📡 Stick to the Signal, Son!

GM, Happy Friday! Matt here, announcing a strategic pivot for DePIN Digest and The Relay. 

After 8 months of bringing you every major headline, hotspot update, and token launch we could find, we’re shakin’ it up.

Starting this week, DePIN Digest is going deeper and a bit more editorial – fewer items, but more perspective. We’re sticking to our promise of relaying the signal, not the noise.

Thoughtful. Engaging. Accessible.

Or TEA, if you will. Grab a cup and enjoy the ride up!

🎈 Helium’s Healthy High

Messari just dropped its State of Helium Q4 2025 report, and if you haven’t read it yet, here’s the scoop:

📶 Helium’s Network hit escape velocity, offloading 4,388 TB of data from major carriers in Q4 alone (+60.7% from Q3). Those numbers are hard to conceptualize in real terms, so let’s make it more human 👇.

🤳 Average daily users in Q4 hit 1.6 million, with a peak of 2.5 million on December 20th. Those numbers have already been blown out of the water, though, with Helium reporting 3.4 million daily users in February.

💸 Annualized revenue topped $22.4m by December and is growing fast. AT&T, Movistar, Google Orion subscribers are all quietly connecting to infrastructure that everyday people own and operate... infrastructure that you can own and operate. 🏧

🐟 Bait & Tackle 🐳

So, what does owning and operating look like? Meet Omar Henry.

Omar's background isn’t in crypto – it’s in money. He spent years in tradfi (traditional finance). He was a banker, financial advisor, and even built a logistics company. A few years back, he started installing Helium Mobile Hotspots in small businesses like barbershops, salons, and gas stations, but wanted to grow his business into something more.

His strategy was simple but honestly brilliant. He didn’t chase deals with larger venues; he started targeting businesses inside them. One deployment at a vendor in an airport reaches thousands of commuters and vacationers, without the need to deal with the Airport Authority and its red tape. 

In Omar’s own words, “I don't need a deal with Walmart. I can get a deal with the barbershop that's in the Walmart." The same logic applies to conference centers, stadiums, and even your local mall.

This reframe took him from neighborhood salons to top Helium Deployer status.

Fast-forward to today, Omar runs Decentralized LLC, a network of hotspot deployers spanning four U.S. regions and offloading 80-85 TB of data every month. Now he teaches others to do the same.

In fact, Omar is joining us today at noon EST on The Relay to talk deployment strategy, scaling with integrity, and where the opportunity is heading in 2026.

🎙️ Tune in on the DePIN Digest X page.

📶 The Signal

A few other Helium headlines worth your attention this week:

📍 Helium Hangouts — A new in-app feature for Helium mobile subscribers that shows hotspot coverage and signal strength near them. More traffic driven to hotspot deployments = more revenue for deployers. The flywheel spins.

🌐 Helium’s Brazilian expansion – Another takeaway from Messari’s report is Helium’s partnership with Mambo Wifi, which serves tens of millions in Brazil. It was announced a while back, but that’s a lot of potential offload in an untapped market. It’s like your favorite game unlocking an entirely new region.

The opportunity with DePIN just keeps getting sweeter and sweeter. Just like our newsletter! There are many other networks worth joining, so stay tuned for more.

👋 That's the new DePIN Digest

Same signal, more substance. If someone in your world should be paying attention to this space, send it their way.

Be sure to follow Matt, Will, and the Digest on X and look out for more Relay broadcasts.

Have a great weekend — see you next Friday. 🤙