The most successful altcoins for each sector have been its leading new tokens of the cycle. Here's why DePIN is the narrative to see the next big winner emerge
This cycle, over a million new tokens have been deployed - and that's on Solana alone! It's easy to believe that with such obscene levels of token-churn, the era of industry leading altcoins - new projects that see staggering growth and become ubiquitous names - is over. Leaving alone the meme-craze and taking a step back, one realizes that this cycle isn't so different after all.
While new tokens in every sector keep emerging, when altcoins as a whole catch a bid its the biggest of these new tokens that run away and gain the most attention from institutions, retail and larger-cap traders. Certainly older tokens - those from both the 2017 and 2021 cycles - can see significant growth.
But their large proportion of holders, many of whom bought the highs of the previous cycle and are looking for a respectable price to exit, often act as a strong suppressant to new growth. We've seen this phenomena from the come-backs of LINK, FIL and HNT, none of which have come close to their all-time-highs. It is still early in the cycle, and we're yet to see the full potential for these established alts, but the fates of DASH, XRP and IOTA indicate some of the curses of a second (or third!) cycle.
In comparison, we've already seen the leading fresh tokens from new, popular
narratives find immense success. TAO, launched in 2023, took a leading role in the lucrative AI field with a 5B all-time-high. Similarly, the emerging RWA sector has seen 2024 upstart ONDO hit 2B, poised for more. Which narrative are next?
While a number of new concepts exist, few have the potential and room to grow as DePIN. DePIN, or Decentralized Physical Infrastructure, cover networks that distribute control of physical hardware or infrastructure in the real world. In other words, by its very definition, DePIN defines project that take on big existing industries with more nimble, token-driven decentralized solutions. As far as looking for 'real use-cases' for cryptocurrency, you can't go too wrong here. The most memorable DePIN project is Helium, which sold over a million hardware 'miners' to buyers in 2021 eager to play with accessible crypto mining.
While the term 'DePIN' has grown in use since VanEck first coined it in early 2023, it is yet to define its shining new industry leader. The term DePIN is often expanded to include decentralized-compute projects such as io.net and RNDR, but this is both conceptually and practically a different concept to projects that release passive income hardware as Helium did.
A number of new, hardware-focused DePIN projects exist, from Hivemapper (HONEY) - taking on Google maps with mobile cameras - to Geodnet (GEOD) - monetizing satellite triangulation. But who leads this new pack? This position is inarguably taken by privacy and hardware focused project Anyone.
Anyone.io (the rebrand of bear market superstar ATOR) is the DePIN changing privacy for all internet users. Through its relay hardware, retail users can both privatize their home traffic by using the device as a router, and contribute their bandwidth to other users. As opposed to the numerous decentralized VPNs that have emerged, the Anyone Network is a modular privacy layer that applications can plug into. Anyone aims to change the language around privacy, delivering it in a way people trust (without the risk of VPN hacks and logging), and in a way people can use seamlessly (with the potential for any app to connect to the network automatically).
The reach and attention of the Anyone community is large and continuing to grow, so the project is explained here in only the briefest terms. Perhaps less obvious is another of its key differentiator: it's fairlaunched. The recent dichotomy between memecoins - completely fairlaunched - and VC tokens with huge unlocks and seed round investors up multiple xs - showcase the risk of tokens without a large proportion of its supply circulating. Anyone stands out, with no big unlocks and an organic holder base that continues to accumulate higher. VCs are only just beginning to buy in, with liquid investments from JDI, Arkstream capital and more - similar to Tia at the 100-300M mark.
This piece presents, above all, the potential of DePIN and a balanced approach into the set of new DePIN upstarts is not a losing strategy. But the author's personal bet is that winners win, and anyone who saw ATOR's parabolic bear-market growth - both in community and price - knows that the opportunity has presented itself again on a much bigger scale with Anyone.