State of DePIN 2025

Dylan Bane, Messari's lead DePIN Research Analyst, and Salvador Gala, Co-Founder of Escape Velocity Ventures, have co-authored the 2025 State of DePIN. The 59-page report provides an in-depth analysis and review of the DePIN sector throughout 2025 and a forward-looking perspective on what lies ahead for DePIN in 2026.

This year's report covers macro trends in DePIN, InfraFi, AI x DePIN, Decentralized Wireless (DeWi), Decentralized Energy, compute networks, sensor networks, and more.

To read this report, download the PDF version.

Key Insights

• DePIN has matured from speculative experiments into real, revenue generating infrastructure businesses. The sector now represents roughly $10B in circulating market cap while generating an estimated $72M in FY25 onchain revenue, with leading networks trading at 10–25x revenue versus over 1,000x in the 2021 cycle.
• Among leading DePINs with meaningful usage, revenues have begun to decouple from token price action. While much of the $10B DePIN sector declined in price in 2025, a small group of revenue generating networks continued to grow onchain revenues driven by utility rather than speculation.
• Only a narrow set of paths remain viable for scaling DePINs globally and sustainably. In practice, DePINs must either adopt InfraFi, focus on capex light infrastructure with fast paybacks, or take advantage of speculative capital in bull markets.
• InfraFi is emerging as a potential alternative financing model for crypto-based physical infrastructure. With over $175B in stablecoins outstanding, early InfraFi deployments suggest a new path to fund DePIN assets using yield seeking capital, though the model remains early and introduces new credit, duration, and regulatory risks.
• Private capital continues to accumulate into DePIN despite depressed public valuations. DePIN startups raised approximately $1B in 2025, primarily at seed and Series A, indicating long term private market conviction even as the public token market prices in limited survival.