Solana DePIN Frontier Report: How Participatory Infrastructure Unlocks a New Era of Passive Income for the Masses?

In the development of blockchain technology, decentralized physical infrastructure networks (DePIN) are emerging at an astonishing speed, effectively connecting online blockchains and real-world assets. From shared GPU computing power and wireless network coverage to street map information collection, DePIN is fundamentally changing the construction and operation models of infrastructure through an innovative cryptographic incentive system. Meanwhile, Solana, with its efficient network characteristics, has gradually become the core platform for this wave of innovation.

This article is based on the latest industry research report, providing an in-depth analysis of the development status, market performance, and on-chain data of several core DePIN projects within the Solana ecosystem. The research data is current as of April 22, 2025, and outlines a clear picture of this emerging ecosystem, revealing its underlying 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 leverages cryptocurrency incentive mechanisms to initiate and operate real-world infrastructure. These projects typically target markets with strong demand but inefficient supply, activating idle resources such as unused GPUs, wireless bandwidth, and more. Unlike traditional infrastructure models dominated by large enterprises, DePIN distributes ownership to individuals, thereby increasing efficiency, enhancing resilience, and expanding accessibility.

Why choose Solana?

Solana has become the ideal platform for the 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 industry experts say:

“DePIN is nearing a breakthrough development. This innovative business model has proven capable of scaling physical infrastructure networks faster and more economically in a community-driven manner - all happening on Solana. The world’s largest DePIN projects choose to build on Solana not only for its high performance and active capital markets but also for 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, of which the total market capitalization of DePIN projects on Solana is $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 closely 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:

• Compute: Holds a market share of 71.2%, providing decentralized processing power, GPU, and computing infrastructure.
• Wireless: Holds a market share of 22.2%, providing community-driven wireless and mobile access networks.
• Sensor: Collects real-world data through distributed sensing devices.
• Server: Provides distributed cloud and storage servers for hosting or accessing data.
• AI: A decentralized network supporting AI data generation, annotation, or robotics technology.

The computing and wireless categories together account for 93.4% of the market share and also have the highest average market capitalization. Computing networks provide high market cap utility tokens for AI workloads, while wireless projects 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 reached 238,165. DePIN nodes are physical or digital infrastructure units, such as GPUs, IoT hotspots, or dash cams, that perform critical network functions such as computing, data collection, or wireless transmission. The growth in the number of nodes reflects the size, decentralization, and utility of the network, with more nodes generally means stronger coverage, higher engagement, and reliability.

In terms of node growth, the Solana DePIN project has shown significant changes. Hivemapper initially led the way, but Helium quickly overtook it after the launch of the mobile service and now accounts for more than 60% of the new node share. While Render contributes fewer new nodes, it leads the way in terms of revenue per node. Nosana gained traction in early 2025, while Uprock flattened out after rapid growth in late 2024.

On-chain network income

As the cryptocurrency industry matures, on-chain revenue has become a key indicator for assessing project viability, product-market fit, and sustainable business models. As of April 22, 2025, the total on-chain revenue of DePIN projects on Solana reached $5.98 million.

! [Solana DePIN Report: From “Mining” to “Maps”, How Can Ordinary People Make Money Lying Down?] ](https://img.gateio.im/social/moments-9e22942e850a24d489e96b022891af4f)

The DePIN project’s revenue on Solana has grown steadily, from approximately $4,000 per week in April 2023 to over $100,000 per week in early 2025, peaking at $130,000 in mid-April. Helium was the top earner per week at $60,000 (60% share), while Render led the way in total revenue ($2.65 million vs. Helium’s $2.3 million). Render also holds the record for a peak weekly revenue of $300,000 set at the end of 2024. These trends highlight the rising adoption rate, with each project gaining traction at different points in the DePIN growth cycle.

Main Project Analysis

1. Helium: The leader in decentralized wireless networks

Helium is a decentralized wireless network that enables individuals to deploy hotspots and provide low-cost, secure connectivity for IoT and mobile devices. Users are rewarded with HNT tokens for expanding coverage and routing data.

