As a DePIN pioneer since 2017, IoTeX has had a tremendous influence on the growth of DePIN year-over-year, but 2024 was undoubtedly our most productive and influential year ever. It was incredible to see the DePIN sector soar to new heights in 2024, gaining recognition across the crypto industry as one of the most “real” and legitimate use cases for blockchain to-date. With this tailwind of widespread recognition of DePIN's value and potential, IoTeX continued to push the realm of what is possible in DePIN and cemented our place as the leading ecosystem for DePIN. From launching IoTeX 2.0 to pioneering new tech innovations to hosting massive DePIN events to fostering our ecosystem of developers to onboarding users from around the world and much more, IoTeX had a monumental 2024 that prepares us for an even greater 2025. What a year!

As the leading infrastructure provider for the DePIN sector, IoTeX's importance and influence grows as the number of DePIN projects requiring infrastructure grows. With the explosion of new DePIN projects in 2024, IoTeX has never been more important for the current and future state of DePIN. As tracked by DePINscan, there are now more than 300 DePIN projects and 20 million DePIN devices, demonstrating a massive total addressable market for IoTeX. Throughout 2024, we were proud to support DePIN projects with critical infrastructure including the IoTeX L1, ioID, W3bstream, and more.

Numbers don't lie. IoTeX's core network metrics grew tremendously across the board showcasing a surge in new users, developers, devices, and projects throughout 2024. The IoTeX Network is buzzing with activity with 250+ projects building on IoTeX, including 50+ DePIN projects, representing at 25% increase YoY. The IoTeX L1 has now processed more than 150 million transactions and 34 million blocks, growing 42% and 23% respectively in 2024. The IoTeX Network now hosts 115 tokens, 714,000 accounts, and 1,140 smart contracts, showing a double-digit increase throughout the year. The staking and voting activity on IoTeX is also at peak levels with more than 3.6 billion $IOTX staked for security and governance, which accounts for ~40% of the total circulating supply. In addition to an impressive growth in users, the number of contributors now exceeds 2,000 developers that are building on IoTeX and 114 registered Delegates that secure the IoTeX Network. But we are just getting started and anticipate these metrics will continue to grow rapidly throughout 2025 -- follow along on the iotexscan explorer and our Dune Analytics dashboard.

What milestones in 2024 led to our massive increase in metrics? IoTeX spent considerable time and effort in 2024 incubating DePIN projects, building cutting-edge products, hosting gatherings of the top DePIN minds, and collaborating with leading projects across the crypto industry. Our year kicked off in January as we teamed up with prominent VCs to launch the DePIN Surf Accelerator, incubating 15+ DePIN projects that are getting ready to TGE on IoTeX in 2025. Shortly after we launched DePINscan, the go-to explorer for the DePIN sector that now tracks over 300+ DePINs and 20M+ devices. Throughout the year, we hosted some of the largest DePIN events ever as part of our R3AL World events series, starting in March at ETH Denver, May at Consensus in Austin, July at ETH CC in Paris, and finally September at Korea Blockchain Week and Token2049 Singapore. Stemming from a fresh $50 million fundraising round in April, IoTeX grew our team and launched game-changing products like IoTeX Hub, ioID, and Mainnet v2.1. We also prioritized growing our global community with two seasons of our Get GOATed campaign, which welcomed thousands of new users to our ecosystem. But amongst all of the milestones in 2024, the largest was our groundbreaking release of IoTeX 2.0 in July, which introduced modular infrastructure to empower verifiable DePINs and to make IoTeX the quintessential DePIN layer for the entire crypto industry.

While the milestones and metrics of our incredible 2024 should be celebrated, in reality the work done in 2024 lays the foundation for an even greater 2025. This will be the year where DePIN x AI converge, representing the genesis of a groundbreaking frontier with unlimited possibilities. As these two technologies continue to advance rapidly in their own lanes, the intersection of DePIN x AI is poised to revolutionize how we distribute computational resources, incentivize network participation, and create more democratic infrastructure ecosystems. The symbiotic nature of DePIN x AI is bidirectional – DePIN has the potential to contribute verifiable, crowdsourced data to train AI models and fuel AI agents, while AI has the potential to intelligently automate DePIN devices and networks to optimize resources, predict network needs, and generate more revenue for device owners. IoTeX has prepared for this intersection for years now, and our focuses on verifiable DePIN infrastructure throughout 2024 will serve as a critical launchpad towards the DePIN x AI revolution. Stay tuned, there is so much more to come!

In the rest of this blog, we share some of the highlights of IoTeX's amazing 2024 across ecosystem, technology, community, and more.

