DePIN 2025 Report Uncovers the Missing Institutional Layer Driving AI Compute
In Brief
The booming demand for AI compute is fueling DePIN’s explosive growth, exposing a gap between its potential and enterprise adoption where ArgentumAI is strategically positioned.
The global demand for AI compute is skyrocketing, and centralized cloud providers can no longer keep up. GPU shortages, surging training costs, and regional capacity constraints have created the perfect conditions for one of the most important infrastructure shifts of this decade: DePIN.
Solus Partners’ Computation DePIN 2025 report offers the clearest view yet into this transformation. Mapping 423 protocols, including 102 compute networks, reveals a sector experiencing explosive growth, real revenue, and rapidly advancing technical maturity. But it also shows something else: a widening gap between DePIN’s potential and what enterprises can safely adopt today. This gap is where ArgentumAI, one of the most strategically positioned emerging players, comes into focus.
A Market Exploding With Demand, and Bottlenecks
The report highlights several major indicators of DePIN’s acceleration:
- $14.6B DePIN market cap, up despite macro volatility
- 5× year-over-year growth in network fees, driven by Aethir and io.net
- $147M ARR from Aethir alone
- Network distribution across 90+ countries, with dense clusters in the US, EU, and East Asia
- GPU pricing that beats hyperscalers by 5–10× (H100s at $1–2/hr vs. $10–12/hr on AWS)
Yet the same report identifies a foundational barrier preventing DePIN from tapping into the $80–150B compute market expected by 2027:
“Enterprises cannot adopt DePIN at scale without verifiable SLAs, attestation, region pinning, and compliance controls.”
Most networks today excel in cost and supply, but fall short in:
- audited uptime/latency dashboards;
- hardware attestation;
- data residency guarantees;
- export-control readiness;
- GDPR/CCPA processing frameworks.
These missing components block $5–10B in enterprise demand, according to the report.
How Today’s DePIN Leaders Compare
The report evaluates networks on performance, supply quality, demand, compliance, cost advantage, and token sustainability.
- Aethir – leader in enterprise-grade GPU supply; strong uptime but limited attestation;
- Akash – transparent lease marketplace, steady B2B adoption, building attestation roadmap;
- io.net – massive heterogeneous supply; ~$20M annualized on-chain revenue;
- Render – strong in GPU rendering; expanding into AI workloads;
- Nosana – accessible inference market, but early on reliability;
- Golem – legacy compute network with an active ecosystem.
These networks collectively validate DePIN’s economic advantage, but also highlight its institutional trust deficit, particularly in terms of hardware integrity and compliance.
ArgentumAI: Filling the Missing Institutional Layer of DePIN
While many networks chase the same “compute-hungry” AI startups, ArgentumAI is built for enterprises, labs, and regulated organizations, the market segment with the largest spending power and strictest requirements.
Second-Life GPU Strategy
Unlike peers focused on H100/H200 scarcity, ArgentumAI unlocks a massively overlooked supply source:
- idle enterprise GPUs (V100s, P100s, A-series)
- GPUs sitting unused in research labs, data centers, and corporations
- hardware is often excluded by other networks due to heterogeneity
The report calls this channel a “big economic opportunity” and one of the least tapped supply pools in DePIN.
Compliance-First Compute Marketplace
ArgentumAI is the only player in the report that anchors its model around compliance and verifiable trust:
- DAO LLC legal structure;
- KYC/AML onboarding;
- Regional pinning + data residency controls;
- SLA escrow mechanisms;
- Export-control screening (BIS 3A090 / 4A090 rules);
- Plans for TEE/attestation integration;
- Enterprise-standard procurement tools (DPAs, SCCs, contracts).
This directly addresses the exact barriers that keep enterprises from using DePIN for AI workloads today.
Real-Time Benchmarking & Dynamic Auctions
ArgentumAI also introduces a multi-layer marketplace where hardware availability, benchmarks, and pricing operate dynamically, providing transparency that most decentralized GPU markets still lack.
This positions ArgentumAI as a trust layer that could complement existing networks rather than compete with them head-on.
DePIN Is Moving From “Cheap Compute” to Core Infrastructure
A recurring theme from the report’s analysts and KOL contributors is that DePIN is evolving far beyond cost arbitrage:
- It enables global GPU liquidity;
- It repurposes idle and second-life hardware at scale;
- It decentralizes compute geography for performance and resilience;
- It introduces an open marketplace that hyperscalers can’t match;
- It pushes the industry toward transparent, auditable infrastructure.
But to make the leap into enterprise budgets, the sector needs trust, compliance, and verification.
A Space Ready for Breakout, and a New Category of Players Leading the Way
Solus Partners’ “Computation DePIN 2025” highlights a sector gaining undeniable momentum: fees have increased fivefold year-over-year, GPU prices are collapsing compared to cloud alternatives, startups and enterprises are actively deploying workloads, and billions in market potential remain untapped.
But the report is equally clear:
The next wave of DePIN growth won’t be driven by cheaper GPUs. It will be driven by auditability, compliance, and institutional trust.
This is where ArgentumAI aims to establish itself as a foundational player, not by replacing Aethir, Akash, or io.net, but by adding a reliability layer that the market currently needs.
Please find the full report here: https://solus.partners/computation-depin-november-2025
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About The Author
Victoria is a writer on a variety of technology topics including Web3.0, AI and cryptocurrencies. Her extensive experience allows her to write insightful articles for the wider audience.
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Victoria is a writer on a variety of technology topics including Web3.0, AI and cryptocurrencies. Her extensive experience allows her to write insightful articles for the wider audience.
