Decentralized physical infrastructure networks (DePIN), a sector many investors had written off, has quietly grown into a $10 billion market, according to a new "State of DePIN 2025" report from Messari and Escape Velocity. The report highlights that the sector generated $72 million in onchain revenue in 2025 alone, signaling a significant shift from speculative hype to verifiable, utility-driven economics.
The report draws a stark contrast between "DePIN 2021" and "DePIN 2025." The earlier cycle was dominated by pre-revenue networks with high token inflation and valuations fueled by retail speculation. Today's leading projects, however, are generating recurring onchain revenues, have little to no supply inflation, and see growth driven by utility and cost advantages rather than subsidies.
Markus Levin, co-founder of XYO, emphasized this maturation, stating that in the DePIN sector, "revenue mattered more than token price" and that valuations are starting to reflect real economic activity that persists even when token prices are flat. He noted the sector is "fundamentally different" from broader crypto because it provides "real-world utility to end users."
Messari's analysis includes a DePIN Leaders Index of 15 projects across bandwidth, compute, energy, and sensor networks. To qualify, projects must meet business-style thresholds, including at least $500,000 in annual recurring revenue and a minimum of $30 million raised. Despite tokens from the "class of 2018-2022" being down 94-99% from all-time highs, leading projects now trade at roughly 10-25x revenue multiples, which Messari characterizes as undervalued relative to their growth.
A key finding is the sector's resilient revenue growth compared to decentralized finance (DeFi) and layer-1 blockchains during the bear market. For example, between December 2024 and December 2025, Helium's (HNT) token price fell 77% while its onchain revenue increased roughly 8x. Similarly, GEODNET's (GEOD) token dropped 41% as its revenue rose approximately 1.7x.
Levin identified the "big divider" for DePIN projects as "whether the network can earn money from real customers without constantly leaning on incentives." The report also notes that 2025 was an all-time-high funding year for DePIN, with about $1 billion raised across the sector, up from $698 million in 2024.
An emerging trend highlighted is "InfraFi," a DePIN/DeFi hybrid model where stablecoin holders finance real-world infrastructure and earn yield. Examples like USDai, which grew to around $685 million in user deposits to fund GPU fleets, demonstrate this convergence. Messari concludes that the best DePIN tokens now resemble next-generation infrastructure businesses but are trading at prices that imply little chance of success, presenting a potential opportunity as the sector matures and serves enterprise and AI-driven demand.
