Why Helium’s HNT Token Rose 100% in 60 Days

Helium’s HNT more than doubled in value (+100%) across July and August 2024 to become the top-performing cryptocurrency among blue-chip tokens.

After years of tinkering with its business model and growth strategy, Helium, a decentralized wireless infrastructure ecosystem, is now starting to reap rewards from its bold pivot, which saw the project abandon its standalone blockchain and migrate to Solana (SOL) in 2023.

The move was part of Helium’s plan to find a stable layer one (L1) to build an ecosystem of independent decentralized wireless and data networks.

In 2024, Helium Mobile (MOBILE) — one of the first independent protocols of the Helium ecosystem — saw incredible growth due to the popularity of its low-cost wireless 5G connectivity offerings in the U.S.

In turn, Helium’s crypto token HNT doubled from $3.37 on June 15, 2024, to more than $6.80 two months later.

In this article, we talk about factors driving Helium’s HNT token price and more.

Table of Contents Table of Contents

1. Key Takeaways
2. Understanding Helium's History & Road to Success
3. Helium Mobile Breathes New Life into HNT Token
4. The Bottom Line
5. FAQs
6. References

Show Full Guide

Table of Contents

1. Key Takeaways
2. Understanding Helium's History & Road to Success
3. Helium Mobile Breathes New Life into HNT Token
Show Full Guide
4. The Bottom Line
5. FAQs
6. References

Understanding Helium’s History & Road to Success

Early Success with IoT Devices

First, let’s talk about Helium’s history.

Helium started as a standalone blockchain in 2019 to enable a decentralized community to provide wireless connectivity to Internet of Things (IoT) devices.

Users purchased Helium hotspots to provide wireless coverage. HNT tokens were rewarded to service providers.

In addition to HNT, Helium created a payment token called Data Credits (DC). HNT tokens had to be burned to receive DC tokens.

Every time a user tapped into Helium’s hotspot, they paid for the services in DC tokens, which had a fixed price of $0.00001 per 24 bytes of data.

By July 2021, over 100,000 hotspots were live on the Helium network, powering smart home devices, tracking instruments, air quality and water leak detection sensors, and agriculture data monitoring devices.

By November 2021, crypto market exuberance lifted Helium’s crypto price to an all-time high of over $55.

Helium Needed Scale for 5G Wireless Connectivity

Helium soon found it difficult to scale. Helium’s original structure also did not promote the creation of independent decentralized networks within its ecosystem.

Helium therefore proposed the creation of sub-networks, each specializing in a specific offering, such as low-range wide-area network (LoRaWAN), WiFi, 5G, content delivery network (CDN), virtual private network (VPN), etc.

Each subnetwork would have its own decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) and its own native token. These subDAOs would also have the freedom to create their own rules, mining rewards, and more.

The first two Helium ecosystem subDAOs created were the IoT subDAO and the Helium Mobile DAO. The former managed the Helium IoT network (the original Helium offering) and the latter managed the decentralized 5G wireless connectivity network.

This led to two new ecosystem tokens emerging: Helium IoT’s IOT token and Helium Mobile’s MOBILE token. The tokens were primarily used as reward tokens in their respective operations.

DC tokens (received by burning HNT tokens) continued to be used as payment tokens across the Helium ecosystem.

Additionally, Helium also proposed to abandon its standalone blockchain and move to Solana.

According to Helium, the move would remove the burden of maintaining a chain and free resources to build wireless and data networks.

On April 18, 2023, Helium migrated to Solana.

Helium Mobile Breathes New Life into HNT Token

The HNT token price did not immediately rebound after Helium migrated to Solana. The move was viewed with much skepticism within the Helium community.

Sentiment began to pick up when Helium Mobile made its debut in May 2023.

Helium Mobile launched with a 5G carrier plan provided in collaboration with telecom company T-Mobile for unlimited talk, text, and data at $25 a month – later reduced to $20 per month.?

Helium Mobile soon introduced the Discovery Mapping feature, which allowed users to earn MOBILE tokens by sharing their location with the network.

A partnership with telecom company Telefónica to launch Helium Mobile in Mexico, the introduction of international roaming features, and boosted coverage in Los Angeles and New York were among other key Helium crypto news that occurred over the last twelve months.

Helium Mobile adoption surged as signups rose from about 24,500 at the start of the year to over 109,000 by mid-August 2024, on-chain data on Dune showed.

Based on DC tokens usage, Helium Mobile was the top Helium ecosystem protocol accounting for nearly 96% of DC token usage on August 15, 2024.

The growing adoption of Helium Mobile breathed new life into the HNT token, which rose to a five-month high of $7.48 in August 2024.

Helium Mobile’s MOBILE token, on the other hand, was on track to see five consecutive months of losses in August 2024.

Note that Helium subDAO tokens like MOBILE are backed by HNT and can be easily converted to HNT.

The Bottom Line

Helium is yet another example of crypto’s real-life use cases.

Helium hotspots are not only lowering connectivity prices in the U.S. but also enabling wireless infrastructure to be expanded to areas with low-quality coverage.

If you are interested in investing in Helium, always remember to conduct your research before investing. Past performance does not guarantee future returns. This article should not be considered as financial advice, it is for informational purposes only.

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