Deep Dive: Solana DePIN - January 2026

Note: Below is the text-accessible version of this post for visually impaired readers.

Syndica Deep Dive: Solana DePIN - January 2026

In January 2026, Helium, Render, Hivemapper, UpRock, NATIX, XNET, and Geodnet collectively generated $2.6M, exceeding the previous ATH from September 2025.

Solana DePIN protocols hit an ATH in monthly revenue.

Helium and XNET delivered over 600% revenue growth from January 2025, significantly outpacing all other DePIN protocols.

Wireless protocols led in revenue growth.

From 2H2025 onward, io.net and Render were the only protocols consistently rewarding at least $500 on average per deployer.

Compute protocols delivered the highest average rewards per deployer.

Part I

Wireless

In January 2026, Dabba Network, Helium Mobile, and XNET collectively delivered 33k TB of offloaded data, up 22% from the prior month.

Wireless protocols data offloading hit a new ATH to start the year.

In January 2026, Helium Mobile added just 29k new subscribers, a 31% drop. The protocol released free add-ons every six months for Air and Infinity plans to boost user signups.

Helium Mobile new subscribers cooled to start the year.

Helium Mobile tripled hotspot deployments in January. Monthly deployments surged 3x to 3k, with the network adding 91k hotspots since January 2025.

In January 2026, average daily data offload rose 2% to 74TB, while daily offload subscribers dipped 5% to 1.8M.

Helium Mobile data offload hit a new ATH.

Helium Mobile monthly revenue surpassed $2M. Monthly revenue rose 16% to $2.2M in the latest month, pushing Helium Mobile’s total since January 2025 to $11.7M.

Helium Mobile revenue remained evenly split in 2026. In January 2026, subscriber fees and data offloading each contributed roughly half of total revenue.

Dabba Network boomed to start the year.

Hotspots deployed nearly doubled to 97k total, while data consumption rose 24% to 31k TB, bringing cumulative data consumed to 89k TB since January 2025.

XNET data offload cooled to start the year.

In January 2026, XNET’s data offload fell 8% to 81TB, marking a slowdown after consistent growth in 2025.

XNET’s monthly revenue rebounded.

In January 2026, XNET’s revenue increased by 41x from December. The protocol is now automating its buy-and-burn from offload revenue which would ensure accurate tracking of their revenue onchain.

Part II

Mapping and Location

In January 2026, Hivemapper generated $47k in revenue, a 58% drop, pushing cumulative revenue since January 2025 near $600k. The team kept innovating, releasing an AI Event Videos API to surface rare, high-signal road moments for AI training.

Hivemapper monthly revenue dipped to start the year.

In January 2026, Hivemapper mapped 6% fewer kilometers at 17M compared to December.

Hivemapper kilometers mapped stabilized in January.

NATIX’s ecosystem rebounded.

In January 2026, NATIX added 37% more new drivers, who drove 8% more kilometers and collected 34% more map data points. The protocol launched World Foundational Models, advanced generative AI systems simulating realistic virtual environments, and partnered with Valeo to create one of the largest open-source, multi-camera models.

Part III

Compute, AI, & Data

The protocol used a portion of its revenue to repurchase $217k worth of $IO tokens, up 15% from December, signaling strong demand for its compute resources early in the year.

io.net revenue rebounded in January.

Monthly jobs dipped 9% to 189k. Nosana’s GPU Marketplace celebrated its one-year anniversary with 2.1M jobs completed since launch.

Nosana demand stabilized.

In January 2026, $UPT burned rose 12% month-over-month, generating $37k in revenue from its uptime monitoring services.

UpRock kicked off 2026 strong.

Render demand tapered to start the year.

In January 2026, Render’s revenue declined by 28% to $121k. Octane 2026 is now live on Render featuring improvements such as next generation Gaussian splats which was used in A$AP Rocky’s new music video.