DePIN (Decentralized Physical Infrastructure Network)is a new way of creating, managing and owning any infrastructure our societies use.

The DePIN market is one of the rare real crypto use cases, providing real value to end-users (via services) and service providers (through token incentives). DePIN projects can provide two type of services : 1. Physical: mobile network, road-mapping, weather stations, energy grids etc. 2. Digital : file storage, AI model training on GPU, internet bandwidth

But why do we need to decentralize the physical infrastructures of our world ? What does blockchain bring to our already existing physical infrastructure ?

I think the main reasons why we need DePIN are the following :

  • Today’s physical infrastructures are controlled by a few big players. The structure of such sectors prevent any new entrant (big investments required, lobbies in place etc.). The issue with such market structure is it slows down innovations and prevents price collapse.
  • It provides a new way for people to monetize their hardware by adding it in the network and letting other people use it (directly or through produced data). Customers benefit from a service at lower cost and better quality. Resources exist, demand exists, DePIN links them.
  • Speaking of quality, DePIN can indeed improve existing services as a decentralized network follows human density and so provides a better granularity and data quality. Transparency allows anyone to check the quality of the service provided, preventing abusive behavior. New applications will emerge as DePIN allows applications and businesses-models which were non-viable before to exist.

Market data

Usage metrics of some projects have increased regardless of the price-action of the token.

Number of Helium Mobile hotspot devices over time

Legend: Helium Mobile hotspot growth (Sep 2023–Apr 2026).

Let’s be honest : if you look only at the token prices you could think that projects are dead. There has been some euphoria, there has been some FUD, there has been some mistakes. But the underlying business stayed and current prices could be a really great investment opportunity. TAM is estimated at about 3500 Md$ by 2030. Even though DePIN captures only a small market share it leaves a lot of room for growth as it sits today at 6.5 Md$ MCap. ex: capture 10% of TAM → 350 Md$ MCap → a x50

Risks

Of course there are still some risks with the market as there are still some gray zones:

  • Regulatory speaking there is still a lot of uncertainty about the tokens categorization, even if recent decisions gave us hope.
  • Projects have to make sure that tokenomics allows an organic growth of the network while reducing the probability of a death spiral.
  • DePIN has to prove service consumers and users the value of their network compared to already-existing web2 competitors, in order to make them participate in the PIN.

As a retail investor, I will invest in DePIN projects as I’m convinced that it will bring a lot of value to the world. Market actual problems will be insignificant in a few years, as innovations and new plays will enter. Some of the next decade infrastructures will partially rely on DePIN. I think we will see more and more projects starting to launch their flywheel, creating a more prosperous ecosystem where the growth is less and less due to token subsidies. To do so, we have to onboard non-crypto native users and to take care of their UX. It is also a real opportunity for them as they can improve their services thanks to us. This statement is true for web3 overall.

Regarding my investments I’ll focus on projects with real use cases and business models bringing value thanks to blockchain. I’m only focusing on post-TGE as I don’t have any specific deal flow. Metrics I follow are : the number and growth rate of users; revenue; tokenomics.

I will keep you updated about any investment and entry or exit prices as I manage them.

Main sources

  • Messari, State of DePIN 2024 (déc. 2024) et State of DePIN 2025 (jan. 2026)
  • Grayscale Research, The Real World: How DePIN Bridges Crypto Back to Physical Systems (fév. 2025)
  • The Block Research, The DePIN Report 2025
  • CoinGecko (catégorie DePIN) et DePINscan — données de marché
  • Gartner, Statista, Fortune Business Insights — estimations TAM
  • Boosty Labs, DePIN: The $3.5 Trillion Infrastructure Revolution (août 2025)
  • Bistroo, Exploring the Total Addressable Market for the DePIN Sector (2024)

Carlos