The IoTeX Ecosystem

As detailed in Messari’s DePIN Sector Overview, IoTeX is now the third-largest DePIN ecosystem after Ethereum and Solana with 50+ DePIN projects. It’s not only the total number of DePIN projects, but also the rapid progress of these DePIN projects throughout 2024 that was incredibly exciting. A key to bootstrapping the DePIN ecosystem on IoTeX in 2024 was programs like the DePIN Surf Accelerator and IoTeX Ecosystem Fund, which provided hands-on support across technology, fundraising, and go-to-market strategy to motivated, early-stage DePIN teams. More than a dozen DePIN projects joined and refined their projects’ visions, designed their tokenomics, bootstrapped their communities, and prepared for their token launches. Our first cohort included Ator, NATIX, Inferix, Wayru, PowerPod, Network3, StarPower, and DePHY, and our second cohort included Nubila, Qualoo, Scannit, SweatTemple, and more. In addition to our DePIN Surf projects, several homegrown IoTeX projects such as Envirobloq, WatchX, Drop Wireless, and Innovex made great progress in 2024 with much anticipated TGEs in 2025.

From launching innovative products, to selling out device/node sales, to raising major fundraising rounds, DePIN projects that are “Powered by IoTeX” are proving their long-term potential and positioning IoTeX as the most exciting DePIN ecosystem in the entire crypto industry. There is still so much to look forward to in 2025 with many IoTeX DePIN projects planning their token launches (TGE) on the IoTeX L1, while others are incorporating IoTeX 2.0 modules such as ioID & W3bstream into their tech stacks.

DeFi for DePIN

The DeFi ecosystem on IoTeX flourished in 2024 as new, committed teams brought high-quality DeFi protocols to the IoTeX ecosystem. One of the first decentralized exchanges on IoTeX, mimo, now has 40+ trading pairs and reached >$25M in TVL and a daily trading volume of >$3M in 2024. This activity was supercharged by the introduction of the DePIN Liquidity Hub on mimo, where DePIN tokens from other L1 networks (e.g., GEODNET, ATOR, Streamr, WiFi Map, XNET) were bridged to IoTeX with boosted incentives for liquidity providers.

In addition to the great traction of mimo, several new DeFi protocols have started their journeys in the IoTeX ecosystem, including Bedrock (liquid restaking protocol), Magma (collateralized stablecoin protocol), Loxodrome (perpetuals exchange), Quenta (derivatives trading platform), PinSwap (decentralized trading protocol), and more. These DeFi protocols greatly contributed to IoTeX's 42% increase in transaction volume in 2024 and provided a crucial on-chain financial environment for IoTeX projects as well as projects that bridged to IoTeX from Solana, Ethereum, Polygon, and other blockchains.

Expanding Beyond IoTeX

Another top priority for IoTeX in 2024 was to expand our DePIN infrastructure to other L1 networks, where IoTeX's modular tech stack was integrated to bring DePIN capabilities to their own Dapps. These monumental partnerships and integrations cemented IoTeX as not only a home for native DePIN projects, but also a technology provider to DePINs on other blockchains, expanding our influence beyond the IoTeX L1 and across the entire crypto universe. In 2024, we partnered with top-tier L1 ecosystems such as Solana, Polygon, Telegram (TONX), Injective, and more. IoTeX also partnered with leading DePIN projects, such as GEODNET, that launched on other blockchains to integrate ioID and W3bstream into their tech stacks for verifiable DePIN.

IoTeX Technology & Research

A major highlight this past year was the official launch of IoTeX 2.0, which delivers a state-of-the-art tech suite of modular infrastructure to empower verifiable DePINs. Since 2017, IoTeX has pioneered the DePIN sector, working closely with various DePIN projects to understand the building blocks they need to succeed. IoTeX 2.0 positions IoTeX to be the DePIN layer for the entire crypto universe, providing critical infrastructure for DePINs that launch natively on IoTeX as well as DePINs that launch on other blockchains. To learn more about our thesis on modular infrastructure for DePIN, see our report on “DePIN: A Modular Infrastructure Thesis” and blog post on “Modular Infrastructure for Verifiable DePIN.”

IoTeX 2.0

In 2024, the IoTeX L1 blockchain was significantly upgraded to add security, decentralization, and scalability to the foundational layer of the IoTeX Network. In July, Mainnet v2.0 was launched with a variety of core updates, including a new NFT-based staking contract, enhanced transaction handling for web3js, failed transaction purging, EVM error handing, and much more. In December, Mainnet v2.1 was launched which introduced support for the Cancun EVM upgrade for more advanced smart contract functionality, EIP-4844 to support BlobTx transactions, EIP-1559 for dynamic gas fees, and various other upgrades that optimized data availability and on-chain storage.