! [Solana DePIN Report: From “Mining” to “Maps”, How Can Ordinary People Make Money Lying Down?] ](https://img.gateio.im/social/moments-3ecc3b1d3482bfd02df0651e8b2fca7e)

Important Milestone:

• 2013: Helium was founded
• 2019: Helium hotspot was launched, and users started earning HNT for coverage
• 2023: Migrate to Solana for scalability and speed
• 2024: Public release of Helium Mobile, a decentralized 5G service
• 2025: Launch of Zero Plan, the first free 5G mobile plan in the United States
• 2025: SEC withdraws the lawsuit against related companies, confirming that Helium’s token model does not violate securities laws.
• 2025: Helium partners with major telecom operators to provide nationwide Wi-Fi coverage

Key Data:

• Total subscribers: 176,301
• Total number of nodes: 69,449
• Total on-chain revenue: $2.29 million

! [Solana DePIN Report: From “Mining” to “Maps”, How Can Ordinary People Make Money Lying Down?] ](https://img.gateio.im/social/moments-e72065f27b996b39c9d8bb0a3c86dcfa)

The growth of Helium’s subscriber base is influenced by clear product-driven inflection points. Within a week after the official launch of mobile services in January 2024, new subscriber additions reached 10,300, facilitating more hotspot deployments and network expansion. Subsequently, the zero-cost plan launched in February 2025 (the first free 5G mobile plan in the U.S.) triggered a second wave of growth, quickly filling the waiting list. After the free plan was opened to all in April, the number of users peaked again at 10,000.

As of the reporting period, Helium has reached 176,301 total subscribers and 69,449 nodes. Node composition is showing a changing trend, with particularly strong growth in the mobile data-specific category. The report notes that two major events drove the spike in node deployments. First, in October 2024, partnerships with infrastructure partners added more than 100,000 data-only hotspots to retail and commercial sites in the U.S.; This is followed by the acceleration of user growth after the removal of the free tier waitlist in April 2025.

! [Solana DePIN Report: From “Mining” to “Maps”, How Can Ordinary People Make Money Lying Down?] ](https://img.gateio.im/social/moments-be6daa522ed8f7401aa0067bfc07c0e0)

Helium generates on-chain revenue through its unique burn-and-mint model, where users can convert HNT into non-transferable data credits (DCs) in order to access services on their IoT and mobile networks. Specifically, mobile data is billed at $0.50 per gigabyte (i.e., 50,000 DCs), while IoT usage is billed in 24-byte message increments. The company’s revenue grew steadily, reaching 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 Mapping Network

Hivemapper is a decentralized, community-driven map network where users are rewarded with HONEY tokens for collecting street-level images through dashcams. By turning everyday driving into a data source, Hivemapper provides fresher and more dynamic maps for areas such as transportation, logistics, and autonomous driving.

! [Solana DePIN Report: From “Mining” to “Maps”, How Can Ordinary People Make Money Lying Down?] ](https://img.gateio.im/social/moments-ab84cd5ea96b9c55618675ea1e8f3f6b)

Important Milestone:

• 2022: Launched the Hivemapper network and HONEY token
• 2023: The unique road mileage of network mapping exceeds 1 million
• 2024: Launch of the Bee dashcam for high-quality image capture
• 2024: Launch Beekeeper, a fleet management tool without SaaS locking
• 2025: Bee Maps begins to provide data services for several major map service providers.

Key Data:

• Total number of nodes: 77,483
• Weekly Rewards: Over $60,000 HONEY

As of April 2025, the network has 77,483 nodes, most of which are active in AI training and bounty campaigns, yet less than 10% of nodes are rewarded for map coverage. Although Hivemapper’s weekly rewards have decreased from its peak of $1.4 million in December 2023, the network still distributes more than $60,000 in HONEY tokens per week. It’s worth noting that while less than 10% of 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 surpassing $50,000 per week during April to May 2024.

3. Render: Decentralized GPU Rendering Network

The Render Network is a high-performance distributed GPU rendering network that leverages industry-leading software to facilitate the computing market between GPU providers and requesters. GPU owners can monetize idle GPUs by providing computing power to creators looking for rendering resources. It provides scalable, cost-effective rendering services for 3D graphics, motion design, and AI workloads.

