what's filecoin?
Filecoin is a decentralized storage network designed to store humanity's most important information in a reliable and efficient manner. It operates as a blockchain-based marketplace where users can rent unused hard drive space from providers, secured by cryptographic proofs. The network incentivizes storage providers through its native cryptocurrency, FIL, using mechanisms like proof-of-replication and proof-of-spacetime to ensure data integrity and availability. Filecoin integrates with the InterPlanetary File System (IPFS) to enable distributed data storage and retrieval. Launched in 2020, it has grown to support various applications including data preservation, NFTs, and Web3 infrastructure.
Filecoin integrated into mPoW for storing encrypted industrial auditing logs.
Integrated as decentralized storage layer in mPoW (threshold-encrypted industrial auditing) specification, where encrypted operational logs are pinned to IPFS/Filecoin after DSPs create Chrono-Merkle roots and before commitment to L2.
Added 59 PiB of raw storage in a single day at peak onboarding.
Stores Commons collections on Filecoin from over 100 institutions across 24 countries through Flickr Foundation, including historical photographs dating to the 1800s.
Gained 8.2% daily, trading at $0.92 on April 6, 2026, leading top movers alongside ARB and TAO, breaking out of a multi-year wedge pattern.
Grayscale reduced Filecoin's weight in its AI crypto portfolio from 13.77% to 9.86% during a rebalancing.
Charges a 0.5% fee on transactions processed through Filecoin Pay for storage service payments.
Runs decentralized indexing infrastructure through integration with GlitterProtocol on the Filecoin network.
Launched archival snapshot calculator and documentation tools for Forest node implementation.
Forest Explorer added DataCap support for Calibnet testnet.
Head of DevRel will present an overview of Filecoin Onchain Cloud platform during a Developer DAO DevNTell session on April 3rd, 2026.
Integrated with Filecoin Beam to provide a global retrieval layer that enables production-grade access to any dataset through a single URL.
Has 478 datasets running on Filecoin Onchain Cloud.
Participates as a partner in the Accelerate Closing Event: Super Kart Miami Grand Prix scheduled for May 2026, alongside Solflare, BitRobot, Alchemy, and Brave Browser.
Hyperspace launched Sovereign L1 blockchain (Chain v1.0.0) for autonomous agents with Narwhal DAG + Bullshark BFT consensus, 1024 parallel stateless nanochains with full geth EVM per shard, and Agent Virtual Machine (AVM v0.2.0) supporting agent execution in isolated environments.
Hyperspace released CLI v5.4.0 enabling peer-to-peer collaboration between autonomous agents through gossip swarms.
Hyperspace implements Filecoin-style Proof-of-Replication using sealed sector proofs with streak tracking as part of its Proof-of-X rewards system.
Stores satellite and climate datasets from EASIER Data on Filecoin network to provide accessible and verifiable geospatial data without reliance on a single cloud provider.
Supports the development of OWS (Open Wallet Standard), an open-source initiative built by MoonPay alongside PayPal, OKX, Ripple, and other blockchain projects.
Integrated with ramo_io to store Dr. Drummond Fielding's Cornell astrophysical simulation data, with frames up to 80TB and over 5PB total dataset, distributed across storage providers with cryptographic proofs.
Ranks 6th in Santiment's top 10 AI projects by development activity, down from a higher position in the previous update.
Hosted Filecoin Orbit event in Ogun City with over 40 attendees focused on Filecoin Onchain Cloud technical features and verifiable storage for developers.
Introduced AutoCap, an automatic DataCap allocation system that reads onchain activity and distributes DataCap to participants based on their share of FIL burned during defined rounds through Filecoin Pay payments.
Hosts a Twitter Space on 2026-03-17 at 9 AM PST featuring Akave Network and AnyLog Network discussing data infrastructure scaling on Filecoin.
Selected three winning teams as storage layer for Onchain Cloud initiative, which published seven Requests for Startups with a 2026-03-31 deadline.
Launched Filecoin Onchain Cloud cohort on Web3Compass with 60+ students enrolled, featuring 2.5 hours of content across 15 lessons covering storage, payments, verification, cross-chain patterns, and agent-based architectures.
Lighthouse Web3 SDK v0.4.4 adds native CAR file support, enabling developers to upload pre-built .car archives containing content-addressed DAGs directly to Filecoin while preserving their structure.
Launched Onchain Cloud payment settlement system on mainnet, featuring stablecoin payments, automated usage fee accumulation, and onchain settlement clearing.
Powers storage for QuickSync Me, a workspace suite that evolved from a private file transfer tool and reports over 2,000 monthly users.
Experienced a 23.93% price increase over a 24-hour period ending on February 25, 2026.
Forest client supports trace_call functionality and EthTraceFilter, enabling transaction execution tracing for debugging and testing without network interaction.
Filecoin Foundation published 2025 Annual Report on February 25, 2026, detailing five years since mainnet launch; maintained active development through February 2026.
Released 2026 Network Strategy, shifting focus from expanding storage capacity to increasing paid onchain storage deals, improving incentive design, and onboarding production workload customers, operates at exbibyte scale storage capacity.
