Helium (HNT)

Tokenomics & Utility

Rewards and network payments

HNT is the main token earned by Helium network participants. Hotspot operators can receive it for eligible network activity, while people who lock HNT can take part in governance through voting power known as veHNT. Helium previously used separate IOT and MOBILE tokens for parts of its reward system. A change called HIP-138 brought participant rewards back to HNT, making the token’s role easier to follow. (docs.helium.com)

Network users pay with Data Credits, or DCs. One DC represents $0.00001 of network-use credit. DCs are created by burning HNT and can be spent on data transfer across the IoT and Mobile networks, as well as certain network actions. The amount of DC created from one HNT changes with HNT’s exchange value; the DC unit gives network users a stable way to measure usage. (docs.helium.com)

Helium’s planned HNT issuance follows a schedule that reduces its regular emissions roughly every two years. The protocol also has limited ways to reissue some burned HNT for rewards. In 2026, the community approved HIP-149, adding a separate, time-limited mint for operations and network growth. That decision raised the proposal’s effective long-run supply ceiling to about 347 million HNT. These rules show why both regular issuance and later governance decisions matter when describing HNT’s supply. (docs.helium.com)