HNT Coin Guide: Helium Network, HNT Tokens, Helium Mobile and IoT

Last Updated: November 3, 2026

HNT (Helium Network Token) is the cryptocurrency of the Helium Network, a decentralized wireless network in which individuals and businesses run Hotspots that provide IoT (LoRaWAN) coverage and Wi-Fi mobile offload, and get paid in HNT. HNT has been a Solana token since the network migrated on April 18, 2023, and since early 2025 it is again the single reward token for both the IoT and Mobile networks, replacing the separate IOT and MOBILE tokens.

HNT traded at about $0.351 on CoinMarketCap at 14:06 UTC on November 3, 2026, with a market capitalization of about $65.4 million (rank 304), 186.3 million HNT in circulation and a maximum supply of 223 million. That is about 99% below the all-time high of $55.22 set on November 12, 2021, and down about 85% over the past year.

This Helium coin guide covers what Helium is, how Hotspots and Proof of Coverage work, the current HNT token model and what changed since 2025, Helium Mobile after its June 2026 sale, the HNT price in USD, how to buy and store HNT, the main risks, and how HNT compares with other DePIN tokens. Every figure was checked on November 3, 2026.

Key takeaways

• HNT is a Solana token (mint address hntyVP6YFm1Hg25TN9WGLqM12b8TQmcknKrdu1oxWux) with a 223 million maximum supply and a two-year halving schedule; the last halving was on August 1, 2025, and the next is due on August 1, 2027.
• Under HIP 138, approved on November 22, 2024, Hotspots on both networks earn HNT instead of IOT and MOBILE from early 2025. Existing IOT and MOBILE tokens still exist and can be swapped for HNT.
• Data Credits, the network’s fee unit, cost $0.00001 each and can only be created by burning HNT.
• Nova Labs sold the Helium Mobile phone service to Andrew Yang’s Noble Mobile on June 2, 2026; HNT, the Helium DAO and the Hotspot network were not part of the sale.
• Helium stopped its HNT buybacks funded by Helium Mobile revenue in early January 2026.

What Is Helium Network?

Helium Network is a decentralized wireless infrastructure project that lets anyone deploy a small device called a Hotspot to provide wireless coverage and earn HNT in return. Instead of a carrier building every cell site itself, coverage is crowdsourced: individuals and venues own the hardware, and the network pays them in HNT for the coverage and data they provide.

Helium’s documentation says the network now powers two distinct networks: a global LoRaWAN network for IoT devices, and a Wi-Fi network that offloads mobile data from carriers. Helium’s website reported more than 1 million daily active users, more than 49 TB of data transferred per day and more than 40,000 community-deployed access points (“Helium Sites”) when checked on November 3, 2026.

Helium was founded in 2013 by Amir Haleem, Shawn Fanning (the creator of Napster) and Sean Carey. The first HNT was emitted on July 29, 2019, with no pre-mine, according to Helium’s documentation. The company behind the network rebranded as Nova Labs in 2022, when it raised $200 million in a round led by Tiger Global and Andreessen Horowitz. On April 18, 2023, after the community approved HIP 70, Helium moved from its own blockchain to Solana, gaining faster finality, lower fees and access to Solana’s DeFi ecosystem.

Leadership changed in June 2026: Amir Haleem stepped down as CEO of Nova Labs and became chairman, and Mario Di Dio, previously head of the network business, took over as CEO, as crypto.news and The Defiant reported on June 5, 2026.

For a closer look at the token economy, Blockchainreporter’s HNT crypto deep-dive covers the background in detail.

How Helium Network Works

Hotspots: The Hardware Backbone

Hotspots are the physical devices that power the Helium Network. Each one combines a radio that serves nearby devices with software that reports its activity to the network, so the network can verify coverage and pay rewards. Operators buy a compatible device, install it at home or at a business, connect it to the internet and onboard it with the Helium Wallet app.

Helium runs two kinds of coverage today:

LoRaWAN (IoT network): long range, low power radio signals that reach several kilometers. This suits IoT sensors that send small packets, such as logistics trackers, environmental monitors, parking sensors and agricultural devices, many of which run on batteries for months.

Wi-Fi (Mobile network): Helium’s documentation describes Mobile Hotspots as “low-cost, easy-to-deploy Wi-Fi radios.” Phones from participating carriers connect automatically through Passpoint, and Hotspots earn HNT for the eligible data they carry. Venues can also convert existing Wi-Fi networks (Aruba, Cisco Meraki, MikroTik, Ubiquiti and others) through Helium Plus. Earlier marketing around CBRS 5G small cells no longer appears in Helium’s mobile documentation, which now covers Wi-Fi only.

