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Solana DePIN Report: From Mining to Mapping, How Can Ordinary People Earn Money Passively?
Original text: Dune, Slice Analytics; compiled by: Yuliya, PANews
Among the many innovations in the blockchain industry, Decentralized Physical Infrastructure Networks (DePIN) are rapidly emerging as a bridge to put real-world assets on-chain. Whether it's shared GPUs, telecommunications networks, or street map collection, DePIN is reshaping the construction and operation of infrastructure through cryptographic incentive mechanisms. Solana is gradually becoming the core platform of this trend, with its high-performance network providing an ideal environment for DePIN projects.
This article is based on the latest research report jointly released by Dune and Slice Analytics, which conducts an in-depth analysis of the development status, market performance, and on-chain data of several core DePIN projects on Solana. The report data is as of April 22, 2025, providing us with a clear picture of this emerging ecosystem and revealing its true verifiable growth trajectory.
The Concept of DePIN and the Advantages of Solana
What is DePIN?
Decentralized Physical Infrastructure Networks (DePIN) are an innovative model that utilizes cryptocurrency incentive mechanisms to initiate and operate real-world infrastructure. These projects typically target markets with strong demand but inefficient supply, mobilizing idle resources such as unused GPUs, wireless bandwidth, etc. Unlike traditional infrastructure models dominated by large enterprises, DePIN allocates ownership to individuals, thereby improving efficiency, enhancing resilience, and expanding accessibility.
Why choose Solana?
Solana has become the ideal platform for transparent scaling of DePIN applications due to its high throughput, low transaction fees, and composable infrastructure. Its thriving ecosystem and strong developer community are making it the center of this emerging field. As Amira Valliani, the head of DePIN at the Solana Foundation, said:
"DePIN is about to reach escape velocity. This innovative business model has proven its ability to scale physical infrastructure networks faster and cheaper in a community-driven way - all happening on Solana. The world's largest DePIN project chose to build on Solana because of its high performance and active capital markets, and it has remained due to its thriving community ecosystem."
DePIN Market Overview
As of April 2025, the total market capitalization of global DePIN projects (excluding independent projects L1/chains) has reached $7.1 billion, with the total market capitalization of DePIN projects on Solana at $3.25 billion, leading over EVM ($2.84 billion) and other blockchain platforms such as Cosmos ($652.5 million), Cardano ($195.2 million), and Sora ($160.1 million).
Based on the average market capitalization of each project, Solana leads again with $191.3 million, followed by Cardano ($97.6 million), Cosmos ($93.2 million), Sora ($80.1 million), and EVM ($40.6 million).
Project Category Distribution
The DePIN project is mainly divided into five major categories:
The computing and wireless categories together account for 93.4% of the market share and also have the highest average market capitalization. Computing networks such as Render and io.net provide high market cap utility tokens for AI workloads, while wireless projects like Helium and ROAM represent the most mature and widely adopted infrastructure layer.
Node Growth and Network Participation
As of April 22, 2025, the total number of registered on-chain nodes for DePIN projects on Solana has reached 238,165. DePIN nodes are units of physical or digital infrastructure, such as GPUs, IoT hotspots, or dashcams, that perform critical network functions like computation, data collection, or wireless transmission. The growth in the number of nodes reflects the scale, degree of decentralization, and practicality of the network; more nodes typically mean stronger coverage, higher participation, and reliability.
In terms of node growth, the Solana DePIN project has shown significant changes. Hivemapper initially led, but Helium quickly surpassed it after the launch of Helium Mobile, now accounting for over 60% of new node shares. Although Render contributes fewer new nodes, it leads in revenue per node. Nosana gains traction in early 2025, while Uprock stabilizes after rapid growth at the end of 2024.
On-chain Network Income
As the cryptocurrency industry matures, on-chain revenue has become a key indicator for assessing project feasibility, product-market fit, and sustainable business models. As of April 22, 2025, the total on-chain revenue for DePIN projects on Solana reached $5.98 million.
The revenue of the DePIN project on Solana has steadily increased, growing from about $4,000 per week in April 2023 to over $100,000 per week by early 2025, peaking at $130,000 in mid-April. Helium is the highest weekly earner, reaching $60,000 (60% share), while Render leads in total revenue with $2.65 million, compared to Helium's $2.3 million. Render also maintains the record for single-week revenue peak of $300,000 set at the end of 2024. These trends highlight the continuously rising adoption rate, with each project gaining traction at different points in the DePIN growth cycle.
Main Project Analysis
1. Helium: The leader of decentralized wireless networks
Helium is a decentralized wireless network that allows individuals to deploy hotspots and provide low-cost, secure connectivity for IoT and mobile devices. Users earn HNT token rewards by expanding coverage and routing data.
Important milestone:
Key Data:
The growth of Helium's subscription users is significantly influenced by clear product-driven inflection points. In January 2024, within a week of the official launch of Helium Mobile, the number of new subscription users reached 10,300, promoting further hotspot deployments and network expansion. Subsequently, the launch of the Zero Plan (the first free 5G mobile plan in the U.S.) in February 2025 triggered a second wave of growth, quickly filling the waiting list. After the free plan was opened to everyone in April, the user count peaked again at 10,000.
