Dabba: An Onchain Market for Connectivity

Key Insights

• Dabba Network is a decentralized physical infrastructure network (DePIN) built on Solana that operates as an internet service provider in India. As of September 23, 2025, the network operates more than 14,400 deployed hotspots without a native token.
• DBT is Dabba’s upcoming native token that will have a circulating supply at TGE of 10 billion tokens. Community distribution is 60% for hotspot owners under a declining emissions schedule. The remaining 40% is allocated across Wifi Dabba Inc., the Dabba Foundation, token warrants, and a liquidity incentive pool, with multi-year locks and linear vesting where specified.
• The Genesis Liquidity Program and the Dabba Vault on Bonk.live enable verified hotspot owners to swap locked genesis rewards for USDC at a posted spot price during a specified period, with liquidity seeded on Meteora thereafter.
• India has a large network of Local Cable Operators (LCO) that can deploy and maintain hotspots at the neighborhood level. The population is also broadly familiar with crypto, which makes wallet setup and onchain rewards easier.

Primer

Dabba Network (DBT) is a Decentralized Physical Infrastructure Network that operates as an internet service provider in India. Local Cable Operators (LCOs) install and maintain WiFi hotspots, while backhaul vendors supply the upstream connection. Individuals purchase approved hotspots, complete KYC, register the device, and lease it to an LCO for deployment.

DBT is the network’s native token. It rewards infrastructure providers, is burned to provision capacity and pay fees, and serves as the settlement unit for protocol actions. Rewards are paid in DBT based on measured uptime, coverage quality, and data consumption.

Bandwidth is accessed through Data Credits (DC). 1 DC = 1 gigabyte, priced at $0.012 and purchased in fiat. DBT is burned when DCs are created and loaded onto a hotspot’s balance, not when a user pays. Backhaul providers fund this loading in dollars, and the protocol burns the equivalent dollar amount of DBT. As users consume data, DCs are deducted, and the hotspot is refilled, which triggers more DBT burns.

For a complete primer on Dabba, refer to our Initiation of Coverage report.

Internet Capital Markets

Market Model: How Connectivity Becomes an Onchain Asset

Dabba is a decentralized marketplace for internet connectivity in India. Supply comes from hotspot capacity installed and maintained by Local Cable Operators (LCOs). Hotspot owners can purchase the devices from anywhere around the globe, and logistics are handled through backhaul providers in India. Demand comes from end users who buy bandwidth as Data Credits (DCs), where 1 DC equals 1 gigabyte at $0.012 per GB. DBT is the token that links it all together: it rewards productive infrastructure, is burned to provision capacity and pay fees, and serves as the settlement unit for protocol actions.

Hotspots are working infrastructure tied to a specific site and an LCO lease. Each device reports telemetry, which is the collection and transmission of data from the device to the protocol, including heartbeat pings, uptime logs, throughput counters, and location checks. The protocol uses the telemetry to score service quality. Ownership and performance are verifiable in these records. Hotspot owners earn rewards in DBT based on measured uptime, coverage quality, and data delivered.

Bandwidth demand is standardized through Data Credits. Each hotspot keeps a prepaid DC balance. DCs are created by burning DBT when they are loaded onto a hotspot. The backhaul provider funds this load in dollars to the Treasury, which burns the DBT equivalent and credits the hotspot’s DC ledger. As users consume data, DCs are deducted. When the ledger is refilled, additional DBT is burned. Separately, hotspot activation and DBT-denominated software fees also burn DBT. This creates a programmatic, usage-linked burn path that converts fiat bandwidth spend into verifiable onchain supply reduction without discretionary treasury timing.

Usage Drives Value and Creates a Flywheel

Dabba is bringing millions of users online and directly into Web3 to participate in their Internet Capital Market. For the markets to work, there must be a strong and growing demand for connectivity. By empowering LCOs, Dabba’s model taps into this demand and incentivizes users and hardware providers to join the network.