Generated $4 in revenue on February 23, 2026.
KYVE Network expands to Filecoin Onchain Cloud to address Web3's historical data bottleneck with verifiable archival storage at petabyte scale.
Launched Synapse SDK, a Javascript SDK for Filecoin Onchain Cloud providing API for smart contract and storage provider interaction, data retrieval, and verification; also launched Curio, automating storage provider data intake, verification, and failover across distributed hardware.
Generated $1.78M in revenue over 30 days, ranking 6th among DePIN projects by revenue.
Supports frontend deployment to IPFS and holds ENS frontend site files and metadata on Onchain Cloud with verified storage through pinme_eth integration.
Has more than 100 teams building on Filecoin Onchain Cloud across AI agents, decentralized frontends, indexing, compute pipelines, and data services.
Raised over $1.2 billion across dozens of token sales facilitated through CoinList platform historically.
Features USDFC, a native Filecoin-backed stablecoin running on the Filecoin Virtual Machine, allowing users to lock FIL and mint a dollar-pegged asset directly on-chain.
Stores over 1 million cultural and scientific digital artifacts from Digital Public Library of America, Prelinger Archives, and Earth Species Project.
Post-vesting cliff deflation occurs in 2026.
Partnered with MIT, Smithsonian, Internet Archive, and Government of Bermuda to store public records and government data, including Employment and Labour publications.
Completed the v27 Golden Week upgrade in September 2025, which introduced BLS12-381 precompiles to reduce friction for developers using BLS signatures in rollups, identity systems, and consensus.
Partnered with Numbers Protocol and Starling Lab to store Taiwan's 2024 election media and integrate with IPFS for cryptographic attestations of investigative material related to human rights violations.
RIBS and CIDgravity merged to form CIDgravity Gateway, unifying large-scale storage abstraction with onboarding and deal workflow for enterprise adoption.
Featured in HTX trading contest alongside DOGE, PEPE, ZEC, and BONK with $20,000 prize pool.
Launched Cloud Paws, a limited ecosystem identity NFT for early contributors to Filecoin Onchain Cloud (FOC), granting holders priority access to beta modules, bootcamps, node programs, and pilot initiatives.
Introduces Constellation, a new governance program with a phased structure progressing through three stages: Nebula, Nexus, and Galaxy, with each phase introduced sequentially based on defined scope and outcomes.
Delivered F3 upgrade in 2025, improving confirmation times by 450x to minutes, achieving parity with Ethereum for DeFi and cross-chain data bridges.
Partners with or supports Cryptic, a privacy-first messaging app with built-in crypto wallet, as part of Cryptic's infrastructure and ecosystem partnerships for data availability and Web3 tooling.
Faces headwinds in growing its decentralized storage network due to prohibitively expensive hardware costs driven by AI demand for silicon and manufacturing capacity.
Unveiled Cross-Chain Data Bridge prototype with Avalanche C-Chain via Filecoin Virtual Machine in September 2025, with interoperability enhancements planned for 2026.
Generated approximately $18M in fees/revenue in 2025.
Integrated with GLIF+ loyalty program, which uses GLF token and provides non-transferable Loyalty Cards (soulbound NFTs) to eligible Filecoin liquidity providers and storage providers for accessing specific in-protocol terms.
Binance removes FIL/FDUSD margin trading pairs on December 23, 2025, at 09:00, discontinuing both cross-margin and isolated margin trading for these pairs.
Provides IPFS-compatible storage built on Filecoin Onchain Cloud with onchain proofs across multiple providers at $5.99 per TB.
LighthouseWeb3 integrates x402 payment protocol support, enabling users to pay for Filecoin storage uploads in USDC on Base with on-chain settlement per file and no subscription model.
Groundline presents a knowledge-graph layer on Filecoin Onchain Cloud that targets AI teams and research groups for querying data through a shared graph structure with on-chain storage settlement and provides developers with monetization opportunities for published data.
Allocated $3,220,200 in Public Goods Funding Batch 2 to 16 projects across infrastructure, developer tools, ecosystem coordination, and financial infrastructure. Invites applications for core dependencies, SDKs and APIs, research on tech or economics, governance tools, and end user interfaces.
Records $198K in revenue over 30 days.
AkaveCloud provides S3-compatible storage on Filecoin with encryption, multi-region storage, no egress fees, and Snowflake external stage integration. Integrates with 375ai's distributed edge network as its decentralized storage layer, supporting data from over 40,000 retail, industrial, and logistics locations, launched September 2025.
Latest O3 releases add encryption, improved cache behavior, faster file paths, and predictable performance to the S3-compatible interface.
EastoreWeb3 launches as a Filecoin-based storage app that writes small files directly to the network through FVM smart contracts with on-chain deals.
Drops 7.3% to $1.38, volume spikes 28% to $406M, open interest at $164M and building in 24-hour period ending March 11, 2026.
Filecoin serves as storage layer for Portrait platform, which removes its ten dollar entry fee to make profile creation free.
Launched x402 pay-per-use upload feature on 2025-12-12, accepting USDC payments on Base network with each upload settling on-chain and storing on Filecoin storage.
