Depin’s Silent Struggle: Why One Of Crypto’s Most Useful Sectors Lacks Market Attention

What Happened

“The other side of the coin is that DePINs are building real infrastructure and real businesses. That takes a long time, which the crypto market isn’t wired for. Investors are used to fast-moving narratives and overnight successes,” Kassab added.

“Most investors still view token value as the only metric for success, which does not apply to infrastructure systems. DePIN networks create tangible value through services like compute power and data delivery. Their performance is measured by usage, speed and reliability, rather than short-term volatility. Because this model does not mirror traditional crypto dynamics, it remains outside the comfort zone of most market participants.”

Maria Carola, CEO of StealthEx, shared a similar outlook. She stated that most investors remain drawn to assets they can quickly trade rather than sectors that require deeper understanding.

“Within crypto cycles, speculation will always dominate, and DePIN’s complex approach doesn’t help its position either. Most of the investors never fully grasp how token incentives drive data collection, storage, or connectivity, and how that translates into revenue. If we’re talking about traditional markets, the infrastructure side is always the least glamorous, yet it’s still the most essential. DePIN is the crypto’s version of that,” she mentioned to BeInCrypto.

However, Vinayak Kurup, Investment and Research Partner at Escape Velocity Crypto (EV3), pointed out that DePIN’s slowdown isn’t just about market perception — it’s the difficulty of building real-world networks that require hardware, manufacturing, and physical deployment.

Carola said this disconnect is typical of emerging infrastructure sectors, where fundamentals can strengthen long before prices. She explained that sentiment often swings independently of utility: investors may rotate out of risk during uncertain markets, even while real activity continues to grow.

Market Context

This year, the crypto market has seen a revival of older tokens as utility-based narratives gained renewed traction. Despite this momentum, DePIN has struggled to keep pace, slipping out of the spotlight.

BeInCrypto spoke with several experts to understand why one of crypto’s most fundamentally useful sectors still can’t capture sustained market attention, and what might come next for it.

Nonetheless, the space has continued to face challenges. According to Artemis data, it ranks among the top 10 worst-performing sectors this year. The DePIN market has declined by over 74% in 2025.

But why is this happening? Sami Kassab, Managing Partner at Unsupervised Capital, told BeInCrypto that the weakness across the altcoin market has naturally affected DePIN as well.

Leo Fan, Co-Founder of Cysic, revealed that DePIN’s main obstacle is the mismatch between infrastructure build cycles and the crypto market’s short attention span. While non-fungible tokens (NFTs), meme coins, and major altcoins thrive on culture, identity, and hype, DePIN functions as an infrastructure layer that most users struggle to connect with emotionally.

Its value grows quietly through hardware deployments and real compute capacity — progress that isn’t immediately visible or profitable. Fan noted that,

“They are often compared directly to existing large-scale network providers; the challenge for DePIN operators is to provide a comparably reliable and simple user-experience for a fraction of the capital while operating within sectors where user stickiness is high. Combined, these factors dampen the DePIN mindshare,” Kurup highlighted.

Usage Surges, Prices Sink: Experts Explain DePIN’s Widening Fundamentals Gap

Despite the sector’s underperformance, usage metrics are painting a different picture. Fees surged to a record high in October even as the broader market continued to decline.

This suggests a growing disconnect between falling token prices and rising real-world usage. According to Kassab,

“Rising fees and network activity during a down market instead show that real users continue to find value in these services, whether for storage or computing. In the long term, these are the metrics that will matter more than short-term token performance, once revenues eventually pour in with usage, just like in the early days of the internet,” she remarked.

Why It Matters

Understanding DePIN

DePIN, short for Decentralized Physical Infrastructure Networks, refers to blockchain-based systems that coordinate, fund, and operate real-world infrastructure through decentralized incentives.

Details

Instead of relying on traditional companies to build networks like wireless coverage, storage, sensors, or energy grids, DePIN distributes the work across individuals and small operators who contribute hardware and earn tokens in return.

This model reduces upfront costs, expands global access, and unlocks previously difficult-to-scale infrastructure. By aligning incentives with actual demand, DePIN aims to build more resilient and efficient systems.

Why is DePIN Still Struggling in 2025?

According to him, macro conditions explain part of the sector’s slowdown, but not all of it. The deeper issue, he said, is that there has not been a “breakout DePIN yet.”

“Fees are trending upward, but they’re still small compared to the value of emissions spent since inception or the revenue of the incumbents these networks aim to disrupt.”