As of the reporting period, Helium's total number of subscribed users has reached 176,301, with a total of 69,449 nodes. The composition of nodes shows a trend of continuous change, with particularly strong growth in the mobile data dedicated category. The report indicates that two major events have driven the peak in node deployment. First is the collaboration with Ameriband in October 2024, which added over 100,000 data-only hotspots at retail and commercial sites in the United States; second is the acceleration of user growth after the cancellation of the Zero Plan waiting list in April 2025.
Helium generates on-chain revenue through its unique burn-mint model, allowing users to convert HNT into non-transferable Data Credits (DCs) to access services on its IoT and mobile networks. Specifically, mobile data is charged at $0.50 per gigabyte (i.e., 50,000 DCs), while IoT usage is charged incrementally per 24-byte message. Company revenue has been steadily increasing, setting a record of $66,000 per week in December 2024, and reaching a sustained peak of $63,000 per week again in April 2025.
2. Hivemapper: Decentralized Map Network
Hivemapper is a decentralized, community-driven mapping network that rewards users with HONEY tokens for collecting street-level imagery through dashcams. By transforming everyday driving into a data source, Hivemapper provides fresher and more dynamic maps for sectors such as transportation, logistics, and autonomous driving.
Important Milestone:
Key Data:
As of April 2025, the network has 77,483 nodes, most of which are active in AI training and bounty activities; however, less than 10% of the nodes receive rewards due to map coverage. Although Hivemapper's weekly rewards have declined from a peak of $1.4 million in December 2023, the network still distributes over $60,000 worth of HONEY tokens each week. It is noteworthy that while less than 10% of the nodes actively contribute to map coverage, these nodes consistently receive about 80% of the total rewards.
Hivemapper generates revenue by selling Map Credits (each worth $0.005), which are purchased by burning HONEY tokens for access to map data. Revenue trends indicate a peak of $30,000 per week by the end of 2023, with an increase to over $50,000 per week during April to May 2024.
3. Render: Decentralized GPU Rendering Network
Render Network is a high-performance distributed GPU rendering network that leverages industry-leading software from OTOY Inc. to facilitate a compute marketplace between GPU providers and requesters. GPU owners can monetize their idle GPUs by offering computing power to creators seeking rendering resources. It provides scalable and cost-effective rendering services for 3D graphics, dynamic design, and AI workloads.
Important Milestone:
Key Data:
The Render network allows anyone with idle GPU capacity to become a node operator, contributing computing power for decentralized rendering and AI infrastructure. Node operators lease their GPU capabilities to artists, studios, and AI developers who need scalable, on-demand computing. In return, they receive RENDER tokens.
As of April 2025, Render Network has 3,784 active on-chain nodes, providing decentralized computing power for the growing ecosystem of creative and AI applications. To date, users have burned over 121 million RENDER tokens accessing GPU capabilities, while over 2.4 million tokens have been minted as rewards for node operators, demonstrating healthy demand and active participation in the ecosystem. Previous reports indicated that revenue peaked at nearly $300,000 per week between November and December 2024, thanks to key upgrades (RNP-016 to 018), expanded artist incentives, and the Advent Calendar campaign featuring free GPU credits and prizes. Another significant peak occurred in mid-April 2025, with weekly revenue reaching $70,000, indicating a resurgence in creator demand and network adoption.
4. Nosana: Decentralized AI Computing Network
Nosana is a decentralized computing network that allows users to run AI inference tasks through a global grid of GPU hosts. Participants register idle GPUs as nodes and earn $NOS tokens by completing tasks in the network's specific job market. Nosana's solution offers a scalable, censorship-resistant alternative that leverages globally underutilized GPU resources to provide a more cost-effective option for AI computing.
Important milestone:
Key data:
In January 2025, Nosana officially launched its decentralized GPU marketplace to the public. This release, following a year of closed testing, has triggered a significant increase in node activity: daily active nodes rose from an average of 300 in 2024 to over 600, peaking at over 800 in March 2025. This growth indicates a continually increasing adoption rate among GPU hosts and AI developers.
Over 4,200 nodes have joined globally, and Nosana demonstrates scalable performance and ongoing activity, becoming a strong decentralized alternative to traditional computing providers. Its on-chain activities are driven by the interactions between node operators and the job market, reflecting the actual usage of its decentralized GPU network. The network reached a historical peak of over 200,000 operations per week in May 2024 and stabilized at around 80,000 operations, showing a healthy and sustained demand for computing tasks.
Most activities come from three key types of instructions: creating new job positions, queuing nodes to execute tasks, and completing tasks and paying rewards. These three instructions represent the core work lifecycle on the network, maintaining a relatively stable usage pattern. Less frequently occurring instructions such as stop, exit, and cleanup appear about 1,000 times a week, indicating a lower early task termination or cleanup rate, further demonstrating the system's stability and good alignment of the incentive mechanism.
5. UpRock: Mobile-first Data Intelligent Network
UpRock is a decentralized data intelligence network powered by a mobile-first DePIN model. Users can share unused internet bandwidth and computing power through the UpRock app, transforming everyday devices into passive data contributors, thereby earning $UPT tokens. These resources provide real-time, geographically diverse, and censorship-resistant data support for AI models.
UpRock monetizes through SaaS subscriptions and usage-based paid APIs, with part of the revenue used for on-chain $UPT token buybacks, providing funding for contributor rewards and strengthening the ecosystem. After reaching a peak of over $3,000 in on-chain network revenue per week in February 2025, the revenue has stabilized at $1,500 per week.
Conclusion and Key Insights