DePIN is not like trading altcoins. The underlying value drivers are measurable, protocol revenues are on-chain, and node counts are verifiable. Investors who treat it like ordinary crypto speculation are ignoring the most useful signals available.

Revenue is the single most important dePIN metric. It measures actual demand for the network's service from paying customers — not token holder speculation. A project with $40M monthly revenue and $500M market cap is priced very differently from one with $100K monthly revenue at the same valuation.

Annualise the monthly revenue and divide by market cap. This gives you something like a Price/Sales ratio. Aethir's ~0.08x monthly rev/MC is exceptional. Most early-stage dePIN trades at 0.001-0.01x. Use the Compare tool to benchmark any project against sector peers.

Node count growth indicates whether the network is attracting new hardware operators. Stagnant or declining node counts signal either market saturation or deteriorating economics for operators. Growing counts despite flat token prices suggest genuine utility demand.

Check the emission schedule. A network paying 30% annual inflation in token rewards while generating only 2% revenue yield in real fees is 28% diluting its holders annually. The ROI Calculator models this explicitly — include the inflation rate in your return projections.

Divide monthly revenue by node count. This tells you whether individual operators are earning viable returns from real fees versus inflation. For hardware-intensive networks, compare this to electricity and hardware amortisation costs using the ROI Calculator.