arweave (AR) — The promise of “permanent hard drives”

Arweave aims to solve a tricky problem: traditional cloud storage providers may shut down, delete files, or alter history. How to achieve permanent storage?

The answer is the blockweave architecture — unlike Bitcoin’s linear blockchain, Arweave’s blocks connect to multiple historical blocks, forming a mesh structure. This design greatly improves data query efficiency and, via the SPoRA consensus mechanism, incentivizes miners to preserve historical data.

In November 2024, Arweave released version 2.8, with new packaging formats that enhance network efficiency, scalability, and energy efficiency, directly reducing miner costs.

Data highlights:

• Current price: $3.43 (down -0.80% in 24h)
• Circulating market cap: $224.77M
• Yearly performance: down -79.99%

Computing and Rendering

Render Network (RENDER) — Turning GPUs into “render farms”

Imagine: a creative professional needs to render 3D animations but lacks high-end GPUs. Meanwhile, thousands of home computers sit idle with GPU resources. Render connects these two — creators pay with RENDER tokens, individual GPU owners earn passive income.

In 2024, Render migrated from Ethereum to Solana, renaming its token from RNDR to RENDER (1:1 swap). This migration optimized transaction speed and costs, attracting more users from creative communities.

Data highlights:

• Current price: $1.26 (down -1.78% in 24h)
• Circulating market cap: $654.97M
• Yearly performance: down -83.24%

Data Indexing and Retrieval

The Graph (GRT) — The “Google” of blockchain data

If Filecoin is data storage, then The Graph is data querying. Blockchains contain vast amounts of data but querying is slow. The Graph solves this via a decentralized indexing protocol — developers create “subgraphs,” and users pay query fees with GRT tokens.

In 2024, The Graph expanded to Ethereum, NEAR, Arbitrum, Optimism, Polygon, Avalanche, and more. Its 2025 roadmap focuses on the “Information Service Market” — not just subgraphs, but an entire data service ecosystem.

Data highlights:

• Current price: $0.04 (down -0.71% in 24h)
• Circulating market cap: $387.08M
• Yearly performance: down -83.74%

Video and Streaming

Theta Network (THETA) — Making users “CDN nodes”

The biggest cost for platforms like YouTube and Netflix is content delivery. What if users are both consumers and distributors? Theta’s idea is just that — viewers share bandwidth, accelerate video delivery, and earn THETA and TFUEL tokens.

In 2024, Theta launched EdgeCloud — a next-generation solution integrating edge computing and cloud computing. It will create a global computing network managed by community node operators. In 2025, plans include EdgeCloud 3.0, an open marketplace connecting clients with community edge nodes.

Data highlights:

• Current price: $0.26 (down -4.55% in 24h)
• Circulating market cap: $259.70M
• Yearly performance: down -89.02%

IoT and Sensor Networks

Helium (HNT) — Community-deployed “wireless networks”

Helium’s operation is easy to understand: buy hotspot devices for home, which automatically provide wireless coverage and mine HNT tokens. This system is especially suitable for IoT devices — sensors for agriculture, asset tracking, environmental monitoring, etc.

Helium has migrated to the Solana blockchain, greatly improving transaction speed and costs. In 2024, it introduced IOT and MOBILE subnet tokens, further diversifying ecosystem incentives.

Data highlights:

• Current price: $1.49 (down -1.25% in 24h)
• Circulating market cap: $277.43M
• Yearly performance: down -79.83%

JasmyCoin (JASMY) — The “sovereignty” of IoT data

Founded in 2016 by former Sony executives, Jasmy’s core mission is to give individuals control over their IoT data. In centralized models, your smart home data is monopolized by companies; Jasmy aims to change that — users own their data and can choose to share or trade it.

In 2024, Jasmy’s growth was strong, with rumors of partnerships with NVIDIA and Ripple boosting recognition. In 2025, it plans to establish strategic alliances with IoT hardware manufacturers to promote data democratization.

Data highlights:

• Current price: $0.01 (down -2.05% in 24h)
• Circulating market cap: $296.22M
• Yearly performance: down -84.57%

IoTeX (IOTX) — IoT’s “Operating System”

IoTeX uses Roll-DPoS consensus to achieve high throughput and low latency, optimized for IoT applications. In 2024, IoTeX 2.0 will be launched, introducing DePIN infrastructure modules (DIM) and modular security pools (MSP), providing a unified trust layer for the entire DePIN ecosystem.

The ecosystem now hosts over 230 decentralized applications and 50 DePIN projects. The 2025 goal: connect 100 million devices, unlocking trillions in real-world value.

Data highlights:

• Current price: $0.01 (down -1.07% in 24h)
• Circulating market cap: $67.90M
• Yearly performance: down -81.58%

Data Collection and AI Training

Grass Network (GRASS) — Turning “web browsing” into assets

Grass did something clever: users run Grass nodes, share bandwidth, and help collect public network data for AI model training. Essentially, your idle network resources become part of AI training datasets.

In 2024, Grass attracted over 2 million users during its public beta. In late October, the GRASS token was distributed via a large-scale airdrop (100 million tokens to 1.5 million wallets), instantly igniting the community. After listing, the token surged over 200%, though it has since corrected.

Data highlights:

• Current price: $0.30 (down -0.59% in 24h)
• Circulating market cap: $130.28M
• Yearly performance: down -87.53%

Network Security and Infrastructure

Shieldeum (SDM) — The “shield” of Web3

Shieldeum uses DePIN to address Web3 security issues. Through professional-grade data center servers, it offers application hosting, data encryption, threat detection, and high-performance computing. SDM tokens are used for payment, incentivizing node operators, and DAO governance.

In 2024, Shieldeum completed development of applications across Windows, Mac, Linux, Android, iOS, and secured 2 million USDT in funding for node testing. In 2025, it plans to expand its security product line, enter new markets, and develop a BNB Layer-2 node network.

Three Major Challenges Facing DePIN

1. Complexity of technological integration: Seamless collaboration between blockchain and physical infrastructure is challenging. Network latency, hardware heterogeneity, data validation are unresolved issues.

2. Regulatory uncertainty: DePIN projects involve both digital and physical regulation. Different countries have varying definitions of decentralized networks, token incentives, and data ownership, requiring multi-jurisdictional compliance.

3. Market adoption inertia: Traditional infrastructure providers are deeply entrenched. DePIN must demonstrate overwhelming advantages in cost, reliability, and usability to displace existing players.

The Future of DePIN: From $3.2B to $3.5 Trillion

Market growth is the best evidence. Over the past year, the DePIN market grew by 28%, with the largest contributions from computing, storage, and AI sectors. Analysts forecast that by 2028, the DePIN market could reach $3.5 trillion.

Where does this growth come from? The demand for high-quality streaming, online content distribution, and comprehensive data storage solutions. The entire industry is shifting from centralized to decentralized paradigms.

Conclusion: The DePIN Era Is Here

DePIN is not hype but a genuine infrastructure revolution. When billions of hardware devices, networks, and storage are mobilized through incentives, unimaginable economic value will be unleashed.

Looking toward 2025, DePIN projects will become more differentiated — those solving real problems and maintaining healthy ecosystems will stand out, while pseudo-DePIN projects will gradually exit. For investors, this field is full of opportunities but also carries significant risks.

Choosing the right projects and timing during this explosive phase is crucial.