Helium User Growth Breakthrough and DePIN Narrative Reassessment Analysis

Key findings

The Helium network experienced explosive user growth in 2025, with daily active users climbing from around 1 million at the beginning of the year to a peak of over 2.1 million in early December. This also propelled the DePIN (Decentralized Physical Infrastructure Network) industry from a speculative narrative to a value reassessment driven by traffic and revenue. Despite record-high user metrics, the HNT token price fell by approximately 11% between late November and mid-December, reflecting a lagged market response to fundamental growth.

User growth analysis

Daily Active Users (DAU) Milestone

Growth drivers :

• Carrier Partnerships : Strategic collaboration between AT&T (integration in April 2025) and Telefónica Movistar (February 2025) drives a surge in offloading traffic for carriers.
• Network density : Mobile hotspots increased from 115,750 in Q3 to over 120,000 in December, expanding coverage.
• Subscribers : 589,252 registered users (+11,609 7-day growth), over 541,000 paid subscribers.

Network activity metrics

Data transfer volume :

• Q3 2025 Cumulative: 5,451 TB of carrier uninstallation (+100.4% QoQ)
• November peak: 77,000+ TB daily transfer volume
• Current daily average: 64.88 TB (+1.76 TB, 7-day increase)

On-chain activities (November 1st - December 8th):

• Average daily trading volume: 15,000-17,500 transactions (peak: 29,356 transactions).
• Average daily active addresses: 2,200-2,400
• Average daily cost: $55,000-$60,000 (peak $64,526, December 6)

DePIN Narrative Reassessment

A paradigm shift from speculation to practical application

Verification of income and combustion mechanism :

Key turning point :

• Starting in August 2025, 100% of subscription revenue will be converted into HNT burning, establishing a direct use-value cycle.
• Q4 2025 saw an increase of $2.8M in burning, exceeding the token issuance (since late September).
• DePIN revenue growth on Solana was driven by Helium, with a year-to-date (YTD) increase of 787%.

DePIN Industry Valuation Restructuring

Market size :

• DePIN's total market capitalization: $8.67B - $25.3B (due to differences in statistical methods)
• Leading projects: Bittensor (TAO) $2.86B, Filecoin (FIL) $1.08B, Render (RENDER) $862M, Helium (HNT) $361M
• Helium ranking: 6th-8th

Investment Flows (2025):

• DePIN/RWA accounted for 7.1% of Q3 transactions.
• DePIN raised over $350 million in funding (early-stage rounds) in the past year.
• November crypto VC totaled $14.5 billion (+219% MoM, primarily driven by other large transactions).

Valuation signals :

• The DePIN P/S ratio fell to a median of 115 (the low point in Q2 2025), reflecting a return from overvaluation speculation to fundamentals.
• Helium demonstrates a flywheel of "user growth → traffic → burning → token utility," becoming a benchmark for practically driven valuation.
• Despite strong fundamentals, HNT's price fell 11% from November 25th to December 10th ($2.23 → $1.98), with a market capitalization of $361 million.

Social Emotions and Industry Positioning

Key opinion leader perspectives

Institutional perspective :

• a16z crypto : Viewing DePIN as a huge opportunity, citing Helium's grassroots wireless network as a leading case of decentralized infrastructure adoption.
• Blockworks : Emphasizing Helium's tracking dashboard covering finance, mobile, IoT, and token activity, highlighting its position as a leading DePIN network.

Analyst assessment :

• AltCryptoGems : Bullish on Helium's long-term prospects, pointing to rising costs and positioning it as a key depin validation point in a market awakening.
• Eliteonchain believes that Helium sets a DePIN template by solving density and metrology challenges, creating a closed-loop economy linked to bandwidth demand rather than speculation.

Evolution of Narrative Themes

From concept to practice :

• DePIN shifts from theoretical models to proven infrastructure, while Helium uses real-world telecom integration as its foundational case.
• Emphasizing that "people-owned networks" deliver tangible impact by providing coverage to millions of users through decentralized hotspots.
• Community events and builders' gatherings promote practical deployments, contrasting hype with plug-and-play hotspot setups in high-traffic areas.

DePIN Supercycle Theory :

• The narrative focuses on returning to practicality through revenue generation nodes and real-time fiat currency returns.
• The data credit burning mechanism will use activities linked to token consumption to foster predictable demand rather than relying on issuance-driven activities.
• Compared to competitors like World Mobile, Helium's advantages in user scale and decentralization are highlighted.

Technical and fundamental assessment

Network Maturity Indicators

Token Economics Dynamics

Supply side :

• Distribution supply: 195.7M HNT
• Combustion rate over-increase (from late September 2025)
• Deflationary mechanisms are automatically reinforced through the use of growth.

Demand side :

• The demand for data credit directly translates into HNT purchasing pressure (Jupiter automatic repurchase).
• Carrier offloading traffic provides a continuous and predictable burning base.
• Enterprise-level requirements (telecom integration) provide a long-term value anchor.

Price-fundamental divergence :

• Current price: $1.94-$1.98 (December 10th), down 17% from November high of $2.39.
• With a market capitalization of $361 million and annualized income of $18.3 million, the P/S ratio is approximately 20 (lower than the DePIN median of 115).
• The divergence is likely due to overall market sentiment or liquidity constraints, rather than a weakening of fundamentals.

in conclusion

Helium Network achieved one of the most compelling growth stories in the DePIN industry in 2025, with daily active users surging from 267,000 (November 2024) to over 2.1 million (peak in December 2025). Simultaneously, partnerships with carriers like AT&T validated the commercial viability of decentralized physical infrastructure. Daily data transfers of over 77,000 TB and annualized revenue of $18.3 million demonstrated a fundamental shift from speculative narratives to traffic-driven value.

The DePIN industry is undergoing a valuation reshaping, with the P/S ratio falling from its hype peak to a median of 115. Helium, with its burn mechanism supported by actual usage ($3M+ cumulative DC burn, burn exceeding issuance), stands as a key validator of this narrative. Although HNT's price fell 11% from late November to mid-December, the divergence between fundamentals and valuation offers a focus for long-term investors—the current $361M market capitalization, compared to its expanding revenue base and proven network effects, suggests that the market has not yet fully priced in the long-term impact of the flow revaluation.

As Helium continues to expand its carrier partnerships and hotspot density, its successful model is driving the broader DePIN industry from theory to scalable infrastructure solutions, redefining the value capture mechanism of decentralized networks.