DePIN

DePIN: Real Infrastructure, or Subsidised Supply?

DePIN uses token rewards to coordinate real-world hardware — wireless coverage, GPU compute, storage, sensors — without the capital base of a centralised operator. Helium, Render, Filecoin, Akash, IoTeX and Arweave each show genuine supply and, in parts, genuine paid demand: Helium Mobile passed ~461,500 accounts by Q3 2025 and offloads carrier traffic for AT&T and Telefónica's Movistar, who pay in Data Credits; Filecoin's storage utilisation rose to ~36% in Q3 2025 even as committed capacity contracted ~10%. Yet leading DePIN tokens fell sharply over the trailing year while products grew, and Akash GPU utilisation slipped from the 50–60% range in 2025 toward ~34% by Q1 2026 — exposing the core tension: emissions subsidise supply directly, but token value only accrues if paid demand and fee capture follow. The most-likely outcome is bifurcation, not a uniform sector move.