Helium Network Grows Amid Market Slump: 20% Increase in IoT Hotspots

In the fourth quarter, Helium’s native token, HNT, saw a 20% quarter-over-quarter (QoQ) decline in circulating market capitalization, falling from $1.3 billion to $1.0 billion. The token’s price dropped by 22%, decreasing from $7.54 to $5.88.

Despite the market downturn, the Helium network continued expanding.

Growth in Hotspot Adoption

According to Messari’s report, Helium Mobile saw its number of hotspots grow by 14% QoQ, reaching 24,800 from 21,800. Helium Mobile’s unlimited plans remain significantly cheaper than the three-figure costs typical of US telecom providers.

The service also introduced the Discovery Mapping feature, rewarding users in HNT for sharing location data. However, since February 4, these incentives have shifted to Cloud Points, a change expected to be detailed further in the Q1 report.

Beyond growth in adoption, Helium Mobile demonstrated its utility during Hurricane Helene in North Carolina at the end of September. Messari revealed that while the disaster left many without electricity and water, Helium hotspots remained operational, providing 5G coverage. The team also distributed emergency kits, including Starlink devices, to support affected communities.

Helium’s IoT network also expanded in Q4, with hotspots growing by 20% QoQ. Since the network’s migration to Solana in early 2023, 33,000 hotspots have been onboarded, several thousand of which were contributed by gamers. This brought the total number of hotspots to over 375,000, up from 342,000 pre-migration. However, while infrastructure growth has been rapid, demand has not yet matched supply, as per the data analytics company’s findings.

Data Credits (DCs) are used to cover onboarding fees – such as the $10 cost to register a hotspot – but data transfer usage remains low, with daily DC burns limited to a few hundred dollars. As a result, Helium has successfully deployed LoRaWAN connectivity infrastructure but has yet to generate significant network demand.

Past Controversies

Helium’s founders and associates allegedly hoarded a significant portion of early token rewards. According to CryptoPotato’s report back in 2022, insiders were claimed to have mined millions of HNT tokens, worth $250 million at its peak, while the public was left with a fraction.

During the same period, Helium faced backlash after claiming Lime, the rideshare company, as a key client. Helium stated that Lime used its service to geolocate e-scooters. The partnership was highlighted on its website and in media coverage. However, Russell Murphy, Lime’s Global Communications Director, clarified that the relationship was limited to a 2019 test.

Prior to this, Cloud computing giant Salesforce Salesforce also denied any partnership, which prompted Helium to remove their logos.