Short-term high leverage tracking shows FIL with almost only short positions left to liquidate.
Filecoin is featured in the Grayscale Decentralized AI Fund and at least one additional institutional ETF product.
Named as a top-ranked project in FILRetroPGF Round 3 results, receiving funding support from Protocol Labs, Fil Foundation, and LPA.
Forest secures funding from the FILRetroPGF round for continued core infrastructure development work.
Akave Network raised $6.65M seed funding alongside Protocol Labs and Big Brain VC. AkaveCloud launches streaming Hugging Face datasets and models from Filecoin-backed storage, enabling AI inference via S3 endpoint.
PinMe reaches 670,000 decentralized frontends milestone and GlitterProtocol adopts Filecoin Pin to deploy frontend assets across the network.
Ranks 4th among top 10 AI & Big Data projects by developer activity, according to Santiment.
ProPGF Batch 2 launches with $4M in milestone-based funding for teams serving core network needs across infrastructure, research, governance, UX and adoption, with applications closing December 23, 2025.
Beam launches as a data delivery layer with per-byte pricing, onchain auditability, and Web2-grade retrieval performance. Introduces a global cache layer that reduces cross-continental round trips and improves retrieval speed.
Stores ERC-8004 agent identity, reputation, and discovery data via Filecoin Pin service, with Agent0 SDK supporting onchain agents. Serves as storage for ERC-8004 metadata on Filecoin Onchain Cloud.
Launched Warm Storage Service on Filecoin Onchain Cloud, providing PDP proofs and extending functionality to retrieval and payments.
Grayscale AI fund holds FIL as its third-largest position at 12.84% allocation.
Forest achieves optimizations enabling huge cost savings for archival node operators through RPC layer hardening and stability improvements in its November update.
Major institutional partnerships include Internet Archive, Smithsonian Institution, MIT Open Learning, and Flickr Foundation.
Stores Celestia and Story Protocol chain data on Filecoin Onchain Cloud with petabyte-scale capacity and fast validator sync.
Geo Podcasts stores podcast data, images, and graph records on Filecoin Onchain Cloud using the Geo knowledge graph protocol for auditable shared data access across applications.
Geobrowser stores podcast data, images, and graph records on Filecoin Onchain Cloud, enabling shared auditable data sources across applications.
Akave Cloud connects to Filecoin Onchain Cloud with two service tiers: Cloud Plus for hot workloads with instant access and Cloud Standard for backup storage using Filecoin PDP at $5.99/TB.
Akave Cloud connects its S3-compatible cloud to the platform with two service tiers: Cloud Plus for hot workloads with instant access and Cloud Standard for backup and archive storage using Filecoin PDP at $5.99/TB.
Storacha network introduces Forge, a warm storage tier on Filecoin Onchain Cloud priced at $5.99 per TiB per month for enterprise archives, media, AI training data, and backups with cryptographic proofs onchain.
Storcha network Forge launches a warm storage tier at $5.99 per TiB per month for enterprise data including archives, media, AI training data and backups with onchain cryptographic proofs.
Integration with ENS and Safe allows GitHub commits to flow through Filecoin Onchain Cloud and update ENS content hashes via multisig-approved Safe transactions for DeFi frontend security. Filecoin Pin feature launches, bridging IPFS content addressing with persistent Filecoin backend storage, audited proofs, and automated Storage Provider payments in one workflow.
Filecoin Pay introduces smart contract-based payment infrastructure for Onchain Cloud services, automatically settling payments each epoch based on verified proofs without traditional payment methods.
FIL becomes weak following early November price strength, part of broader weakness in previously strong altcoins.
FIL places 9th on LunarCrush AltRank today, a metric blending social and market activity to spotlight outperforming assets.
FIL records $148M in trading volume, ranking among top 20 cryptocurrencies by volume surge.
Filecoin Onchain Cloud adds support for Monad blockchain, allowing Monad apps to use Filecoin storage endpoints and MCP agents for decentralized AI applications with over 10,000 TPS execution capability.
Filecoin Beam functions as the data delivery layer for Filecoin Onchain Cloud, unifying retrieval under canonical URLs, adding global caching for low-latency access, maintaining data availability when storage providers go offline, and protecting providers from DDoS attacks and scraping.
GlitterProtocol adopts Filecoin Pin, moving thousands of assets to IPFS-backed storage for publishing dashboards, documentation, and frontend bundles with CID-tracked updates through their build pipeline.
Synapse SDK launches to connect applications to Filecoin Onchain Cloud, enabling USDFC deposits through Filecoin Pay, Warm Storage approval, and data management across the network.
AI tools gain ability to manage files on Filecoin Onchain Cloud through MCP server, allowing assistants to interact with storage via simple conversation and standardized protocol for reading, writing, and organizing files.
Filecoin becomes the storage layer for HTML5 games on CyberLife platform, providing secure storage for in-game assets.
LighthouseWeb3 routes uploads from AethirCloud's decentralized GPU infrastructure (430,000+ containers, NVIDIA H100/H200 units) to Filecoin for permanent tamper-proof storage of compute outputs.