Revenue from DePIN projects continues to grow steadily despite token price plummeting

Token prices at low levels continue to put pressure on decentralized physical infrastructure networks (DePIN), but industry-wide revenues are showing more resilient signs, according to a report from Messari.

Most DePIN tokens remain flat or decline in 2025. Tokens launched between 2018–2022 are currently 94–99% below their all-time highs. However, a small group of networks are experiencing on-chain revenue growth, indicating a shift away from speculative valuations toward real economic activity.

DePIN uses blockchain and crypto incentive mechanisms to coordinate and operate real-world hardware networks such as storage, wireless networks, energy, and sensors through peer-to-peer participation, rather than relying on centralized systems.

The entire sector currently has a circulating market cap of around $10 billion and is projected to generate approximately $72 million in on-chain revenue in 2025. Leading DePIN networks by revenue are valued at roughly 10–25 times their on-chain revenue, contrasting with the over 1,000x revenue multiples seen during the 2021 market cycle.

According to Markus Levin, co-founder of DePIN project XYO, the industry is being forced to return to fundamental factors. When token prices are flat, the most important questions are whether people are actually paying for services and whether the network can sustain itself without subsidies. He believes this shift is a healthy development.

Messari’s report notes that only a few strategies can help DePIN projects scale sustainably. One of these is alternative financial models like InfraFi, combined with leveraging speculative capital during bullish market cycles.

InfraFi aims to finance physical infrastructure using crypto-based capital, such as stablecoins, and is emerging as a promising approach. With over $175 billion in circulating stablecoins, initial InfraFi deployments show that DePIN assets can attract yield-seeking capital. However, this model also introduces new risks related to credit, capital maturity, and legal issues, and is still in its early stages.

Dylan Bane, senior research analyst at Messari and author of the report, believes DePIN can only build credibility by generating sustainable revenue from selling valuable resources to the market. In favorable market conditions, factors like partnerships, ecosystems, and community can help drive supply-side growth, but new supply must generate corresponding revenue for the DePIN model to survive.

He also emphasizes that projects should not abandon supply-side expansion strategies but must prioritize aligning their products with market demand on the demand side.

DePIN is also intersecting with the increasing needs of AI companies. Levin states that AI developers are increasingly requiring more computing power, storage, and especially verifiable real-world data—elements that some DePIN networks are well-positioned to provide. In the long run, AI buyers may care less about decentralization as an ideological principle and more about tangible outcomes like cost, reliability, and data provenance.

Despite weak token performance on public markets, private investment into the sector remains active. DePIN startups raised about $1 billion in 2025, mainly in seed and Series A rounds, indicating continued private sector confidence even as public markets undervalue many projects’ survival prospects.

Bane and Levin have differing views on whether 2026 will set new investment records. Bane believes there are no clear catalysts to significantly boost capital flows this year, while Levin predicts a new wave of investment as DePIN begins to be recognized as a viable funding sector.

He states that investors are now more carefully assessing unit economics, payback periods, and revenue sustainability as incentives are gradually reduced. When real demand, recurring revenue, and clear capital expansion roadmaps are demonstrated, investors are willing to commit larger funds.