Content Table:

• Solana Empowers DePIN Narrative, $MOBILE Welcomes Prosperity
• Helium Behind $MOBILE: Transition from Public Chain to DePIN
• DePIN Track Becomes One of the Key Narratives of Solana This Round

The enthusiasm for the inscription is still there, and $MOBILE has become one of the most discussed tokens in the cryptocurrency industry today.

On December 18th, according to CoinGecko data, $MOBILE was priced at $0.0068257, reaching a historic high. In addition, $MOBILE's 24-hour increase reached 100.5%, and the monthly increase was as high as 2382.4%.

The $MOBILE issued by Helium, once known as the "star public chain" project, has finally ushered in prosperity after a year and a half. At the same time, with the help of the Solana ecosystem and $MOBILE, Helium has finally seen the dawn of successful transformation.

Solana Empowers DePIN Narrative, $MOBILE Welcomes Prosperity

More than two months ago, an inconspicuous comment on the Helium forum pointed out, "Since the October app update, Helium Mobile gives 8,000-9,000 Mobile tokens per day, which is about 250,000 Mobile tokens per month. According to the current value of $MOBILE at 0.000157, it's almost $40. Don't miss out, folks."

If he hasn't sold, 8,000 $MOBILE per month would be worth $1,700 now.

However, several users in the forum pointed out that currently, to obtain $MOBILE, users "must move more than 200 feet for the phone to send location information to Helium"; at the same time, the current daily amount of $MOBILE obtained is about 2,000 tokens, with a current market price of about $12. The monthly income is $360, while the user's cost is a $20 monthly plan fee.

In other words, this is a mining project that can recoup the investment in less than 2 days, and the remaining 28 days are all profits, with an astonishingly high APR.

So what exactly is $MOBILE?

This is a token launched by the decentralized wireless communication network Helium Mobile in July 2022. At that time, the Helium Foundation launched the MOBILE token mainly as a reward for 5G hotspots to expand the coverage of the Helium 5G network.

In September 2022, Helium developer Nova Labs announced a mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) agreement with the telecommunications giant T-Mobile and will launch commercial mobile smartphone services under the Helium Mobile brand in the first quarter of 2023.

In November 2022, Nova Labs also announced that it will provide SIM cards and free trials to users of Solana Labs' new Saga phone (the Saga phone is Solana's flagship Android device, closely integrated with the Solana blockchain). According to the agreement, Saga phones sold in the United States will receive a free 30-day Helium Mobile subscription.

On December 6th of this year, Helium Mobile also launched a $20 unlimited monthly phone plan in the United States, covering data, messaging, and calling services.

It is under the dual empowerment of Solana and the DePIN narrative that the price of $MOBILE has been rising since last week, achieving a 110% increase on December 14th, leading the daily increase in related tokens in the DePIN track. Until today, after $MOBILE reached its all-time high, the community finally began to have a wider range of discussions.

It is worth noting that, like $HNT, $MOBILE is also a token issued by Helium. $HNT is the main economic asset in the Helium ecosystem, and the only way to pay for network data transmission fees is to burn $HNT; $MOBILE is the governance token of the Helium subDAO, with the aim of achieving governance separation.

Helium Behind $MOBILE: Transition from Public Chain to DePIN

The soaring price of $MOBILE is inseparable from Helium's previous complete failure.

Helium's history can be traced back to 2013, just a few years after the birth of Bitcoin. In its early years, Helium was strictly an Internet of Things project, unrelated to blockchain; it wasn't until 2017 that Helium entered the Web3 track with the introduction of blockchain incentive models and subsequently developed a public chain, building a decentralized wireless network for "Internet of Things" devices.

Helium provides network coverage through its unique Proof of Coverage (PoC) consensus mechanism. Due to the close connection between Helium's hotspot mechanism and mining mechanism, it was very well received by the community in the early stages and reached its peak development in 2021 when Helium completed a $111 million financing through token sales. By early 2022, Helium was valued at $1.2 billion after completing a $200 million Series D financing.

However, starting from July 2022, Helium's original model began to be criticized.

Helium's mining machines are not cheap, and unlike traditional mining, Helium mining also requires consideration of geographical location because the machines cannot be placed together. This logic is feasible in an ideal state, but in reality, only a few people are actually mining.

During the bear market phase, there were constant voices questioning the decrease in Helium's income, and cryptocurrency investor Liron Shapira once posted on social media, "The monthly income of the Helium network is only $6,500, and the monthly income of a single mining machine is only $20."

At the same time, the Helium network had almost no developers, and the tokens had no application scenarios. The mined tokens could only be sold.

Even more damaging, Binance announced in October 2022 that it would remove HNT leveraged trading pairs and spot trading pairs.

In response to various development obstacles, Helium also attempted to make compensations.

In June 2022, Helium announced that it was accelerating the expansion of multi-network protocols to meet the needs of an unlimited number of wireless protocols, each with its own token incentive model and governance model.

In addition, starting from 5G, Helium will have a new token called MOBILE to reward hotspot users providing 5G coverage. With the addition of other networks, each network protocol will have its own token and governance model. Each new token will be supported by HNT (Helium's official token).

However, this move did not truly solve the problem. Subsequently, Helium made a move that was not well-received at the time: abandoning its own public chain and joining Solana.

Embracing the concept of Solana, in today's perspective, should be the most correct decision made by the Helium team.

DePIN Track Becomes One of the Key Narratives of Solana This Round

In fact, beyond the price of $MOBILE, Helium, as a leading DePIN project in the Solana ecosystem, is also one of the core strategic focuses of Solana in 2024. According to CoinGecko data, in terms of market capitalization ranking, Helium currently ranks third in the entire DePIN track. Among the top five projects, three are part of the Solana ecosystem (Render, Helium, and Helium Mobile).

Previous analysis by CoinEx pointed out that the focus of the Solana ecosystem is mainly on DeFi, Memecoin, and DePIN. Previously, Kuleen Nimkar, the head of DePIN at the Solana Foundation, also mentioned in an interview with The Block that DePIN projects on Solana (including Helium, Render, Hivemapper, etc.) demonstrate the potential of decentralized physical infrastructure networks to elevate the gig economy to a new level.

Kuleen believes that contributors to the DePIN network can earn substantial income by supporting the network early on, and the tokens earned will subsequently appreciate as the network develops: "This has never happened in the web2 gig economy, early Uber drivers did not see the huge benefits of supporting it before Uber became a giant."

Recently, tokens in the Solana DePIN track have seen a general uptrend, with $MOBILE rising by 796.3% in 7 days, $HNT by 67.5%, $RNDR by 10.4%, and $HONEY by 148.1% in 14 days.

The recent attention to the DePIN track can be attributed to three reasons.

First, at the end of 2022, Messari first proposed the new concept of DePIN, considering it to be "one of the most important areas for crypto investment in the next decade," and the new definition and expectations have reignited the narrative for this track.

Second, the construction of blockchain infrastructure has become much more complete than a few years ago, paving the way and empowering the DePIN track.

Additionally, while people had previously placed the new narrative of breaking the circle of Web3 on SocialFi and gaming, with the arrival of the bear market, people have also begun to explore more possibilities in other directions. The DePIN track, which is closely linked to Web2 users, has naturally become an important choice for Web3 builders.

Therefore, in this round of market trends, concepts related to DePIN will also become a popular topic of discussion. At the same time, DePIN may not only become the cornerstone for successful transformation for projects like Helium, but also a key lever for public chains like Solana to move towards mass adoption.

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