XYO Network has onboarded more than 10 million nodes to its decentralized physical infrastructure network (DePIN), co-founder Markus Levin told Cointelegraph in an interview.
The nodes mostly comprise human users who provide data in exchange for rewards via the network’s mobile application, COIN. “The vast majority of our 10 million nodes are mobile users, but some are IoT devices like smart speakers,” Levin told Cointelegraph.
Approximately 80% of XYO’s users are non-crypto natives who are participating in Web3 for the first time, he added.
They include truckers, rideshare drivers, delivery people, and nurses among others, Levin said, adding that “95% convert after onboarding through the COIN app.”
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DePIN Tokenomics
In exchange for data, XYO awards its users points that are redeemable for its native XYO token, as well as “BTC, ETH or even gift cards,” he said.
In October 2024, XYO bridged its native token to Solana (SOL) in a bid to reach more users. The XYO token has a market capitalization of roughly $180 million as of May 2, according to data from CoinMarketCap.
XYO earns revenue by collecting and validating data in sectors ranging from real-world assets (RWAs) to gaming. It then uses a portion of that income to buy back XYO.
In January, XYO launched its layer-1 blockchain, which collates real-world data from across XYO’s nodes onto a public ledger.
The network’s validators stake XYO and earn rewards denominated in XL1, the network’s newly-launched gas token.
DePINs are blockchain protocols aimed at decentralizing real-world infrastructure and systems, including communications networks, data warehouses, energy markets, and more.
They are among Web3’s “next big use case[s],” with the potential to onboard “a significant number of new users to the crypto space,” according to a September 2024 report by MV Global, a Web3 investing firm.
According to MV Global, the DePIN ecosystem comprises upward of 1,000 projects and represents roughly $50 billion in total market capitalization.
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