The top five DePIN coins to watch in 2026 are five Decentralized physical infrastructure networks Led by Grass (GRASS), which jumped 25.98% in a single day in mid-October on Phemex. Next comes io.net (IO), then Internet Computer (ICP), Filecoin (FIL), and Render (RENDER). Each one pays people tokens for real-world devices and connections.
This was the largest gain among 301 Phemex spot and futures markets on the day, when the market average rose 0.96% and Bitcoin did the same. Four of those five finished in the top 11. The jump was harder as trading was thinner, and the IO spot pair traded for only about $30,900 a day.
A quick overview of the most important DePIN coins
|
project |
What does he do? |
On Femex |
|
grass (grass) |
AI web data bandwidth |
spot |
|
IO.net |
GPU cloud |
Spot, on delisting notice |
|
Internet computer (ICP) |
Applications and data on the chain |
Futures and spot |
|
File Currency (FIL) |
Decentralized storage |
Futures and spot |
|
submit (submit) |
GPU rendering |
Futures, with spot on delisting notice |
What is DePIN in cryptocurrencies?
DePIN in cryptocurrency describes networks that pay people with tokens to provide physical resources such as spare bandwidth or idle graphics cards. The network then sells this capacity to customers who need it. Code is payroll, customers are revenue.
This makes every DePIN crypto project a race between two numbers. One is the value of new tokens that the network offers to its suppliers, and the other is what external customers pay for the service.
If the former continues to outpace the latter, you own a token whose supply is growing faster than the company behind it.
Phemex Academy Guide to What is DePIN and how does it work Walking through the model, the five coins below show both sides of this race in October 2026.
How we chose the five
Any list of DePIN crypto projects needs a base, and this list contains two tests. Each coin belongs to CoinMarketCap’s DePIN category, which listed 268 coins in October 2026, and is traded on the Phemex live market. Each also rose 10% or more on one of the Phemex markets in mid-October or appeared on CoinMarketCap’s 24-hour most searched list the next day.
Four are eligible on the go and displayed during searches, so this DePIN Crypto List ranks the best DePIN Crypto projects by their gains for that day.
You won’t find NEAR here, even though Phemex perpetually rose 11.36% that day, because it’s not in CoinMarketCap’s DePIN category. Bittensor (TAO) is in it, yet its perpetual price has only increased by 3.64% and does not appear in the search list.
grass (grass)
Grass pays people for unused bandwidth on their home connections and sells the public web data that flows through it to AI companies. GRASS rose 25.98% in the Phemex spot price that day, from $0.6679 to $0.8414.
In early October 2026, Grass launched Contents APIwhich converts any public URL into clean text for AI clients. Grass says the API recovered 98% of pages in its static domain test, and it works on the home network that Grass pays for.
Phemex Academy explains What is grass and how does it work From contract to staking.
IO.net
io.net is a GPU cloud on Solana that rents graphics cards from independent owners to AI developers. IO rose 17.61% on Phemex that day, from $0.1552 to $0.1826, the fourth largest move on 301 markets.
that it Incentive Dynamic Engine launches in June 2026. Under it, io.net burns at least half of the I/O revenue that the network retains after paying GPU providers. This means that burn grows as customers spend more.
The catch is the market, as in Phemex IO it is only traded as a spot pair and is permanently delisted. Phemex also announced the delisting of this spot pair, with margin trading ending in October 2026 and the spot price to follow at a later date.
Internet computer (ICP)
The Internet Computer is DFINITY’s blockchain for hosting entire applications and their data on-chain, and ICP pays for that computing. The perpetual ICP on Phemex rose 10.92% that day, from $3,122 to $3,463.
DFINITY Stiftung has applied for the top-level domain “.icp”. ICANN record of the request He lists it as pre-assessment processing, which is the stage before any assessment begins. The tour series confirmation day falls on November 17, 2026, so the range is far from being granted.
To learn about the chain and its smart contracts, see Phemex’s guide to What is an Internet Computer (ICP)..
File Currency (FIL)
Filecoin is a decentralized storage network where service providers receive FIL in exchange for holding customer files and proving that they still have them on-chain. The FIL perpetual on Phemex rose 10.03% that day, from $1,117 to $1,229, and carried the largest futures turnover of the five.
Explaining Phemex on What is Filecoin (FIL). Covers how this storage market works.