In November we formally launched ioID, the world's most advanced on-chain identity solution for smart devices. ioID not only provides DePIN builders with a suite of tools to register and manage device identities on-chain and off-chain, but also equips devices with their own smart contract wallet and private key to sign data on-device and verify their real world activities. ioID is facilitated by the IoTeX Hub web portal and a suite of smart contracts on the IoTeX L1 blockchain, serving as a gateway for devices to interact with the rest of the IoTeX 2.0 tech stack including DePIN Infrastructure Modules (DIMs). With ioID, we are bringing devices on-chain as self-sovereign assets and introducing a new universe of use cases for the DePIN sector!

This past year also saw incredible progress on W3bstream, a verifiable compute protocol tailor-fit for DePIN that utilizes Zero-Knowledge Proofs (ZKP) to validate the computations it performs on real world data/metadata provided by devices. W3bstream provides the foundation for DePIN builders to verify the real world activities of devices (i.e., Proof of Utility), enabling anyone to verify for themselves the output of an individual device and the DePIN network as a whole. W3bstream is natively integrated with ioID, where signed data from ioID-equipped devices will be processed by W3bstream for end-to-end verifiability of device identity and utility. W3bstream DevNet is currently live with W3bstream Testnet launch coming in early 2025.

The new design of IoTeX 2.0 brings new capabilities by expanding the IoTeX L1 blockchain with a layer of DePIN Infrastructure Modules (DIMs), which provide essential capabilities for DePINs. As part of the IoTeX 2.0 launch, we’ve partnered with leading Web3 infrastructure projects that will integrate with IoTeX 2.0: Filecoin & Irys for storage, NEAR (Nuffle) for data availability, Espresso for sequencer, The Graph for indexing, Risc0 for zero-knowledge proofs, Streamr for connectivity, and more.

Throughout 2024, we have tested the IoTeX 2.0 tech stack with 10+ DePIN projects and begun integrating IoTeX 2.0 with native IoTeX projects including Network3, Nubila, and WatchX and announced first-of-its-kind partnerships with DePIN projects on other L1s such as GEODNET and NovaNet. Track the adoption of IoTeX 2.0 on our Dune Analytics dashboard and stay tuned for more exciting partnerships with top-tier DePIN projects in the near future!

Network Tools

As detailed above, IoTeX made great advancements in technologies primarily targeting developers (e.g., Layer 1, ioID, W3bstream, DIMs), but IoTeX has also made great strides in user-facing public goods and tools. This category of technologies improve the user experience of interacting with the IoTeX Network, contextualize the activity that happens on the IoTeX Network, and aggregate tools in convenient hubs for users. IoTeX has committed enormous amounts of effort throughout 2024 on our user-facing public goods and tools, which we summarize below.

• DePINscan: the best explorer for the DePIN sector is even better after launching fresh new features, including token launch calendars, direct links to purchase hardware, and more detailed profile pages for DePIN projects and L1 chains. To date, DePINscan tracks more than 300 DePIN projects and 20 million devices. Most recently, we've launched the DePIN Wave newsletter and added a news portal covering the top headlines across DePIN.
• IoTeX Hub: the go-to place for navigating the IoTeX ecosystem was launched in 2024 for desktop users, enabling staking, trading, registering DePIN devices, and much more with support for MetaMask, WalletConnect, and hardware wallets (e.g., Ledger)
• ioPay: the leading mobile wallet for DePIN supports IoTeX and other top blockchains, including Solana, Ethereum, Polygon, and more; in 2024, we added a native DePINscan integration to browse DePIN progress on your phone, and have been continuously adding support for every major DePIN token to make ioPay the DePIN wallet of choice for users across all blockchains
• ioTube: IoTeX's native cross-chain bridge now supports cross-chain transactions between IoTeX, Ethereum, Solana, Polygon, and Binance Chain, providing IoTeX users the ability to trade the most popular DePIN tokens and other crypto-assets on IoTeX DEXs and DeFi products, and gives developers on other blockchains the ability to launch multi-chain on IoTeX
• mimo: the top decentralized exchange (DEX) on IoTeX was upgraded to mimo V3 in 2024, enabling a gorgeous new UI, ultra fast speeds, and more token pairs to trade than ever. 2024 also saw the launch of the DePIN Liquidity Hub, a venue where users can trade bridged DePIN tokens from Solana, Ethereum, Polygon, and more and earn fees for providing liquidity via farms

Research & Development

While we launched new technologies and network tools, IoTeX also prioritized cutting-edge research and proofs of concept (PoCs) that push the boundary of what is possible with DePIN. Some highlights include our PoC with Textile, RiscZero, Filecoin and WeatherXM for dynamic token rewards for DePIN Dapps, as well as a PoC with DIMO and Streamr for zero-knowledge proofs for proof of mileage. We also chaired several research and academic conferences to bring DePIN to the mainstream, including IEEE International DePIN Workshop in Dublin. IoTeX's research team also published several groundbreaking and award-winning papers, which we summarize below.

