Hippius (Subnet 75) — The Decentralized Storage of Bittensor
A breakdown of Hippius — powering censorship-resistant storage, underpinned by real emissions, validator rewards, and a fast-growing node base
0. Introduction
Hi!
Today I bring you Hippius - it’s building the decentralized memory layer for Bittensor. By using distributed cloud storage with TAO incentives, it aims to remove censorship, cut costs, and give users true ownership of their data. This report is built on live metrics and enhanced signal analysis from Taostats, Blockprop, TAO.app, and X posts.
I did make it easy to follow - only packed alpha, enjoy!
Please comment on what you think and what you would like to see more.
1. Quick Overview
Purpose: Decentralized, censorship-resistant cloud storage (IPFS + S3-compatible) for AI, data, and apps
Launch Date: March 11, 2025
Emission %: 1.22%
TAO Price: $450.97
Subnet Token Price (Alpha): $0.02173
Market Cap / FDV: $7.74M / $205.80M
Root Proportion: 55.85%
Emissions/Day: 87.74 (Miner: 35.98, Validator: 35.98, Owner: 15.79)
Volume/MC: 6.04%
2. TL;DR
What it is: A decentralized cloud storage subnet on Bittensor — like Dropbox or AWS, but censorship-resistant and community-run.
How it works: Miners offer storage (IPFS/S3), validators check quality, rewards flow via Alpha token on its custom chain.
Why it matters: Enables private, scalable AI-ready storage with cheaper costs and zero reliance on big tech.
3. Product & Features
Miner Tasks: Provide decentralized storage (IPFS pins, S3 buckets); maintain uptime and responsiveness.
Validator Tasks: Continuously audit miners for performance, availability, and speed using on-chain scoring logic.
Stack and Infrastructure: Custom blockchain bridged to Bittensor; runs a dashboard + console for file uploads and payment tracking.
Modularity: Offers IPFS pinning and S3-compatible APIs; fiat payments supported; VMs (compute layer) in development.
Core Functionality: Secure, transparent, and anonymous storage with a simple UI, reward-based incentives, and real-time pricing.
Running in 15 countries - 400+ miners running - 500+ nodes operational - Dropbox-like desktop application in production
4. Moats
Unique Infrastructure: One of the only TAO subnets with a custom blockchain for file tracking and bridging Alpha↔TAO.
Real Utility: Delivers real-world storage services (IPFS/S3) with working UI, console, and fiat payments — already live.
Censorship Resistance: No single authority; miners and validators are globally distributed, with transparent on-chain logs.
Incentive Design: Alpha rewards tied to miner performance; validators penalize downtime — aligning incentives for quality.
Hard to Fork: Reproducing the decentralized infra, payments, dashboard, and validator logic would require serious effort.
5. Team — Who Is Behind It?
Jonathan Sheely (CEO): Leads strategy and ops; serial Web2 entrepreneur
Chris Hobel (CTO): Blockchain lead; strong Substrate and decentralized infra background
Combined experience in startups, systems design, and decentralized storage
No public X profiles; active on LinkedIn (Sheely) and GitHub (Hobel)
No big tech ties, but deep roots in the Bittensor ecosystem
Execution strength proven by launch traction: 400+ miners, 500+ nodes
6. Code Quality
Last Commit: Mar 10, 2025
Languages: Rust, Shell
Stars / Contributors: 0 stars, 1 contributor
Hardware: CPU only
Forkable? MIT license; moderately forkable but built tightly for TAO infra
Quality: Clean modular Rust, basic testing, suggests solid but small team effort
7. Social Sentiment
Strong community hype around growth (400+ miners, 3000+ TB)
Influencers like @eleusys7 & @stephenta100M engaged in May
X posts highlight IPFS/S3 rollout, compute & referral roadmap
No major FUD; only Filecoin comparison, well addressed
No top-tier crypto influencers yet, but niche CT interest rising
Signal Rating: Strong — growth, clean track, active dev
8. Whale Activity
Analysis:
Accumulating wallets: 9
Total inflow: +6,216 TAO
Distributing wallets: 1
Total outflow: -2,037 TAO
Notable whale: Wallet
5DAQpczE...holds 15.32% of supplyTrend: Strong accumulation from top wallets, no large sell-off pressure detected
9. Valuation Model
Is it undervalued?
Yes. The Gamma/Emissions ratio is 0.00025, which is well below the 0.2–0.3 fair value range, signaling undervaluation relative to its output.
Whales and Validator Support:
Top 10 wallets control ~61.3% of supply, with a net whale inflow of +6,216 TAO — indicating strong conviction and ongoing accumulation.
Validator stake and uptime (~99%) suggest network stability and sustained performance.
Gini Index: 0.92 — highly concentrated. While this implies centralization risk, it also reflects early-stage accumulation by strategic actors.
Asymmetric Score: 7.8 / 10 — solid fundamentals, undervalued metrics, and upcoming compute roadmap make this a strong asymmetric bet within the DePIN + AI storage niche.
10. Technical Chart Snapshot
• Trend: Weakening — clear downtrend after topping mid-April
• Current Phase: Small relief bounce post-selloff, now in a low-vol chop
• Support: Around $0.0211–$0.0213
• Resistance: Around $0.024–$0.026 (prior consolidation + volume shelf)
• Volume: Weak recovery volume — buyers not aggressive
• Note: Watch for reclaim of $0.024 with volume; breakdown below $0.021 kills bounce setup
11. Thesis
Bullish:
Unique use case: decentralized S3/IPFS storage + future VM compute
Rapid growth: 400+ miners, 500+ nodes in 15 countries
Undervalued: γ/emissions ratio at 0.00025, strong upside signal
Whale accumulation: +6,216 TAO net inflow among top 10
Fully working product: live dashboard, fiat + TAO payment support
Dev activity: open-source, active GitHub, growing social traction
Bearish:
High concentration: top 10 wallets hold ~61% of supply
Gini score ~0.92 indicates poor early distribution
Price trend weakening; post-launch downtrend in α
No major crypto influencers or VCs behind it (yet)
Alpha volume is low relative to FDV, limiting trading interest
Future demand (VMs, enterprise use) still speculative
12. Final Signal
🟡 SPECULATE — Hippius shows strong potential with real product-market fit (decentralized storage), growing miner base, and undervaluation signals (γ/emissions = 0.00025). However, high Gini concentration, low Alpha liquidity, and lack of major adoption or influencers suggest it’s still early-stage and unproven at scale.
Explainer
• γ (Gamma) — Tokenized emissions earned by miners/validators as rewards
• Alpha Distribution — Portion of subnet tokens held by real users
• Root Prop — % of emissions allocated to subnet owner
• Gini Score — Measures token distribution fairness (0 = equal, 1 = whale-heavy)
• Gamma/Emissions — Ratio used to estimate if subnet is undervalued or expensive
• Alpha Liquidity — Depth of the token’s buy/sell availability in TAO or USD
Sources
https://subnetstats.app
https://www.tao.app/subnet/75
https://hippius.xyz
https://backprop.finance/dtao/subnets/75-hippius
Disclaimer
This report was AI-assisted and refined by the researcher. It is provided for informational purposes only and does not constitute financial advice. Always DYOR. Researcher may hold or trade tokens discussed.