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For years, the crypto market has thrived on speculation, where excitement, hype and fleeting trends attract value instead of fundamentals. Investors have continually poured money into tokens fueled by viral moments, chasing rapid gains. Time and again, a select few of these investments soar to incredible heights, only to come crashing down. With over 33 million tokens in circulation, the competition to attract attention gets harder and harder and investor attention is ever more fleeting. But DePIN can change this. With compelling businesses attracting real customers and revenue built on well designed token economics, DePIN can set a new standard of fundamentals in crypto.

As our DePIN Token Economics Report outlines, Decentralized Physical Infrastructure Networks (DePIN) offer a number of compelling businesses with fundamental value. Unlike typical crypto projects driven by speculation, DePIN offers a different approach. It uses blockchain technology to support real-world infrastructure, creating tangible value and generating real revenue. Instead of relying on hype, it builds a financial system based on actual demand, making it a more sustainable and practical model.

Rather than resembling major crypto networks like Bitcoin or Ethereum, DePIN operates more like capital-light marketplaces such as Uber and Airbnb, but with key distinctions. While both models connect providers with customers without funding infrastructure, DePIN providers are compensated in tokens that can appreciate in value, akin to Uber drivers or Airbnb hosts receiving equity. Additionally, most DePINs sell to businesses which eliminates the need for massive marketing expenses required in building a consumer brand.

DePIN offers a compelling business model and, unlike memes that come and go, it is the beginning of crypto’s transformation into a mature, revenue-generating industry.

From Hype to Revenue-Driven Models

At its core, DePIN represents a paradigm shift. Traditionally, blockchain-based businesses have relied on hype to attract buyers. In the absence of traditional fundamentals, the industry cycled through endless metrics such as TPS, TVL, Telegram channel size, followers on X and many others. Many projects have attempted to build decentralized ecosystems. But, without real customers paying for services, they have largely functioned as economies fueled by speculation rather than external demand.

DePIN changes this by integrating blockchain technology with physical and digital infrastructure, creating compelling services that generate revenue. Whether it is decentralized cloud computing, wireless networks, mapping or storage solutions, DePIN projects offer services like traditional businesses and with customers who pay for usage. When combined with the correct token economics, it creates a sustainable financial model.

As DePIN generates growing revenue, it is likely to draw institutional investors who have long been skeptical of crypto’s reliance on hype and speculation. The projects that successfully correlate the token demand to actual business growth will not only survive the current market but also set the standard for the next generation of blockchain companies

The report also highlights one of the most compelling aspects of DePIN, the use of buy-and-burn, which removes the need to have an expanding pool of new buyers. Instead, these projects use a portion of their revenue to repurchase and burn tokens, permanently reducing supply and potentially driving long-term price appreciation similar to stock buybacks.

This approach is in stark contrast to most of crypto which relies on new buyers to sustain and grow their value.The buy-and-burn model ensures that as DePIN businesses grow and generate more revenue, their token ecosystems become more resilient to market fluctuations. Some DePIN tokens are already demonstrating this by decoupling from broader crypto market trends, proving that real-world adoption can lead to price stability and long-term investor confidence.

Aligning Incentives for Sustainable Growth

While DePIN offers significant potential, it also comes with challenges. One major concern is transparency, as most projects lack traditional financial reports, audits, or clear revenue statements. However, blockchain itself provides a solution — on-chain verification through buy-and-burn mechanisms allows for real-time financial tracking, giving investors a clearer picture of a project’s health.

Another challenge is customer adoption. Many businesses and consumers remain concerned due to crypto’s volatility. To address this, DePIN projects are introducing fiat payment options and stablecoin rewards, making it easier for everyday users to interact with these decentralized services without needing prior crypto or Web3 experience.

For DePIN to succeed, its incentive structures must be designed to keep all stakeholders — providers, users, and investors aligned. One way to achieve alignment is through staking mechanisms, especially in cloud-based networks where service providers lock up tokens as collateral to guarantee reliability. Projects like Filecoin and Fluence already use this approach, ensuring accountability while strengthening network security. Others, such as Render and Livepeer, take a different route by distributing a share of network revenue to token stakers, creating a system similar to dividends that rewards long-term commitment.

Governance will also be critical as DePIN projects decentralize. To prevent large token holders from short-term profiteering for quick gains, new governance models like quadratic voting and weighted staking are emerging. These frameworks help keep decision-making balanced, ensuring that projects remain sustainable and fair as they evolve.

DePIN isn’t just another blockchain investment vehicle, it is laying the foundation for real, decentralized infrastructure. While meme coins have shown that crypto can generate hype, they rarely create lasting value. In contrast, DePIN is developing businesses that can compete with centralized companies by focusing on real-world utility.

