While Silicon Valley dominates Web2, emerging markets like the UAE and Singapore lead DePIN adoption with better regulations and real infrastructure needs.
Opinion
Opinion by: Yanal M. Hammouda, head of market expansion at Wingbit
The decentralized physical infrastructure network (DePIN) sector saw $150 million of capital flow during Q1 2025, with a projected market size of $3.5 trillion by 2028. Yet the most significant development isn’t the capital raised but where these networks operate.
Emerging markets like the Middle East, Southeast Asia and South America — rather than Silicon Valley — are driving the future of DePIN adoption.
DePIN and blockchain market dynamics favor regions with infrastructure gaps and progressive Web3 regulations. DePIN clusters thrive where traditional infrastructure has failed, when populations are forced to find community-driven solutions instead. Investors and builders in DePIN must seek out these market conditions outside of the US.
DePIN sandboxes
Silicon Valley’s historic success in Web2 was buttressed by landmark regulations such as Section 230 and the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. In Web3, however, the US has only this year introduced the GENIUS Act, and the White House’s July Digital Assets Report was the first federal acknowledgement of value generated from DePIN. While the US is just beginning its DePIN journey, thriving Web3 ecosystems elsewhere show their success hinges on regulatory clarity.
Dubai’s , established in 2022, creates specific sandboxes for Web3 infrastructure projects. The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) actively supports tokenizing real-world assets through initiatives such as Project Guardian and the Singapore Blockchain Innovation Programme.
At the same time, the country’s fintech regulatory sandbox clearly defines the parameters for blockchain experimentation.
In South Korea, the telecommunications giant LG U+ has been since 2018, a rollout that would have faced years of approval processes under the US Federal Communications Commission’s rules. The country saw a 15% year-on-year growth in the number of blockchain service providers in 2023.
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Vietnam’s , launched in late 2024, explicitly provides legal clarity for blockchain applications in finance, logistics, agriculture and data management. The government is currently piloting its NDAChain platform, a national blockchain that aims to boost its e-government and digital economy with decentralized identification of citizens.
Deeper pockets for DePIN projects
While the Bay Area still captured 24% of the $368 billion in global venture capital funding in 2024, the real capital for blockchain is flowing elsewhere.
The UAE ranked third (the US comes fourth) on the Henley Crypto Adoption Index, which assesses cryptocurrency and blockchain integration across nations. With up to 7,100 new millionaires expected to flock to Dubai in 2025, the Gulf’s expat community — with its high disposable income and bullish attitudes toward emerging technologies like DePIN — continues to grow.
Abu Dhabi’s $500-million specifically targets “blockchain, DePIN, AI, cloud, and other compute cluster applications” in its investment thesis. The UAE is emerging as the leader in the Web3 space by putting firepower behind DePIN applications in sectors where traditional infrastructure has failed to keep pace with demand.
Singapore’s state funds, Temasek and the Government of Singapore Investment Corporation (GIC), have shifted their focus to blockchain infrastructure outside traditional tech hubs. In recent years, the GIC has invested $70 million in Hong Kong-based BC Group, parent company of crypto exchange OSL.
In comparison, Temasek led a $110-million funding round in Hong Kong-based , Asia’s most prominent blockchain investment firm. Sovereign wealth funds are strategizing for a future built on digital infrastructure.
Building necessities over luxuries
New York and Silicon Valley were once celebrated as the only places to meaningfully scale a Web3 product. Not anymore.
Though most of Helium’s 380,000 decentralized wireless hotspots still exist within the US, new deployments rapidly expand users’ coverage in Southeast Asia and South America.
During Helium pilots in Mexico, subscribers to telecommunications company Movistar averaged 390 megabytes, or seven hours of web browsing, of daily data on the Helium network, showing how DePIN can solve real connectivity challenges.
The message for DePIN builders and entrepreneurs is clear: Design for users who need your infrastructure, not those who might find it interesting in a Palo Alto coffee shop. For investors, the opportunity lies in identifying projects that solve real problems in markets with regulatory clarity and growing adoption. Policymakers can facilitate this with frameworks that accommodate new blockchain-based projects rather than trying to force them into existing, rigid categories.
Companies in Asia led the mobile revolution of the 2010s in response to losing their lead on desktop, creating giants like WeChat, Gojeck and Kakao, which now make those markets near-impossible for Silicon Valley to penetrate. Countries like the UAE, Vietnam and Singapore are now establishing a similar lead in this market long-term, and Web3 companies should pay attention to what this will mean in five to 10 years.
Opinion by: Yanal M. Hammouda, head of market expansion at Wingbit.
This article is for general information purposes and is not intended to be and should not be taken as legal or investment advice. The views, thoughts, and opinions expressed here are the author’s alone and do not necessarily reflect or represent the views and opinions of Cointelegraph.
