Decentralized Physical Infrastructure Networks (DePIN) Are Catching the Eye of Traditional Equity Investors with Their Revenue Growth

A new report highlights how Decentralized Physical Infrastructure Networks (DePIN) are catching the eye of traditional equity investors with their revenue growth.

A new report from Tom Trowbridge, co-founder of Fluence and host of the DePINed Podcast, has highlighted how Decentralized Physical Infrastructure Networks (DePIN) are catching the eye of traditional equity investors for their rapid revenue growth.

The report, titled The DePIN Token Economics Report and recently released by Fluence, delves into the implications of DePIN on real-world services and its impact on a critical investor group.

DePIN's Scalability and Revenue Growth

DePIN, which includes over 1,000 projects and 3 million providers delivering services like Wi-Fi, energy, and compute, has seen remarkable progress. Hardware costs have fallen 95% in recent years, bringing devices like routers down to $500, and open-source software is now competitive with centralized firms, according to Trowbridge.

As reported by DePIN Scan, Helium's 145,000 users generated $350,000 in Q4 2024 revenue, while Hivemapper saw a triple increase in demand with new mapping devices.

Geodnet, meanwhile, reports annualized revenue of $3 million, using an 80% buy-and-burn rate, which reached an all-time high on January 25, 2024. The rapid growth of Hivemapper highlights the potential of DePIN. Helium, which claimed $70 million in revenue, faced an SEC charge on January 25, 2025, for allegedly misleading investors about clients like Lime, Nestlé, and Salesforce, as per Trowbridge.

Why Traditional Investors Are Taking Notice

Equity investors, who were initially skeptical of valuing token projects, are now turning their attention to DePIN, says Trowbridge. This investor group, far larger than alt-coin investors, is interested in the tangible services and revenue metrics that DePIN projects offer.

With annualized revenue of $3 million, Geodnet provides a clear benchmark for these investors, who are used to working with multi-billion dollar projects in the equity markets.

DePIN's token models also support this interest. Buy-and-burn mechanisms, used by Geodnet (80%), Glow (100%), Render (95%), and Hivemapper (50%), directly link revenue to token value.

For instance, Geodnet's $500,000 Q4 2024 revenue bought back the same tokens that were sold for $300,000 in Q3 2004, showcasing the potential for price growth.

Moreover, the report highlights that the Fiat-linked rewards, such as Fluence's $10 per core monthly and Storj's $1.50 per TB, provide a stable source of income.

DePIN's token economics are now under the microscope of equity investors, who are used to simpler models. Trowbridge emphasizes the need for brevity, stating that models should fit on one page to avoid confusion.

The presence of buy-and-burn offers allows for on-chain revenue verification, which is crucial in a sector largely devoid of regulation and audits. Helium's SEC charge highlights the need for transparency, and Deodnet's 80% rate stands in stark contrast to Nodle's 5%, according to the report, rendering the latter less believable.

Staking obligations, common in Web3 projects, are also relevant to investors familiar with publicly traded companies and their dividend or share buyback programs.

Fluence, for instance, requires $12,000 per CPU in FLT—48,000 FLT at $0.25 or 12,000 at $1—while Filecoin mandates 30% of supply be staked, and IO.net needs 200 IO tokens per GPU, valued at $250 to $1,200.

Finally, DePIN's focus on revenue shifts the narrative away from the speculative nature often associated with cryptocurrencies and towards utility.

In an industry saturated with 32 million tokens and volatile meme coins, DePIN projects stand out due to their small token count and rapid growth. As projects offering real-world services are scaling faster and offering better services at lower prices than centralized competitors, DePIN will shift the narrative in crypto.