With token models backed by revenue, deflationary supply mechanics, and increasing interest from institutional investors, DePIN is redefining how blockchain networks should function. The projects that successfully address capital efficiency, align incentives, and navigate regulatory challenges will be the ones that lead this next phase of decentralized technology.

As DePIN matures, its token models will continue to evolve. Optimizing capital efficiency through transparent buy-and-burn rates will ensure liquidity while maintaining long-term value. Governance structures will adapt to prevent short-term actors from derailing network growth. By 2026, DePIN will be recognized as the benchmark for sustainable blockchain economies, proving that crypto can function as more than a speculative asset class.

The crypto industry stands at a crossroads. Investors, developers, and institutions must choose between supporting unsustainable token models or supporting projects that create real value. For the space to mature, it needs to move beyond pure speculation, and DePIN is at the forefront of that transformation.

Imagine a future where artificial intelligence isn’t locked behind corporate firewalls or driven by centralized algorithms—but is open, decentralized, and controlled by you.

That’s the future Autonomys is building.
At its core, Autonomys is not just another blockchain or AI project. It’s the foundational layer for AI3.0—a fully decentralized, modular infrastructure stack designed for building next-generation AI-powered applications, agents, and systems on-chain.
For communities that care about decentralization, transparency, and composability, Autonomys represents an inflection point. It’s where the power of AI meets the ethos of Web3.
Why Autonomys? Why Now?
We’re witnessing an evolution in artificial intelligence:
- AI1.0 was centralized and reactive—cloud-based ML models served up by Big Tech.
- AI2.0 introduced interactivity—generative tools like ChatGPT and Claude, still tightly controlled.
- AI3.0 is decentralized and human-centric—open-source agents, verifiable data, and customizable intelligence built on chain.
Autonomys is the platform making AI3.0 possible.
What Makes Autonomys Different?
The team behind Autonomys rebuilt the blockchain stack from first principles—purpose-built to serve the demands of AI systems:
1. Permanent Distributed Storage (DSN)
AI needs a massive, permanent memory. Autonomys offers an integrated distributed storage network where data is verifiable, available forever, and accessible on demand—without relying on cloud monopolies.
2. Scalable Modular Compute (Domains)
Think of Domains like "mini blockchains" with custom runtimes. Whether you need EVM, WASM, or custom VMs for AI training, inference, or agent logic, Domains offer scalable compute while maintaining decentralization.
3. Proof-of-Archival-Storage (PoAS) Consensus
Autonomys replaces energy-heavy mining with a storage-based consensus that secures the chain while ensuring all data remains permanently available.
4. Auto ID & Autonomous Agents
At the heart of AI3.0 are verifiable, self-sovereign identities for both humans and agents. Auto ID enables persistent, interoperable agent identities that can be trained, upgraded, and governed by users.
The Autonomys Ecosystem: A New Frontier for Builders
Autonomys isn’t building alone. Its growing ecosystem includes dozens of teams across AI, DePIN, DeFi, compute, and identity—each helping shape the decentralized intelligence stack.
Browse the full ecosystem: https://www.autonomys.xyz/ecosystem
Notable Ecosystem Collaborators:
- Phala Network – Privacy-preserving compute and cross-chain agent deployment
- Fluence – P2P compute marketplace for decentralized inference
- FoxWallet & Talisman – Identity-first wallet integrations
- SafeWallet & SubWallet – UI-driven access to agentic apps
- DataDIN & Morphic – Distributed data and AI mesh solutions
- Alchemy & SubQuery – Indexing and tooling to speed up dApp development
- Impossible Cloud & Edgeware – Compute and governance infrastructure
What You Can Build with Autonomys
If you’re a Web3 writer, dev, or creative exploring what’s next, Autonomys opens an entire new design space:
- Super dApps: Next-gen decentralized applications with built-in AI logic
- Autonomous Agents: Verifiable on-chain bots that act on your behalf
- AI Training Pipelines: Fully decentralized model training and inference
- App-Chains: Spin up your own execution environment for your app
- DePIN Networks: Tap into decentralized physical infrastructure markets
And it’s not just for devs. Writers, creators, and communities can own agents, govern apps, and participate in the network through staking, farming, and collaboration.
Get Involved: Start Building, Farming or Exploring
The Autonomys suite offers everything you need to get started:
- Auto SDK https://develop.autonomys.xyz/ – Build AI-native dApps and agents
- FarmSpace https://www.autonomys.xyz/tools – Run a node and store chain data
- Astral https://develop.autonomys.xyz/tools/astral – Stake, nominate, and explore the chain
- Join the Community https://discord.gg/autonomys – Connect with builders, AI devs, and explorers
- List your project https://www.autonomys.xyz/ecosystem – Apply to be featured in the ecosystem
Final Thoughts: Autonomys Is Building the AI3.0 Backbone
As AI becomes the new digital fabric of our world, the battle for ownership, transparency, and verifiability is underway. Autonomys isn’t just keeping up with that future—it’s building it.
This is your invitation to build where AI belongs to everyone, not a few.
Start exploring Autonomys.
Shape the Age of Autonomy. https://www.autonomys.xyz/ecosystem