Proof of Coverage: How Mining Actually Works

The IoT network uses Proof of Coverage (PoC), a mechanism designed to check that a Hotspot really provides coverage at the location it claims.

In the current design, Hotspots “self-beacon,” transmitting a radio beacon about every six hours. Nearby Hotspots that hear the beacon report it as witnesses. Since the Solana migration, dedicated Oracles ingest and verify these beacon and witness reports and calculate rewards, a model Helium calls Oracled PoC. The older “challenger” role from Helium’s own blockchain no longer exists.

Rewards are scaled by location. Under HIP 17, witnesses earn less where there are more Hotspots than the target density for an area, and under HIP 104 rural and less densely covered Hotspots earn more PoC rewards than before. IoT Hotspots also earn for the device data they transfer. On the Mobile network, rewards are based on the eligible data a Hotspot passes and its quality of service.

Data Credits and the Burn Mechanism

Every time a device sends data over the Helium Network, the fee is paid in Data Credits (DC). DC are non-transferable and pegged at $0.00001 each, and, as Helium’s documentation puts it, “DC is only produced by burning HNT.” The more the network is used, the more HNT is burned.

This is Helium’s burn-and-mint equilibrium. Burned HNT is partly re-emitted through “net emissions,” capped at 1,643.84 HNT per day under the current 24-hour epoch. Since a 2025 change (HRP 2025-03), net emissions are smoothed through a pool that follows recent burns, so a single large burn does not move rewards all at once. Whether burns ever exceed new issuance depends on real network usage.

What Network Does Helium Mobile Use?

Helium Mobile uses the Helium Network’s Wi-Fi Hotspots together with T-Mobile’s nationwide 5G network. When a subscriber is near a participating Helium Hotspot, data can be carried over Wi-Fi; elsewhere, the phone uses the T-Mobile network.

The ownership is new. Nova Labs launched Helium Mobile in 2023 and sold the consumer carrier business, including subscribers, brand, app and support channels, to Noble Mobile, the T-Mobile MVNO founded by Andrew Yang in 2025. The sale was announced on June 2, 2026, and terms were not disclosed, as Light Reading and Decrypt reported. Noble Mobile also agreed to keep using the Helium Network. HNT, the Helium DAO and the Hotspot network stayed outside the deal, and Nova Labs kept its carrier offload business, according to Solana Compass.

The Helium Mobile website now says the service is provided by Affiniti Ventures, Inc., with “Helium Mobile” used under license from Nova Labs. As of November 3, 2026, it lists two plans: Air at $15 per month with 10GB of data, and Infinity at $30 per month with unlimited data (slowdowns possible after 36GB). The earlier $20 unlimited plan and the free plan are no longer offered to new users; the free plan was discontinued in May 2026, according to Solana Compass. Subscriber rewards are now “Cloud Points,” not HNT, and the site does not promise any value for them.

HNT Token: Economics and Key Metrics

Live data: CoinMarketCap and CoinGecko.

What Is the HNT Price in USD Today?

HNT was worth about $0.35 in USD at 14:06 UTC on November 3, 2026, according to CoinMarketCap, roughly 2.1 times its all-time low of about $0.167 from August 14, 2026, and about 99.4% below its 2021 peak. The broader market mood was cautious: the Crypto Fear and Greed Index (alternative.me) read 26, “Fear,” on November 3.

What Tokens Does Helium Have? HNT, IOT, MOBILE and Data Credits

When Helium moved to Solana in 2023, it added two subnetwork tokens: IOT for the LoRaWAN network and MOBILE for the mobile network, each sitting underneath HNT. That model was reversed by HIP 138 (“Return to HNT”), which the community approved on November 22, 2024. From January 2025, network rewards, including veHNT delegation rewards, are paid in HNT; Helium Mobile switched its own token rewards from MOBILE to HNT on January 29, 2025.

IOT and MOBILE were not burned or force-converted. Existing balances stay in holders’ wallets, and holders can swap them for HNT at the subnetwork treasury rate or through the Helium Wallet app’s swap feature and Solana exchanges such as Jupiter. HIP 138 also proposed that the Helium Foundation burn its 18.2 billion MOBILE tokens. In practice, HNT is now the token that matters for rewards, staking and Data Credits.

