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Helium’s Frank Ong: Building Out DePIN’s First Big Success Story

As (literally) a thousand DePIN projects bloomed in 2024, they could thank one decentralized physical infrastructure network in particular for showing the way: Helium. The original DePIN (before DePIN was a word), Helium was started by Amir Haleem, Shawn Fanning, and Sean Carey all the way back in 2013. It took until 2019 for the team to deploy IoT hotspots, allowing users to share wireless coverage and earn tokens.Of course, it’s harder to deploy hardware to people’s homes than it is to issue a memecoin on Pump.Fun. And as chief operating officer at Helium for the last seven years, Frank Mong has seen the struggle to deploy hardware up close. There are now more than 350,000 Helium hotspots deployed in 80-some countries.
“You have hurdles of building physical products and that’s everything from structures to electronics,» Mong said. «And those take time. And I think in the early days of Helium, at least for me, seven plus years ago, I recall that even when we do build a network, it takes time for things to be built physically to use that network.”Mong says it’s “very gratifying” to see so many DePINs come to life this year (<a href=»https://www.coindesk.com/opinion/2024/07/09/depin-20-what-the-next-generation-of-depins-is-doing-differently» target=»_blank»>1,300 is one estimate</a>). “We’re seeing new companies come out this year in 2024 with all kinds of ideas and use cases for Helium’s economic model to really power through real-life physical infrastructure. It is quite amazing to see,” he said.
Mong particularly likes mapping as a DePIN category and recommends that people watch <a href=»https://www.coindesk.com/opinion/2024/06/27/who-draws-the-lines-the-case-for-decentralized-map-making» target=»_blank»>Hivemapper</a>.
Helium Mobile has 100,000 subscribers and the company is making money by onboarding customers from regular mobile providers, acting as an extra network inside buildings in cities like New York City, Miami and Los Angeles. Helium launched on its own blockchain before switching to Solana in 2023.
Mong hails from the Tenderloin in Downtown San Francisco, which he calls “the slums of the city.”
Helium continues to deploy at a lightning rate. In Portugal, its hotspots form parts of smart cities and smart utilities. U.S. Pacific Gas and Electric is using Helium for wildfire detection, and the U.S. Geological Survey uses the network for flood detection in Madison, Wisconsin. Nova Labs (the company that created the open-source tech) also has a beta test underway with Telefonica in Mexico to provide hotspots in certain neighborhoods, showing how Helium, and DePIN, is increasingly becoming part of real infrastructure.
Mong says it’s a long road, but worth the struggle. “The initial part is taking that leap. You have to just jump off the cliff and believe that you’re going to land safely. That’s probably the hardest part. Once you do it, the journey is amazing,” he said.
“Just realize that it’s going to take a long time. Physical products take time to iterate and you have to have the patience to enjoy the journey.”Looking forward to 2025, he adds: “I hope that the innovation of crypto software continues to thrive and continues to grow. Along the way, I hope responsible actors show up and come to a table with real useful products and services for consumers.”
This profile is part of CoinDesk’s Most Influential 2024 package. For all of this year’s nominees, click here.
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Judge Overturns Convictions in Mango Markets Exploiter’s Crypto Fraud Case

A U.S. judge has overturned the fraud and market manipulation convictions of Avraham Eisenberg, the crypto trader accused of draining $110 million from the now-defunct decentralized finance protocol Mango Markets.
On Friday, U.S. District Judge Arun Subramanian ruled that prosecutors failed to prove Eisenberg made false representations to the platform.
He also moved to acquit Eisenberg of wire fraud charges. The investor manipulated the price of Mango’s native token MNGO with massive trades by more than 1,000% in 20 minutes before getting the protocol to allow him to borrow and withdraw $110 million in various cryptocurrencies, backed by the inflated collateral.
Eisenberg’s defense argued that the platform, which operated through smart contracts, allowed anyone to transact freely and that he simply exploited a vulnerability. The judge agreed, stating that Mango’s permissionless structure meant that there “was insufficient evidence of falsity” from prosecutors regarding Eisenberg’s representation to Mango Markets.
Eisenberg was arrested in December 2022, and while this case collapsed, he is still currently serving a four-year sentence handed out after he pleaded guilty to the possession of child sexual abuse material.
“From the beginning, we said this case was fatally flawed,” his attorney Brian Klein of Waymaker LLP said. “We are very pleased for Avi that the judge granted our motion and dismissed the case.”
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Swiss watchmaker Franck Muller Unveils Limited Edition Solana Watch

If you’ve ever wanted to have your Solana wallet on your wrist while flexing your wealth, Swiss watchmaker Franck Muller is making that a reality.
The watch market is stepping into the Web3 ecosystem with a Solana-inspired, limited-edition series of watches that contain an embedded unique QR code to directly link to the user’s Solana address.
The company’s Solana-inspired watch collection is limited to 1,111 units that will set buyers back 20,000 Swiss francs (around $24,300).
While the watches feature a unique design that could appeal to Solana ecosystem participants, their launch comes at a time when, unfortunately, flaunting crypto-related wealth is becoming risky.
The cryptocurrency industry has seen dozens of physical attacks just this year, with a notable case seeing the daughter and grandson of Pierre Noizat, CEO of crypto platform Paymium, being targeted in a daytime attempted kidnapping. The attack was filmed and shared on social media.
While that kidnapping attempt failed, an earlier one in the same city saw the father of a crypto millionaire get abducted. Police managed to rescue the man, but not before his finger was severed.
Earlier this year, the co-founder of hardware wallet maker Ledger, David Balland, along with his wife, was abducted from his home and saw similar treatment. The couple was later rescued by authorities, and a ransom that had been paid out was seized.
There have been many other similar attacks in recent months.
Franck Muller is pitching the collection as a «phygital» (physical-digital) symbol of identity and ownership in the crypto age. While the watch is certainly a piece of crypto mythos, it may be a collectible that investors may not want to show off.
Read more: ‘Major Wake-Up Call’: How $400M Coinbase Breach Exposes Crypto’s Dark Side
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A Small Food Firm Buys 21 bitcoin, Jumping on BTC Treasury Trend, Shares Fall Anyways

DDC Enterprise (DDC), an Asian food company, has announced the acquisition of 21 BTC as part of a long-term plan to incorporate the cryptocurrency into its corporate treasury.
The company, led by founder and CEO Norma Chu, exchanged 254,333 class A ordinary shares for BTC, in a transaction valued at roughly $2.28 million, according to a press release.
The move positions DDC among a growing cohort of public companies using BTC as a treasury asset. Two more purchases totaling 79 BTC are expected in the coming days, bringing the company’s initial holdings to 100 BTC.
In a shareholder letter issued last week, Chu outlined plans to accumulate up to 500 BTC within six months and aim for 5,000 BTC in three years.
While companies adopting bitcoin as a strategic treasury asset often see major price rises, DDC saw the opposite. The company’s shares dropped more than 12% on Friday’s trading session, while the S&P 500 dropped 0.6% and the tech-heavy Nasdaq fell 1%.
DigiAsia (FAAS), for example, saw its share prices surge more than 90% in a single trading session after announcing a $100 million BTC treasury plan earlier this month.
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