The Hack Seasons Conference in Dubai concluded with resounding success. The event brought together founders, executives, investors, and developers from leading blockchain, cryptocurrency, and technology companies, offering attendees the opportunity to engage in an enriching networking session and listen to the discussions exploring the future of Web3, decentralized finance (DeFi), AI, and digital infrastructure.

Hosted by the media platform Mpost, this was the second Hack Seasons conference in 2025. This time, the full-day event took place at Dubai’s iconic Museum of the Future and featured 85 speakers representing over 60 prominent companies. With more than 4,000 participants, the conference drew professionals and enthusiasts from across the technology landscape, and the overwhelming demand was evident as attendees were queuing at the entrance to the venue.

The forum was organized around two tracks that worked in tandem to offer a comprehensive experience. The Main Stage addressed broader industry themes, presenting strategic discussions, market outlooks, and forward-looking perspectives shared by prominent executives, startup founders, and venture capitalists. In contrast, the Growth Stage concentrated on the technical side of the ecosystem, offering practical insights on innovation, product development, and scalability for developers and technology teams engaged in building next-generation decentralized applications (dApps).

Hack Seasons Unveils Web3 Investment Trends, Market Insights, And The Future Of DeFi

The Main Stage opened with the panel “Beyond the Hype: What Web3 VCs Are Actually Betting On,” where leading investors explored where capital is truly being allocated within the blockchain space, highlighting investment trends that extend beyond surface-level hype.

This was followed by “What’s Next for the Market,” where executives from major cryptocurrency exchanges discussed key topics such as the process of getting listed on exchanges, emphasizing the importance of evaluating key metrics and verticals. They also highlighted the need for adaptability in the cryptocurrency space, noting how trends shift quickly and exchanges must remain agile to attract new users and maintain volume. Panelists also shared insights into the day-to-day operations of running an exchange, balancing market reactions with strategic planning. They offered advice to builders in the audience, sharing lessons they would tell their younger selves, and discussed how fostering a “winning culture” and managing talent contributes to their companies’ success.

A more informal fireside chat, “Yet Another Yat Chat? This Time, It’s Personal,” featured Animoca’s Yat Siu, offering a look at blockchain innovation’s cultural and personal dimensions. The conversation covered a wide range of topics, starting with the role of Yat’s personal branding in Animoca Brands’ growth and the rise of individual brands in the industry. The discussion also touched on the future of Web3 gaming, the evolving concept of the metaverse, and the trend of relying on existing intellectual properties in gaming and film.

Key insights included the challenges Web3 builders face in understanding traditional gamers, the investment potential of AI projects, and Animoca Brand’s focus on staying true to its vision rather than following market trends. Finally, the panel discussed the shift from equity to tokens in funding and how the criteria for promising projects have changed, with viral marketing and influencers now playing a bigger role.

Later panels shifted focus toward increasing DeFi’s accessibility and building the infrastructure needed for genuine interoperability across blockchains. “Unlocking Next-Gen DeFi for the Masses” and “How to Build Truly Interoperable DeFi” included discussions on improving user experience, enhancing developer tooling, and enabling cross-chain communication to unify fragmented networks.

The role of AI in shaping Web3 was another central theme. In “Where Is the AI Revolution Taking Web3 Next?” panelists discussed the potential of decentralization to address core AI challenges like closed models, data, and incentives. They also explored how decentralized hardware could compete with industry leaders like AWS and Nvidia in cost and performance and how software-based proofs could restore trust in opaque AI decision-making. The conversation also touched on the role of decentralized data networks in ensuring quality and attribution, as well as why Web3’s impact on the AI economy remains limited. Risks of fully decentralizing powerful AI were also examined, with the panel also considering future use cases for decentralized AI.

Real-world asset (RWA) tokenization also took center stage in “Why Real Assets Are Crypto’s Next Gold Rush,” where experts argued that tokenizing tangible assets could be a key growth area for the industry.

The final sessions addressed themes of infrastructure and ethics. “The Path to Mass Adoption: DePIN & Beyond” focused on decentralized physical infrastructure networks, while “Rewriting the Human Script – Before AI Does It for Us” explored the concerns surrounding fast AI development and the transformative potential of its intersection with Web3 technologies.

