Empire The Bull Case For DePIN, RWAs on Hyperliquid & The Onchain Endgame | Weekly Roundup
Jan 30, 2026
Sal (Salvador), venture investor and EV3 co-founder focused on Deep Infrastructure, discusses the rising DePIN thesis and why some networks are finally compounding. He breaks down InfraFi and bringing real money onchain. Conversation also covers the Hyperliquid RWA boom, metals-driven volumes, fintechs moving onchain, and which projects might scale to IPOs.
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6174 Fundraise Story
- Sal named his fundraise amount 61.74 as a nod to the number 6174 which he and his cofounder have used as a memorable PIN since childhood.
- They intentionally closed at $61.74M for symbolic reasons tied to the Kaprekar constant story.
DePIN Is Infrastructure, Not Commodities
- DePIN projects behave more like durable infrastructure than cyclical commodity plays and can compound revenue for years.
- Valuation multiples for DePIN should reflect SaaS-like durability, not commodity volatility, creating large upside.
Buy Both Token And Equity Early
- If you invest early in DePIN, capture both token and equity to protect value regardless of token-equity decoupling.
- Prefer early-stage exposure where tokens and equity still move together rather than late-stage single-asset bets.