Supply, Halvings and Buybacks: What Changed Since 2025

HNT launched with a target of 5 million HNT per month and no pre-mine. HIP 20 introduced a two-year halving schedule, with each emission year starting on August 1. The original 240 million cap became about 223 million because slow block times in the first year issued less than planned.

• August 1, 2025: the most recent halving cut target emissions from 15 million to 7.5 million HNT per year.
• August 1, 2027: the next halving is due to cut target emissions to 3.75 million HNT per year, per Helium’s documentation.
• August 2025 to January 2026: after the 2025 halving, Nova Labs began buying HNT on the open market with Helium Mobile subscriber revenue, Blockworks reported. DefiLlama tracks about $2.3 million of buybacks in total, peaking at about $950,000 a month in November and December 2025.
• January 2, 2026: buybacks paused. Amir Haleem said the market had responded little to the purchases and that the money would go to subscriber growth, hardware and carrier offload instead, Cryptonews reported on January 5, 2026. Data Credit burns from network usage continue.

How to Mine HNT: Setting Up a Helium Hotspot

“Mining” HNT means running a Hotspot that earns rewards for coverage and data. The process in November 2026:

1. Pick a network. An IoT Hotspot (LoRaWAN) serves sensors and earns HNT for Proof of Coverage and IoT data. A Mobile Hotspot is a Wi-Fi radio that earns HNT for the carrier data it carries. Venues with existing enterprise Wi-Fi can use Helium Plus instead of new hardware.
2. Buy compatible hardware. Use a device listed in Helium’s documentation or sold through helium.com. Before buying used gear, check that the maker still supports onboarding and firmware updates.
3. Choose the location. For IoT, height and a clear view matter, and HIP 104 now favors less crowded areas. For Mobile Wi-Fi, earnings depend on how many carrier subscribers actually pass by and connect, so busy indoor spaces usually matter more than rooftops.
4. Install, connect and onboard. Connect the Hotspot to the internet (ethernet is preferred), install the Helium Wallet app and add the device. Onboarding is paid in Data Credits.
5. Monitor rewards. Rewards appear in the Helium Wallet app and are paid in HNT.

Earnings vary widely with location, competition and traffic, and Helium does not publish a typical figure. With HNT near $0.35 and emissions halved in 2025, rewards per Hotspot are worth far less in dollars than during the 2021 boom, so treat any online earnings estimate with caution.

Helium’s Real-World Revenue and Network Growth

Helium’s commercial case rests on two sources of income: Data Credits bought by companies that use the network, and payments from carriers that offload mobile traffic onto Helium Wi-Fi. Most revenue comes from Wi-Fi carrier offload rather than from Helium’s own phone service, Blockworks reported in August 2025.

The network has grown from the IoT-only years. Blockworks counted about 1.1 million daily users across 108,850 Hotspots in August 2025, Light Reading cited about 137,000 Hotspots in June 2026, and Helium’s website listed more than 1 million daily active users and more than 49 TB of daily data on November 3, 2026. Before its sale, Helium Mobile had nearly 600,000 cumulative sign-ups and more than $20 million in annualized revenue, Solana Compass reported.

Revenue has not yet translated into token value. HNT fell about 85% in the year to November 3, 2026, through the buyback pause in January, the Helium Mobile sale and CEO change in June, and an all-time low in August. The earlier claim on this page that Helium earned “$24 million in revenue in January 2026” could not be confirmed in any source we checked, so it has been removed.

HNT Price History

HNT spent its first year barely above zero after the July 2019 launch. Data Credits went live in August 2020, tying token demand to network usage, and HNT rose sharply through 2021. The peak came on November 12, 2021, when HNT reached $55.22 (CoinMarketCap), during a boom in Hotspot sales.

A long decline followed through 2022 and 2023, when HNT fell below $2. The Solana migration in April 2023 created short-term uncertainty but removed the cost of running a separate chain. HNT recovered in 2024 and 2025, then weakened again; it traded near $0.93 in early May 2026, near $0.64 on the day of the Helium Mobile sale on June 2, 2026 (Solana Compass), and hit its all-time low of about $0.167 on August 14, 2026. On November 3, 2026, it traded at about $0.35.

Blockchainreporter’s HNT price prediction collects dated forecasts from published models and observed chart levels; this guide does not give price targets.