The “What Will the AI x Web3 Hype Lead To?” panel was another highlight, delving into the potential of AI in expanding the Web3 ecosystem, acknowledging that despite Web3’s current limited user base, AI could be key in driving growth and attracting new participants. The speakers also discussed the most exciting use cases emerging from the intersection of AI and Web3, noting the growing impact of accessible AI in deploying various AI agents across sectors like social and DeFi. The conversation turned to the evolution of products and protocols influenced by AI advancements. Looking ahead, panelists shared their views on the future of the AI x Web3 space, contemplating whether there will be a more mature ecosystem once the initial hype subsides. They also offered advice for builders in this space, emphasizing the importance of staying focused on long-term value and innovation.

The Main Stage featured speakers from C² Ventures, Spartan Group, Gnosis VC, Vortex, Protagonist, Arcadia, Bitget, 1inch, OKX, KuCoin, Animoca Brands, Gate.io, Manta, Sonic, Supra Oracles, Rango Exchange, Ice Open Network, Consensys/MetaMask, EtherFi, DeBridge, Orderly Network, Blum, Addressable, Aethir, Fluence, Openledger, 0g Labs, LEK Consulting, Mantra, Lumia, Dubai Digital Asset Association, Hedera, LunaPR, Filecoin, Helium Foundation, Easeflow, CGV, Cryptomeria Capital, Xponential, Polygon, Monad, Kaito, and Yap Market.

Hack Seasons Explores Key Web3 Developments: From AI And DeFi To RWA Tokenization And Culture

In parallel, the Growth Stage kicked off with the panel “Decentralization vs. Practicality: Striking the Right Balance in Infrastructure,” which explored the balance between decentralization and practicality in blockchain infrastructure. The discussion offered insights into how projects navigate trade-offs to build scalable and user-friendly systems.

This was followed by the session “A Dive Inside the AI Agent Boom,” which examined the rise of AI agents, focusing on the emerging trend of autonomous onchain services and their potential impact.

Next, the conversation shifted to the future of DeFi in “DeFi’s Next Power Moves: Trends That’ll Break the Chain,” emphasizing new trends and innovations that could disrupt traditional DeFi models. A dedicated panel, “Scaling the AI & DePIN Synergy for the Masses,” explored how the synergy between AI and decentralized physical infrastructure networks (DePIN) can scale to serve broader audiences.

Another session, “How to Scale DeFi for the Next Billion Users,” addressed strategies for onboarding the next billion users into DeFi, focusing on accessibility and scalability.

There was also a deep dive into tokenization and the adoption of real-world assets (RWA) with the “How to Navigate the RWA Revolution” panel, followed by the keynote “Building the Rails for DeFAI: AI Agents and RWAs at the Execution Layer,” which discussed building AI agent infrastructure and its role in executing financial tasks.

The “Move Unchained: Exploring the Limits of DeFi on Aptos” panel focused on DeFi growth within the Aptos ecosystem, examining how the Move programming language and its ecosystem are expanding possibilities for onchain finance.

Closing the Growth Stage, the cultural discussion “Memes and the Attention Economy: Driving Ecosystem Growth Through Culture” explored how memes and the attention economy are contributing to the growth of Web3 communities, followed by several closing keynotes.

The Growth Stage featured participation from Edge of Show, Wirex, Near AI, Wormhole, Kiln, EAK, ElizaOS, SingularityNET, Olas, 1inch, X-phere, Monad, Stonfi, TONX, WeatherXM, Fluence, io.net, Aethir, Orbofi, Mercuryo, Altlayer, Ava Labs, Ethereum Foundation, Akindo, D3, Chainlink, Spartan Group, GLIF, ODOS, Aptos, Kana Labs, Amnis, Hyperion, Four.meme, Mubarak, TUT, Broccoli (F3B), Coinrabbit, f(x) Protocol, and Openledger.

Hack Seasons: A Growing Global Platform Uniting Web3 Leaders, Unveils Upcoming Event In Cannes

Hack Seasons is a conference series aimed at fostering valuable connections within the Web3 ecosystem, uniting founders, developers, investors, and industry professionals. What began in 2023 as a small, community-driven event has since grown over the past two years into a prominent global conference. Conferences have been held in major cities, including Turkey, Singapore, Dubai, Brussels, Seoul, Bangkok, and Hong Kong consistently drawing over 3,000 participants at each event.

These gatherings serve as a platform for industry leaders to share the latest insights and developments shaping the Web3 space. Looking ahead, Hack Seasons has announced plans for its third event this year, which will take place in Cannes this summer.

The Mpost team extends its heartfelt gratitude to all attendees, speakers, partners, and media partners for contributing to the success of this unforgettable experience.

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