• Decentralized Physical Infrastructure Networks: A Modular Infrastructure Thesis: this joint work with dozens of DePN projects and crypto researchers outlined IoTeX's thesis for utilizing modular infrastructure to enable DePINs in a composable fashion
• TPU as Cryptographic Accelerator: leveraging Google Cloud's Tensor Processing Unit (TPU) as a cryptographic accelerator presented at the HASP 2024 Workshop is collaboration with researchers from top universities investigating how TPUs can accelerate key operations for zero-knowlege proofs
• Enabling a Smooth Migration Towards Post-Quantum Security for Blockchain: winner of Best Paper Award at International Conference for Blockchain 2024, this paper proposes hash-based zero-knowledge technology as the optimal way to quantum-proof the IoTeX network and other EVM-based systems
• Towards Credential-Based Device Registration in Dapps for DePINs with ZKPs: presented at SPB 2024 symposium, this paper details a breakthrough in DePIN device registration, ensuring sensitive device info remains confidential with zero-knowledge proof based credentials

IoTeX Community & Global Expansion

As we were busy launching groundbreaking technology and products throughout 2024, the IoTeX team was also busy expanding our global community by hosting massive online campaigns and organizing the largest DePIN events around the world.

One of the highlights of our online activities this year were our Get GOATed campaigns, which were hosted across two seasons with reputable partners including Galxe, OKX, Gate.io, and more. Get GOATed Season 1 was held in March and enabled the IoTeX community to explore DePIN Surf projects, such as PowerPod, DePHY, Wayru, Inferix, Network3, to earn token airdrops. We went 10x as big for Get GOATed Season 2 by putting up 100 million $IOTX rewards and partnering with OKX, Gate.io, and other leading exchanges. By completing quests of 20+ DePIN projects and interacting with the IoTeX Network (e.g., staking, trading, registering devices), the IoTeX community and crypto universe was incentivized to discover IoTeX and we grew our online Telegram and Discord communities to hundreds of thousands of users.

With events in Korea, Malaysia, Singapore, Belgium, Denver, Austin, Japan, Boston, Los Angeles, and Dublin, IoTeX brought DePIN to every corner of the world in 2024. The R3AL World event series in 2024 included our US flagship event at ETH Denver, DePIN Houses in Austin during Consensus and Brussels during ETH CC, and inaugural meetups in Japan, Malaysia, and China. Our global flagship event, R3al World Summit 2024 at Token2049 Singapore was co-hosted with Messari – with 5,000+ signups IoTeX's two-day DePIN summit was the world's largest DePIN event, solidifying IoTeX as a key thought leader and organizer of the DePIN sector.

As another form of community building in 2024, IoTeX was invited to join the Blockchain Association, the premier advocacy group representing the crypto industry in Washington, D.C. IoTeX attended the annual BA Policy Summit in December to work alongside regulators to ensure the growth of DePIN technology and broader blockchain adoption in the USA. We introduced regulators, politicians, and lawyers to IoTeX and DePIN to welcome them as new members of the IoTeX community and in 2025, IoTeX will continue to actively participate in DePIN working groups within the Blockchain Association to ensure DePIN can thrive in the political sphere.

To grow the global trader community, IoTeX made great strides in 2024 to make $IOTX available to investors worldwide through top-tier exchange listings. Throughout 2024, the IoTeX team worked extremely hard to get $IOTX listed on more centralized exchanges to bring IoTeX to every country and trader in the world. We are excited to report that regardless of what country you live in, there is an exchange for you to purchase $IOTX tokens! But we aren't finished – we will continue to work with top exchanges globally to get $IOTX listed and provide deeper liquidity for a great trading experience. Let's bring IoTeX and the $IOTX token to the masses in 2025!

IoTeX 2025: Achieving GOAT Status with DePIN x AI

If you've followed IoTeX in 2024, you will have seen many standalone announcements regarding the new tech releases and upgrades to various components of IoTeX that were detailed in this blog. The much anticipated release of IoTeX 2.0, the launch of ioID, new proofs of concept with W3bstream, our Mainnet v2.1 upgrade are just a few of the exciting technology updates that underpin the constantly evolving IoTeX tech stack. While these launches are impressive independently, they are actually part of a much more exciting bigger picture. As we look towards 2025, the puzzle pieces will all come together to bring IoTeX's ultimate vision of DePIN x AI to life.

The intersection of DePIN and AI is the next frontier for crypto, and IoTeX is readying our tech stack for this massive opportunity. AI agents, inference, and training all require high degrees of verifiability – the output of AI is only as trustworthy as the inputs it is trained upon, and IoTeX's suite of technologies including ioID and W3bstream will serve as the catalyst for trusted real world AI. Stay tuned for our official 2025 roadmap with our plans to achieve GOAT status in 2025 and pioneer the DePIN x AI landscape!