Helium Network Partnerships and Ecosystem

Helium’s most important partners are traditional carriers, not crypto projects:

• AT&T: on April 24, 2025, Helium announced that AT&T customers could connect automatically to Helium Wi-Fi Hotspots across the US, as DatacenterDynamics and other trade outlets reported.
• Telefónica: Telefónica and Nova Labs launched Helium Mobile Hotspots in Mexico for Movistar customers in January 2024, according to Telefónica.
• Noble Mobile: after buying Helium Mobile in June 2026, Noble Mobile agreed to keep using the Helium Network for its subscribers.

Nova Labs kept the carrier offload program with AT&T and Telefónica after the Helium Mobile sale, according to Solana Compass. On the IoT side, users include logistics companies tracking assets, farms monitoring soil and weather, and cities measuring air quality and parking.

Helium Plus lets venues such as campuses, hotels, airports, arenas and commercial buildings connect existing Wi-Fi access points to the Helium network and earn HNT for serving carrier subscribers, while Helium markets HeliumOS to carriers, MVNOs and large venues.

Regulation: The SEC Case Is Closed

The US Securities and Exchange Commission sued Nova Labs on January 17, 2025, alleging unregistered securities sales tied to Hotspots and misleading statements about partnerships. In April 2025 the SEC dismissed the unregistered securities claims with prejudice, and Nova Labs agreed to a $200,000 civil penalty on one remaining charge without admitting or denying the allegations, as crypto.news and other outlets reported.

Where to Buy and How to Store HNT

HNT trades on 67 market pairs listed by CoinMarketCap on November 3, 2026. The largest centralized markets by volume were Coinbase Exchange (HNT/USD), Bybit (HNT/USDT), Gate, KuCoin, MEXC, Bitget and Kraken (HNT/USD and HNT/EUR), with Bitvavo, Crypto.com Exchange and Gemini also listing it. Because HNT is a native Solana token, it can also be swapped on Solana DEXs such as Raydium and Orca, or through the Jupiter aggregator.

To buy HNT on a centralized exchange:

1. Open and verify an account on an exchange available in your country.
2. Deposit funds by bank transfer, card or stablecoins.
3. Buy HNT on an HNT/USD, HNT/EUR or HNT/USDT pair.
4. Withdraw to your own wallet if you want to hold it long term, choosing the Solana network and double-checking the address.

To store HNT, the Helium Wallet app (iOS and Android) is the official wallet. It shows HNT, MOBILE, IOT, Data Credits, SOL and USDC, manages Hotspots and supports Ledger hardware wallets. Because HNT is a standard Solana token, any Solana wallet can hold it, including Phantom, Solflare, Backpack or a Ledger device. Keep a small amount of SOL in the wallet to pay Solana transaction fees, and write down the seed phrase offline before you delete or reinstall any wallet app.

Risks of Investing in HNT

HNT is a small, volatile token, and the risks are concrete:

• Price risk: HNT is about 99% below its 2021 high and fell about 85% in the year to November 3, 2026.
• Business risk: network value depends on carriers paying for offload and on IoT demand. The sale of Helium Mobile removed Nova Labs’ own subscriber base, and the January 2026 buyback pause removed a source of HNT demand.
• Token model changes: Helium’s community votes on HIPs that change rewards, emissions and token roles, as HIP 138 did. Holders should follow governance proposals.
• Hardware risk: Hotspot earnings fall with each halving and with competition, and older hardware can lose maker support.
• Concentration and liquidity: with daily volume around $2 million, large orders can move the price, and most volume sits on a few exchanges.
• Solana dependence: HNT relies on Solana’s uptime and fees.

Blockchainreporter’s guide to crypto risk management explains position sizing and other basic precautions. This page is not investment advice.

HNT vs Other DePIN Tokens

DePIN (decentralized physical infrastructure networks) projects pay token rewards to people who supply real-world resources such as wireless coverage, storage or computing. Blockchainreporter’s comparison below uses CoinMarketCap data from about 14:08 UTC on November 3, 2026.

Helium is the best-known wireless DePIN and one of the few with named carrier partners, but it now has a smaller market capitalization than storage, compute and positioning networks such as Filecoin, Render, Akash and GEODNET. Its fall over the past year was also steeper than most of these peers. For Filecoin’s outlook, see Blockchainreporter’s Filecoin price prediction.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is HNT coin?
HNT is the native token of the Helium Network, a decentralized wireless network where people run Hotspots that provide IoT and Wi-Fi mobile coverage. Hotspot operators earn HNT for coverage and data, and users burn HNT to create Data Credits that pay network fees. HNT has been a Solana token since April 2023, with a 223 million maximum supply.

