Comprehensive Computation DePIN Market Report for 2025 Released by Solus Partners

The DePIN (Decentralized Physical Infrastructure Networks) market has achieved a total market capitalization of $14.6 billion, highlighting the growth of over 423 tracked protocols, including 102 that focus on computation. Key players such as Aethir, Akash, io.net, Render, and Nosana showcase the potential of decentralized infrastructure to deliver significant performance. However, the institutional market remains cautious due to existing compliance and verification challenges. The future of this market depends on overcoming these hurdles and expanding capacity to handle the rising demand for AI workloads globally.

Key Takeaways

The current DePIN market capitalization stands at $14.6 billion with over 423 protocols.
Noteworthy decentralized compute networks offer substantial cost savings compared to traditional cloud providers.
Significant hurdles remain in compliance and verification that impede wider adoption, particularly in regulated industries.
Major players like Aethir and Akash are advancing with enterprise-grade solutions aimed at establishing credibility in the market.
New entrants like ArgentumAI are poised to address compliance issues and unlock the potential of underutilized hardware.
The growth of DePIN is tied to global supply chain constraints and the increasing demand for AI-ready infrastructure.

The Current State of the DePIN Market

The DePIN market is experiencing remarkable growth, with a total capitalization of $14.6 billion fueled by more than 423 protocols, among which 102 are focused on computation. Leading decentralized networks like Aethir, Akash, io.net, Render, and Nosana have proven that decentralized infrastructure can provide effective performance. However, the broader institutional market remains hesitant, largely due to lingering compliance and verification issues. The next phase of growth will depend on tackling these foundational challenges while increasing capacity to support the soaring global demand for AI workloads.

Cost Advantages of Decentralized Compute

A critical factor driving interest in decentralized computing is its cost-effectiveness. For example, traditional cloud providers, such as AWS, charge between $10 to $12 per hour for an Nvidia H100 GPU. On the other hand, DePIN networks are able to offer similar GPUs for just $1 to $2 per hour, representing an impressive 80-90% cost reduction. Platforms such as Aethir offer H100 instances at a competitive rate of $1.25 per hour, while both Akash and io.net advertise comparable savings across H100 and H200 GPU models. Other networks like Nosana, Render, and Vast.ai contribute to increasing availability by integrating resources from gaming rigs, miners, and enterprise-grade data centers, with projected market opportunities reaching between $80 billion to $150 billion by 2027.

Overcoming Adoption Barriers

Even with attractive pricing, obstacles remain that prevent the convergence of crypto-native developers and enterprise workloads. DePIN networks need to fulfill stringent requirements regarding uptime, latency, job verification, compliance, and data residency controls. Currently, the lack of public service level agreement (SLA) dashboards, unreliable hardware verification, and insufficient contractual tools for data management under regulations such as GDPR and U.S. BIS export controls pose significant challenges. For industries regulated by strict compliance standards, proving compute reliability is essential.

Progress in the Market

Despite these challenges, progress is being made. Aethir has successfully deployed over 435,000 enterprise-grade GPUs across 93 countries, ensuring a documented service guide and a notable 99.99% uptime. Akash has launched a transparent on-chain leasing marketplace with clear pricing structures, integration with Kubernetes, and plans to enhance hardware attestation through NVTrust, TDX, and SEV-SNP. io.net has rapidly scaled, claiming over 30,000 GPUs and an approximate $20 million annualized on-chain revenue, although its hardware mix is varied. Render continues to cater to professional workloads while Nosana focuses on decentralized inference, offering encrypted Confidential Jobs with low barriers for GPU hosts.

The Rise of ArgentumAI

One of the most promising newcomers is ArgentumAI, which aims to be a compliance-centered compute marketplace addressing the trust gap prevalent in the industry. ArgentumAI's strategy involves repurposing idle second-generation GPUs (such as V100s and P100s), while offering robust enterprise security frameworks, KYC/AML compliance, regional data controls, and SLA escrow. Should it succeed, ArgentumAI has the potential to unlock a vast supply of underused enterprise hardware that is currently incompatible with DePIN networks due to compliance restrictions.

Economic Benefits Beyond Cost

The economic advantages of DePIN extend well beyond mere pricing. Its architecture grants exceptional flexibility by utilizing globally distributed GPUs—from enterprise data centers to telecom edge nodes and even hobbyist rigs. This distribution enhances reliability and allows for better geographic workload management. The mechanics of the DePIN ecosystem further incentivize expansion: token rewards attract providers, growth in supply enhances service quality, improved service draws in users, and escalating demand fortifies token sustainability. However, the scrutiny of tokenomics remains important, as analysts focus on factors such as fee coverage, treasury sustainability, and emissions schedules in evaluating the long-term viability of networks. For instance, Render uniquely connects token burning to actual job usage, while Aethir offers one of the most comprehensive fee dashboards in the market.

The Impact of Global Supply Constraints

The surge in market growth also corresponds with global supply challenges. High-performance GPUs like Nvidia’s H100, H200, and GB200 are scarce in various regions, particularly in Asia. Major cloud providers are also struggling to satisfy demand from AI labs, which are increasingly reliant on substantial computational capacity for agentic systems, LLM fine-tuning processes, and model evaluation pipelines. DePIN networks can leverage these shortages, allowing providers to monetize unused capacity and enabling buyers to bypass centralized allocation hurdles. McKinsey forecasts that there will be a cumulative $6.7 trillion investment in global data centers by 2030, with a substantial $5.2 trillion earmarked for AI-ready infrastructure, underlining the magnitude of the opportunity.

Looking Ahead: Challenges and Opportunities

The ultimate success of the DePIN sector will depend on effectively addressing reliability and compliance challenges on a large scale. Enterprises require verifiable SLAs, dependable hardware certification, predictable billing, contractual guarantees, regional data management, and a well-defined regulatory environment. The networks that can bridge the trust gap will be positioned to catalyze the next wave of adoption, transforming DePIN from a cost-effective alternative into a principal compute layer for an AI-driven future.

In conclusion, computation DePIN is evolving from speculative hype into a practical infrastructure category that is shaping the future of distributed AI. The current economic, architectural, and market forces indicate that decentralized compute could soon become a key element of global AI systems—not just because it offers lower costs, but because it provides greater adaptability, scalability, and alignment with the economics of the emerging digital age.