How Helium turned Wi-Fi into cell service. Helium announced the deployment on Friday. It covers the Celina Public Library, the Ralph O'Dell Senior Center, and some downtown shops. The city built nothing new, since it already had Wi-Fi. Helium added a layer that lets phones treat those hotspots as cell coverage. Phones sign in using credentials already stored on the SIM card. No app or password. Most people never notice the handoff. The idea is not new either. AT&T signed on to the same Helium system in April 2025. That deal is what makes the automatic connection work. "Helium let us turn Wi-Fi we already own into coverage our residents' phones use automatically, without spending a dollar on new towers," said Amy Alexander, director of information technology for the City of Celina. Why Helium jumped nearly 100%. The news broke Friday, yet HNT ran overnight and added roughly $37 million in market value. Those Celina sites carry about 100 GB a day. That is one library, one senior center, and a few shops. So traders bought the idea, not the income. HNT gained 97.4% over 30 days, and almost all of it arrived in the final 24 hours. Turnover says the same thing because close to $44 million changed hands in a day, more than half the token's $79 million market value. However, with HNT trading near $0.42, it remains down 85.6% over 12 months and far below its 2021 Helium price peak of $54.88.

Helium Network offloads 274TB of mobile data monthly at 2,485 restaurant locations across 34 chains. Helium's Solana-based DePIN network offloads 274,000GB of mobile data each month across 2,485 locations at 34 US restaurant chains, per official network data. Helium Network HNT$0.195-1.4% published data on July 24 showing its Solana-based wireless network offloads 274,000 GB of mobile data every month across 2,485 locations at 34 national restaurant chains in the United States. The figures cover carrier offload, a mechanism that routes cellular subscriber traffic through locally deployed Helium hotspots inside high-traffic venues, reducing congestion on AT&T's network during peak dining hours. AT&T's partnership with Helium for carrier offload, reported by The Defiant in April 2025, underpins these deployments. Keep up to date with the Solana eco How carrier offload works at Fast food chains. Fast food and coffee chains have moved deep into app-driven revenue. Mobile ordering, digital loyalty programs, payment systems, and in-store digital menus all require customers to maintain a data connection. At peak lunch and dinner rushes, hundreds of phones compete for carrier spectrum in a small space, degrading the apps that restaurant revenue depends on. Helium's carrier offload mechanism redirects that congestion. When a subscriber's phone detects a compatible Helium hotspot with the right network credentials, the device shifts data from the cellular network onto local Helium coverage using Passpoint or Wi-Fi Calling standards. The subscriber stays on their carrier plan and sees nothing different. Hotspot deployers (whether individuals or the chain operators themselves) earn HNT... (HNT) rewards based on data volume transferred. This model requires no new cellular infrastructure from the carrier and no contract negotiation from the restaurant. Hardware deployment is the entry point, and data throughput scales with venue traffic. Chain-by-Chain breakdown: Chick-fil-A, KFC, Taco Bell, Starbucks. Helium's July 24 data puts KFC first by site count at 586 locations, followed by Taco Bell at 539. By data volume per site, Chick-fil-A leads: roughly 1,100 GB per location per month across 34 sites, equivalent by Helium's calculation to streaming 6,400 HD movies monthly at a single restaurant. Starbucks contributes 32,774 GB total across 90 locations, per the same data. Total monthly offload 274,000 GB Chick-fil-A per-site average ~1,100 GB/month Starbucks monthly total Five Guys per-site average ~525 GB/month Helium also reports Five Guys at around 525 GB per site monthly across 6 locations, Raising Cane's at 361 GB across 7, and coffee shops at roughly 218 GB per site per month on average, reflecting longer customer dwell times than quick-service formats. Other chains on the network include McDonald's, Sonic, Dunkin', Chipotle, and Wendy's. What 274TB monthly means for solana-based DePIN. At 274 TB per month, the restaurant segment annualizes to roughly 3.3 petabytes of data offload. The figures are self-reported from Helium's own network logs. For hotspot operators, HNT reward emissions from this data traffic are set by network parameters the Helium community governs through ongoing proposals. The restaurant data arrives during an active expansion period for the network. Helium opened new expansion zones at major New York City venues including Madison Square Garden and Grand Central Terminal last week. Earlier this month, Helium ranked first in fee generation among Solana's active DePIN projects alongside GEODNET. The carrier offload model's cost structure helps explain the deployment scale: once hotspot hardware is installed, marginal cost per gigabyte is low, and throughput at high-traffic commercial venues grows with customer volume rather than requiring new infrastructure per new gigabyte. Solana Compass is an independent Solana analytics and staking platform, operating a validator on Solana mainnet since September 2021. Its network statistics and...

What's driving token prices? June 3, 2026. Jun 3, 2026 Join Katie Talati, Arca's Head of Research, weekly on Wednesday at 4PM EST / 1PM PST as she shares notable token activity over the past week and her insights on what market events drove these token price movements. % buffered Current time06:52 * SUI (-17%) - Layer-1 network Sui suffered three major outages over the past week. The outages caused a blockchain halt, effectively pausing on-chain activity. The root cause was identified as part of its latest software release, which included a few "edge case" bugs that caused the blockchain to stop. Blockchain halts can be particularly chaotic, not only as it stops any activity on-chain, but also because of the potential impact on financial applications. Since Sui experienced multiple hours of downtime, any financial applications could see price changes in underlying assets, causing liquidations of loans or other leveraged positions. Thankfully, it does not appear that the outage led to any widespread losses. * HNT (-17%) - Yesterday, decentralized wireless network Helium announced the sale of its Helium Mobile division to Noble Mobile. Noble Mobile, which is owned and operated by former presidential candidate Andrew Yang, acquired the mobile carrier on undisclosed terms. Noble will continue to offer Helium Mobile subscribers the same coverage through the Helium Network and T-Mobile. In addition, Helium Mobile will still rely on the Helium Network for connectivity. Nova Labs, the entity that maintains and develops the Helium Network, affirmed that the sale will allow them to focus on growing the overall network and grow into more regions. Most recently, the team announced an expansion to Brazil through the Mambo Network. Helium Mobile has just under 700,000 subscribers, but the Helium Network supports over 2.6M daily active users. * RDNT (-15%) - Money market protocol Radiant announced this week it would sunset its DAO. Back in 2023, Radiant had $773M in TVL, but after suffering two exploits in 2024, the protocol's activity declined, now capturing under $2M in TVL. In a blog post, the team detailed how it plans to wind down DAO operations and cease active development of the protocol. While the protocol will remain available, the front-end will be shut off, new borrowing activity disabled, and RDNT token emissions discontinued. The DAO will remain, but only in case stolen funds are somehow returned to the protocol. Radiant joins more than 40 DeFi protocols that have shuttered in 2026 alone. The increasing number of security hacks has been a primary cause for this trend, along with consolidation and a lack of product-market fit. * ENA (+15%) - Decentralized stablecoin issuer Ethena announced yesterday that it partnered with crypto exchange Coinbase to launch an on-chain savings product through Coinbase's interface. As part of the deal, Coinbase Ventures also purchased Ethena's ENA token on the open market. Details around the upcoming product launch were not disclosed, but the partnership could provide Ethena with distribution to Coinbase's 100M user base. Ethena currently has $5.4B in AUM; the hope is that the new Coinbase venture could further expand that. DISCLAIMER: This commentary is not intended to be investment advice, investment research, or a recommendation. Please consult your investment professional for your own circumstances. Subscribe For the Latest Blockchain News & Analysis You may unsubscribe from one or all communications at any time. 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