DePIN Tokens Down 30% Despite Reaching $20 Billion Market Cap

Decentralized Physical Infrastructure (DePIN) tokens have experienced a 30% decline over the last six months, despite the sector reaching a market capitalization of $20 billion in the past year. This decline follows strong performances in late 2023 and early 2024, with many projects hitting all-time highs. As of September 1, there are approximately 2,365 active DePIN projects in the industry, according to DePIN Ninja data. The report by MV Global attributes DePIN token price fluctuations to a mix of fundamental indicators, web2 use cases, and speculative demand. Despite recent corrections, DePIN tokens are considered a good portfolio allocation due to their low correlation with the broader crypto market.

Listed DePIN projects saw an average price decline of nearly 37% in the last three months, except for Helium’s native token, HNT, which surged by 70% in the past month. Helium’s positive performance coincided with progress on its roadmap and exceeding 100,000 mobile subscriptions. Different DePIN subverticals showed varying results, with connectivity-oriented projects underperforming, while bandwidth-oriented projects like AIOZ experienced significant growth, with AIOZ token seeing a 3278.6% increase over the past year. However, tokens related to storage and censorship, such as FIL and HONEY, faced losses of 36.6% and 38.2%, respectively.

Despite the recent decline, DePIN tokens outperformed 16 out of 20 crypto sectors over the last six months, with a better performance than the market average of negative 45.7% during the same period, according to Artemis data.