Display is where the calendar matters. Filecoin documentation He says the tokens allocated to the Protocol Labs teams and the Filecoin Foundation last for six years. The mainnet was launched in October 2020, so this timeline ends in mid-October 2026. After that, no more team and organization tokens will be issued, while mining rewards continue to be minted as new FIL.
submit (submit)
Render is a GPU rendering network where artists and studios pay to render 3D scenes on other people’s graphics cards. The network burns RENDER to match the cost of each task. Its perpetual price rose just 3.37% that day, from $1,931 to $1,996, so Render earned its status through demand from traders.
The drawings tell a weaker story, and DefiLlama’s Render grid graphics data It puts total job fees for September 2026 at about $232,300, down 51.3% from $477,100 in September 2025.
Why did DePIN tokens spike in mid-October?
They rose together, and the dates conflict with any one issue. Measured by the close before the sector sell-off earlier in the month, GRASS ended the mid-October day 28.60% higher and FIL 16.60% higher. IO rose 15.44% over the same stretch and ICP rose 7.25%, while RENDER closed 1.24% below its starting point.
The sell-off itself occurred on the day Grass launched its API, which was also the first full day after ICANN published the .icp implementation. GRASS is down 7.53% and ICP is holding 9.82% on this bar.
Other AI and DePIN tokens fell with them, with TAO falling 7.85% and RENDER falling 9.60%, while Bitcoin fell 1.91%. FIL was the exception, closing this bar 1.33% higher.
News of both Grass and Internet Computer hit a bear market, and both symbols fell, so it is difficult to pin the subsequent bounce on either announcement.
The two biggest gains came in the two weakest markets. GRASS and IO only have spot pairs on Phemex, and both have more than doubled their 30-day average, at 2.27 and 2.24 times.
ICP and RENDER perpetual shares traded below their averages, at 0.93 and 0.64 times. If you read the bounce as a new order, remember that a few large orders can move a small book like I/O operations.
To take a closer look at two of these names side by side, Phemex Academy Compare ICP vs FIL Sets the compute chain against the storage network.
Is Dibbon dead?
DePIN is still alive in the simple sense, as customers still pay these networks for work. Render’s fee history shows how variable this demand is. September 2026 was the biggest month for fees since September 2025. The previous month only brought in about $120,000, roughly half that amount. So the 51.3% decline indicates as much a peak in 2025 as it does fading demand.
The state of the sector for 2026 depends on this monthly figure, which grows faster than the supply each network pays. If you’re tracking one number for any coin on this list, it’s the Phemex number Provide price forecasts for the period from 2026 to 2030 Defines price scenarios for this token.
The mid-October high is weak evidence in both cases. Its biggest gains came from light trading, and a topic that moves on light volume can quickly reverse. Four of these five fell together a few days before they rose together.
Risks of DePIN Codes
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The offer that keeps coming. Grass and io.net hold tokens for investors and shareholders that are issued over time. Filecoin will continue to issue mining rewards even after the team vests in mid-October 2026.
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Thin arrangement books. IO’s Phemex spot pair averaged trading value of about $13,800 per day over the 30 days before the jump, the lowest of the five by a wide margin. In a market this small, a single market order can only be executed far from the last price.
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Revenues that cease to flow to their owners. Render fees fell by half over the year to September 2026. The io.net burn only covers a portion of what the network keeps after paying providers, so owners get a slice of usage at best.
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Leverage in futures markets. ICP, FIL and RENDER are traded as futures contracts on Phemex. Futures use leverage, and a leveraged position is automatically closed if losses reach its margin.
Frequently asked questions
What is the best DePIN encryption?
There is no best DePIN, because the five sell different services to different buyers. Grass recorded the strongest move in mid-October at 25.98%, and Filecoin had the largest Phemex futures turnover out of the five that day.
How does Depin work?
The DePIN project pays vendors with its token for bandwidth, storage, or GPU time, and customers pay to use that capacity. Render and io.net are burning tokens from that revenue, so heavy usage can offset the new supply they release.
Is DePIN the future?
DePIN has something that most cryptocurrency themes lack, which is that customers pay for the service. The open question is the size, given that Render fees halved over the year through September 2026 even though that month was the best in a year.
Which DePIN coins can you trade on Phemex?
All five currencies are traded against USDT on the Phemex spot platform, although Phemex announced that the IO and RENDER spot pairs will be removed from the list at a later date. Filecoin and Render also have perpetual futures contracts for USDT, as does Internet Computer, while Grass and io.net perpetual contracts have been deleted.
Bottom line
The mid-October jump tells you these five trades as one topic, and tells you very little about which network is winning. The real test for 2026 is the growth of fees versus new supply. Filecoin meets it first, because its team stops adding tokens in mid-October and leaves fewer new coins to accommodate demand.
Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only and is not financial advice. Cryptocurrency trading involves significant risks. Always do your own research before making investment decisions.