Important Milestone:

• 2021: Render decentralized rendering network launched
• 2023: Migrate to Solana and upgrade the token to RENDER
• 2024: Integrate professional rendering software through protocol upgrades

Key Data:

• Active on-chain nodes: 3,784
• RENDER tokens burned: over 121 million
• Tokens distributed to node operators: over 2.4 million

! [Solana DePIN Report: From “Mining” to “Maps”, How Can Ordinary People Make Money Lying Down?] ](https://img.gateio.im/social/moments-52910e4561d7675862108f6432193b06)

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 to a growing ecosystem of creative and AI applications. To date, more than 121 million RENDER tokens have been burned for user access to GPU capabilities, while more than 2.4 million tokens have been minted to reward node operators, showing healthy demand and active participation in the ecosystem. Revenue peaked at nearly $300,000 per week from November to December 2024, thanks to key protocol upgrades, expanded artist incentives, and community events with free GPU credits and prizes, according to previous data. Another significant peak in mid-April 2025, with weekly revenue reaching $70,000, suggests that creator demand and web adoption are picking up.

! [Solana DePIN Report: From “Mining” to “Maps”, How Can Ordinary People Make Money Lying Down?] ](https://img.gateio.im/social/moments-780a72b8b7cd274321b2e16d0c9cda76)

4. Nosana: Decentralized AI Computing Network

Nosana is a decentralized computing network that enables users to run AI inference tasks through a global grid of GPU hosts. Participants register idle GPUs as nodes and earn $NOS tokens for completing tasks in the network’s specific job marketplace. Nosana’s solution provides a scalable, censorship-resistant alternative that leverages the world’s underutilized GPU resources to provide a more cost-effective option for AI computing.

Important Milestone:

• 2024: Launch of the global test grid
• 2024: Launch of Node V2, significantly improving performance.
• 2025: GPU mainnet launch

Key figures:**

• Total number of nodes worldwide: over 4,200
• Daily active nodes: Increased from an average of 300 in 2024 to over 600 in 2025.

In January 2025, Nosana officially launched its decentralized GPU market to the public. This release, after a year of closed testing, 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 continuously increasing adoption rate among GPU hosts and AI developers.

With over 4,200 nodes already on board worldwide, Nosana has demonstrated scalable performance and ongoing activity as a powerful decentralized alternative to traditional computing providers. Its on-chain activity is driven by node operators’ interactions with the job marketplace, reflecting real-world usage of its decentralized GPU network. The network reached an all-time high of more than 200,000 operations per week in May 2024 and stabilized at about 80,000 operations, demonstrating a healthy, ongoing demand for computing tasks.

Most of the activity comes from three key instruction types: creating new jobs, nodes queuing up tasks, and completing tasks and paying them, which represent the core work lifecycle on the network and maintain a relatively stable usage pattern. Less frequent instructions such as stop, exit, and cleanup, about 1,000 times per week, show a lower rate of early task termination or cleanup, further indicating a good alignment of system stability and incentives.

5. UpRock: Mobile-first Data Intelligent Network

UpRock is a decentralized data intelligence network driven by a mobile-first DePIN model. Users can share unused internet bandwidth and computing power through the UpRock app, turning 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 API payments, 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 weekly on-chain network revenue in February 2025, the revenue has remained stable at $1,500 per week.

! [Solana DePIN Report: From “Mining” to “Maps”, How Can Ordinary People Make Money Lying Down?] ](https://img.gateio.im/social/moments-3e41d02a74c807168088600dd512ee27)

Conclusion and Key Insights

• Solana’s Leadership in the DePIN Field: If the protocol chooses not to launch its own independent L1/blockchain, Solana has become the leading chain in DePIN, with a total market capitalization of DePIN projects reaching $3.25 billion, and an average market capitalization of $191.3 million per project.
• On-chain activities prove the actual value of DePIN: DePIN is not just a narrative. Major projects have generated nearly $6 million in on-chain network revenue, which is a strong signal of real product-market fit.
• Computing & Wireless Category Dominates Market: Computing (71.2% ) & Wireless (22.2% ) Category Leads Market Share in Solana DePIN Segment ( Total 93.4% )。
• Node Growth and Service Adoption Acceleration: The wireless network has over 176,000 mobile users and 69,000 nodes, while the map services and computing network continue to expand their contributor base. The AI computing network doubled the number of active nodes after the mainnet launch.
• Transparency challenges remain: Despite practical applications, DePIN remains one of the hardest areas in crypto to track on-chain activities because it relies on off-chain hardware and third-party integrations. While progress has been made, fully transparent and consistent on-chain measurements are still underway.