DePIN Climbs Back to $10B Valuation Despite Being Largely Ignored, Messari Reports
According to a new from research firm Messari, the decentralized physical infrastructure network (DePIN) sector has bounced back to a market valuation of $10 billion, even though many of its coins are still well below their former highs. Messari’s “State of DePIN 2025,” released this week, shows that the sector is quietly maturing into infrastructure businesses that generate revenue.
Last year, on-chain revenue for the $10B DePIN sector was $72 million, even as the market as a whole was declining. The report says, “While much of the $10B DePIN sector declined in price in 2025, a small group of continued to grow onchain revenues driven by utility rather than speculation.”
Revenues and Token Prices Become Unlinked
says the top DePIN projects are currently trading at 10-25 times revenue, which is low relative to their growth rates. This is a large change from the over 1,000x multiples witnessed in the 2021 cycle.
The paper discusses a shift from “DePIN 2021,” when pre-revenue networks were fuelled by significant token inflation and retail speculation, to “DePIN 2025,” when leaders generate verifiable recurring revenue with little or no supply inflation.
There are several examples. For instance, Helium’s on-chain revenue grew about 8 times from December 2024 to December 2025, even as its HNT token decreased by 77%. In the identical way, GEODNET’s revenue increased 1.7 times, while its token value decreased 41%.
Markus Levin, one of the founders of XYO, told reporters that “revenue mattered more than token price in the .” He also said that as the market matures, “valuations are begining to reflect real economic activity that holds up even when token prices are flat.”
Levin stressed how special DePIN was: “The DePIN sector was ‘fundamentally diverse’ from the larger crypto industry because it gives ‘real-world utility to end users.'” “First in usage and cash flow, not in speculative price action,” is what success looks like.
Resilience beats DeFi and Layer-1s
Messari says that DePIN’s revenue growth held up better than that of decentralized finance (DeFi) protocols orduring the current poor market. Levin says that the “large divider” amongst DePIN sectors is “whether the network can make money from real customers without always relying on incentives.”
Real-world use is occurring across bandwidth, computing, energy, and sensor data. New hybrids called “InfraFi” are also showing promise. These combine DePIN with DeFi to enable stablecoin holders to finance infrastructure and earn rewards. Funding is still high compared to last year; DePIN beginups raised almost $1 billion, up from $698 million in 2024.
Looking Ahead: Potential That Isn’t Being Used
Messari says that the now look like enterprises that build the infrastructure of the future, but they are trading at prices that “imply little chance of survival, let alone success.”
Levin said that networks that can reliably meet business and AI-driven demand will “capitalize the most.”One expert said the sector’s steady revenue growth suggests DePIN may be one of the most underrated stories in crypto as we approach 2026.