What is the HNT price in USD?
HNT traded at about $0.351 on CoinMarketCap at 14:06 UTC on November 3, 2026, with a market capitalization of about $65.4 million and rank 304. It was down about 33% over 30 days and about 85% over one year, and roughly 99% below its all-time high of $55.22 from November 12, 2021. Prices change constantly, so check a live source.

What are the Helium tokens HNT, IOT and MOBILE?
HNT is Helium’s main token. IOT and MOBILE were subnetwork tokens created in 2023 for the IoT and Mobile networks. Under HIP 138, approved in November 2024, both networks pay rewards in HNT from early 2025. Existing IOT and MOBILE tokens still exist and can be swapped for HNT through the Helium Wallet app or redeemed through the treasury.

What is IOT HNT?
IOT HNT usually refers to Helium’s IoT network, a global LoRaWAN network for low-power sensors, and its legacy IOT token. IoT Hotspots earn HNT for Proof of Coverage and for the device data they carry. The IOT token was the network’s reward token from 2023 until early 2025, when HIP 138 moved rewards back to HNT; holders can still swap IOT for HNT.

What network does Helium Mobile use?
Helium Mobile combines Helium Network Wi-Fi Hotspots with T-Mobile’s nationwide 5G network. Nova Labs sold the service to Andrew Yang’s Noble Mobile on June 2, 2026, and the site now says it is run by Affiniti Ventures under a license from Nova Labs. Plans start at $15 a month, and subscribers earn Cloud Points rather than HNT.

Is HNT still mined with Hotspots?
Yes. Anyone can run an IoT LoRaWAN Hotspot or a Mobile Wi-Fi Hotspot and earn HNT. IoT Hotspots earn for Proof of Coverage and data, while Mobile Hotspots earn for eligible carrier data they carry. Earnings depend on location, competition and traffic, and they fell after the August 2025 halving cut yearly emissions from 15 million to 7.5 million HNT.

When is the next HNT halving?
HNT halves on a two-year schedule, with emission years starting on August 1. The most recent halving on August 1, 2025, cut target emissions from 15 million to 7.5 million HNT per year. According to Helium’s documentation, the next halving is due on August 1, 2027, when target emissions should fall to 3.75 million HNT per year.

Does Helium buy back HNT?
Not at the moment. After the August 2025 halving, Nova Labs used Helium Mobile subscriber revenue to buy HNT on the open market, and DefiLlama tracks about $2.3 million of buybacks. Helium paused them on January 2, 2026, saying the money would go to network growth. HNT is still burned whenever users create Data Credits to pay for network usage.

Where can I buy HNT?
HNT is listed on Coinbase, Kraken, Bybit, KuCoin, Gate, MEXC, Bitget, Bitvavo, Crypto.com Exchange and Gemini, among others, according to CoinMarketCap on November 3, 2026. Because HNT is a Solana token, it can also be swapped on Solana decentralized exchanges such as Raydium and Orca or through Jupiter. When withdrawing, always choose the Solana network.

What is the best wallet for HNT?
The official Helium Wallet app for iOS and Android shows HNT, IOT, MOBILE and Data Credits, manages Hotspots and supports Ledger hardware wallets. Since HNT is a standard Solana token, Phantom, Solflare, Backpack and Ledger devices can also hold it. Keep some SOL for transaction fees and store the recovery phrase offline, because nobody can restore a lost phrase.

Is HNT a good investment?
HNT combines real wireless usage and carrier partners with heavy losses: about 99% below its 2021 peak and down about 85% in the past year to November 3, 2026. Its value depends on carrier offload demand, IoT growth and governance decisions. This is general information, not investment advice; only risk money you can afford to lose and do your own research first.

How does HNT compare with other DePIN tokens?
On November 3, 2026, HNT had a market capitalization of about $65 million, well below Render at about $788 million and Filecoin at about $735 million, and below Akash and GEODNET. Helium focuses on wireless coverage, while those networks supply rendering, storage, compute or positioning data. HNT also fell more over the past year than most of those peers.

Data sources: CoinMarketCap (HNT price, supply, market pairs and DePIN comparison, November 3, 2026, 14:06 to 14:08 UTC), alternative.me Fear and Greed Index, Helium documentation (HNT token, IoT token, Mobile network, Proof of Coverage, Helium Wallet app), helium.com, heliummobile.com, HIP 138 (GitHub), DefiLlama, Light Reading, Solana Compass, Blockworks, crypto.news, The Defiant, Cryptonews, Telefónica. This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute financial or investment advice.