Helium (HNT) is the native token of a decentralized physical infrastructure network (DePIN) that pays operators to deploy wireless hotspots providing LoRaWAN IoT coverage and 5G/mobile data offload. The network originally ran on its own standalone blockchain before migrating to Solana in April 2023.
Development is led by Nova Labs, Inc. The ecosystem comprises three linked tokens: HNT (network-wide), IOT (LoRaWAN subnetwork), and MOBILE (5G subnetwork), with carriers and devices purchasing Data Credits to access hotspot coverage.
Helium ties token demand to physical wireless usage, with carriers and devices burning Data Credits derived from HNT to access real hotspot coverage rather than relying on demand alone. Nova Labs has signed multi-year carrier data-offloading deals, including one with AT&T beginning April 2025.
Helium Mobile Data Credit burn reportedly reached approximately $361,000 per month by June 2025, and the network reported roughly 108,855 active hotspots as of August 2025, a usage scale distinguishing it from purely speculative DePIN tokens.
HNT functions as both a utility and governance token, convertible into Data Credits burned for network data usage or locked for governance voting power. Data Credits are non-transferable and spent by carriers and devices consuming hotspot coverage.
Separately, holders may lock HNT for up to four years to receive soulbound veHNT, which is used to vote on Helium Improvement Proposals (HIPs) governing the network's economics and technical parameters.
HNT has a hard-capped maximum supply of 223,000,000 tokens, with approximately 186.3 million in circulation as of 2026-09-01. Emissions follow a two-year halving schedule that approaches the cap asymptotically.
A "Net Emissions" mechanism continues reissuing tokens to replace previously burned HNT indefinitely, and supply growth has ranked high relative to peer tokens, indicating an ongoing net-inflationary supply trend rather than a deflationary one.
Helium had no public HNT token ICO; the network launched commercially in mid-2019 when Hotspot hardware went on sale, years before HNT existed on Solana. Prior to that, Helium Security Tokens were privately sold to investors between 2014 and 2020.
Nova Labs later raised $111 million in an HNT token sale in August 2021 led by a16z, followed by a $200 million Series D in early 2022 at a roughly $1.2 billion valuation. The on-chain HNT mint on Solana was deployed on 2023-04-18, four years after the network's 2019 launch.
Helium (HNT) runs on Solana, which it migrated to in April 2023 after operating its own standalone Layer-1 blockchain.
Before the migration, Helium operated its own chain secured by Proof-of-Coverage, a mechanism in which hotspots earned rewards by verifying each other's wireless coverage rather than through conventional mining or staking.
Helium was founded in 2013 in San Francisco by Amir Haleem and Sean Carey; Carey departed in 2015. Haleem served as CEO of the company, renamed Nova Labs in 2022, through most of the network's history before moving to Chairman around June 2026, when Mario Di Dio, previously Nova Labs' General Manager of Networks, became CEO.
Before Nova Labs, Haleem co-founded a social-gaming startup called Diversion between 2010 and 2013.
Nova Labs, Inc. (formerly Helium, Inc.), a San Francisco-based company, develops the Helium Network's software and hardware and previously operated the Helium Mobile consumer service. Protocol governance and treasury stewardship are handled separately by the nonprofit Helium Foundation, established around the April 2023 Solana migration.
In June 2026, Nova Labs sold its consumer-facing Helium Mobile subscriber business to Andrew Yang's Noble Mobile, retaining the core Helium Network and its carrier data-offloading business.
Helium is governed on-chain through Helium Improvement Proposals (HIPs), voted on by holders who lock tokens into non-transferable veTokens for up to four years. HNT holders vote on network-wide economic and technical changes, while IOT and MOBILE holders separately govern their respective subnetworks via the Helium Vote/Realms platform.
A recent example is HIP-149, which restructured network emissions and deployer pay and passed with 93.73% approval on more than 774 million votes cast.
Recent protocol changes center on HIP-149, the "Helium Utility and Emissions Realignment," which retired Proof-of-Coverage rewards, allocated 141 million HNT to supplemental emissions, and created an Advisory Council. Nova Labs also restructured its business, selling the Helium Mobile consumer service to Noble Mobile in June 2026 to focus on carrier data-offloading.
Exchange access expanded with a Binance spot listing on 2026-07-09 and a Bithumb KRW listing on 2026-06-01, and network coverage extended into Brazil in December 2025.
Helium's most significant documented security issue was Proof-of-Coverage location fraud discovered in late 2021, when about 25,000 of roughly 524,000 hotspots (about 5%) were confirmed fraudulent. The hotspots had spoofed GPS locations to earn fraudulent rewards, prompting the community to approve an emergency denylist in January 2022 with around 97% support.
Structural risk factors include thin decentralized-exchange liquidity relative to market capitalization and elevated exchange inflows; holder concentration is comparatively low, with the top 20% of addresses holding about 13% of supply across 301,159 total holders.