Every new broadband connection is a new participant in the Internet capital markets. As of Sept. 26, 2025, over 14,4565 hotspots have been deployed, with over 50,506 daily active users (DAU). Globally, over 20,289 hotspots have been sold. All data was found on the Dabba Explorer.

On the demand side, homepasses represent a customer location with an LCO’s fiber line passing through it. They are the addressable market for the Dabba network, and as of Sept. 26, 2025, there are 426,900 active homepasses. There is demand for affordable, reliable internet in India. As Dabba scales its LCO base, the addressable market multiplies, which can drive fiat revenues and onchain value flows to Dabba.

This, in turn, creates a flywheel that begins with hotspot installations in demand-verified locations by LCOs. Each hotspot activation requires a DBT burn for attachment, leasing, commissioning, and marketing, which anchors deployment cost. Since it is prior to TGE, $608,670 in activation fees have been collected and are ready to burn DBT. More coverage brings in local subscribers who buy bandwidth as dollar-priced Data Credits. Each hotspot holds a prepaid DC balance, which was loaded when DBT was burned. The multiple ways to burn DBT drive DBT value up, incentivizing further participation to expand the network.

Incentives and Settlement

Incentives are determined by coverage and data consumption. The Dabba Foundation sets the reward weights and can adjust them through governance. Contributors earn DBT based on measured service, not self-reported figures. Devices send telemetry, and rewards are calculated from these metrics so that higher uptime, better coverage, and more data delivered result in more DBT.

Activating a hotspot requires four onchain steps, which are all done in fiat:

• Hotspot owners burn $10 of DBT and receive an NFT that is proof of device ownership.
• $70 of DBT is paid to the LCO to commission a 7-year lease contract.
• LCO burns $10 worth of DBT to demonstrate proof of work.
• $10 is paid by the hotspot owner to a marketing provider to promote and market the hotspot availability to end users.

LCOs receive DBT paid by hotspot owners. In year one, the LCO share is a flat 25% of a hotspot’s DBT earnings. Beginning in epoch 366, LCO rewards become contingent on upkeep and quality of service using pass-fail tests that reflect proof of coverage and service availability categories.

Backhaul providers supply the physical internet connection. They carry traffic from an LCO’s handoff point to the wider internet over high-capacity links (mostly fiber). They are responsible for delivering a set amount of bandwidth, meeting uptime and latency targets, and restoring service during outages. They are paid 12% of the hotspot owners' epoch rewards in DBT.

Location owners provide the physical sites required for coverage. Viable sites offer safe mounting, stable power, and a radio environment suited to footfall or line of sight. Where program terms apply, site owners receive 2% of hotspot owners’ epoch rewards in DBT for making locations available in demand-dense areas and for keeping them accessible and powered.

Why India: Distribution, Demand, and Crypto Familiarity

India combines scale, unmet need, and a distribution channel that already operates at the neighborhood level via LCOs. It is one of the fastest-growing internet markets, yet many of the population still lack reliable access, especially outside urban cores. Service quality varies by locality.

Local Cable Operators form the backbone of last-mile broadband. In India, there are over 150,000 LCOs that manage neighborhood fiber, rights of way, and subscriber relationships. Their proximity to users shortens installation and maintenance cycles compared to large incumbent carriers and concentrates operational expertise at the edge. Dabba’s model integrates with these LCOs by providing tools and incentives that support rapid, demand-verified deployments.

Consumer sentiment also reflects telco fatigue. Large incumbent carriers face dissatisfaction for patchy service, higher costs, and limited rural reach. This presents an opportunity for community operators to expand coverage where demand is proven and to price access appropriately for those areas.

The market is also crypto-familiar. Independent research from blockchain intelligence company Chainalysis ranks India number one in grassroots crypto adoption in 2023, which lowers friction for consumer adoption compared to less crypto-native markets.

DBT Token Generation Event (TGE)

Following TGE, DBT will be used to pay onboarding and software fees, burned when bandwidth is used, and rewarded to network contributors through emissions.

Supply and Distribution

The maximum supply of DBT is 10 billion. Hotspot owners earn from the 60% (6 billion DBT) allocated for community distribution. Local arrangements can be set up to share rewards with LCOs and other supply participants. The community pool emits 10% in year one and decays by another 10% each following year. The other 40% (4 billion DBT) is allocated as follows:

• 18% (1.8 billion DBT) is allocated to Wifi Dabba Inc. The tokens are locked for two years, then vest linearly for two years. A limited portion will unlock at TGE.
• 8% (800 million DBT) is allocated to the Dabba Foundation.
• 8.46% (845.6 million DBT) are for token warrants with a 2-year lock, then 2-year linear vesting.
• 5.54% (554.4M DBT) is allocated to the liquidity incentive pool to support market depth and participation programs

Liquidity and Launch Programs

Dabba’s launch replaces closed presales with a community led process through three programs: The Genesis Liquidity Program, Dabba Vault, and Dabba Vault Pass.

Genesis Liquidity Program

The Genesis Liquidity Program is a community-first mechanism that lets verified hotspot owners convert a portion of their accrued genesis rewards into liquidity ahead of TGE. Participation requires hotspot onboarding, KYC verification through Dabba’s provider, and pairing with an LCO to confirm that contributors are real operators. Within program limits, owners choose what percentage of their genesis rewards to allocate to the launch vault. Up to fifty percent of the tokens available in the window can come from community balances alongside the Dabba Foundation’s contribution. Owners receive USDC at settlement for the rewards they contribute, may unlock value equal to one times the value of each hotspot they own, and receive faster vesting on contributed genesis rewards under the program terms. Final parameters are set one to two weeks before the vault opens.

Dabba Vault on Bonk.live

The Dabba Vault is the venue for the launch window. It is hosted by the launchpad Bonk.live in partnership with the no-code launchpad Bonk.fun and operated end-to-end on the DEX Meteora. Pricing is announced one to two weeks before the window opens. The vault uses spot pricing with no dynamic bonding curves. The participation window remains open for 48-72 hours, after which a centralized exchange listing follows per the launch plan. Airdrop incentives are available during the window for users who stake BONK on bonk.rewards according to program terms. A Meteora liquidity pool is created at the window's close to support post-vault trading.

Vault Pass

The Dabba Vault Pass provides controlled early access to the vault and program benefits defined in the pass materials. Passes are available 4-6 weeks before and after the vault opening. Two types of passes are offered:

• Mystery Pass: This pass is priced at $1 per pass and has no supply cap. Each pass entitles the holder to one U.S. dollar worth of DBT and entry into weekly reward draws.
• Bonus Pass: This option enables a higher commitment in exchange for bonus percentage rewards. The bonus scales with the committed amount under a bonding-curve schedule. Holders receive DBT plus the earned bonus.

Pass entitlements do not change vault spot pricing or settlement, and add gamified rewards.

Closing Summary

Dabba provides an onchain marketplace for internet access in India. Providers supply capacity through hotspots, consumers buy bandwidth as Data Credits. The protocol records usage, rewards, and burns on Solana. DBT is the unit that links these parts. Rewards are paid in DBT for measured coverage, uptime, and throughput. Burns remove DBT when capacity is provisioned through DC loading and when specified lifecycle or software actions are paid in DBT. The result is an Internet Capital Market that exists, with infrastructure, users, and cash flows visible and auditable onchain.

At TGE, supply and distribution are set. Issuance follows the emissions schedule to hotspot owners. Through the Genesis Liquidity Program and the Dabba Vault, liquidity formation is public and community-led. Sale proceeds will flow to verified operators during a spot-priced, fixed period, and trading will continue. Finally, India’s Local Cable Operator network and crypto-familiar user base provide the operating rails for deployment and settlement. You can start onboarding here and prepare for the DBT TGE that is coming soon. More details are here.