This post is for educational and informational purposes only and must not be constructed as containing investment advice. The blogger who wrote this post is not a financial advisor, depending on your country and local regulation, you should seek advice from the appropriate financial advisors to ensure you are informed about the risks.
Status: Published.
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Last update: May 20, 2026
Summary
1- Category
1-A- Filecoin - the network
1-B- Fil - the token
2- the storage market
3- Filecoin use cases
4- Utility
5- Market capitalization
6- Analytics and Explorers
6-A- Analytics
6-B- Explorers
7- Competition
8- Ecosystem
8-A- Filecoin Foundation
8-B- Protocol Labs : R & D
8-C- Curio
8-D- Filecoin Onchain Cloud
8-E- Contributors
8-E-1- Fil Dev Summit
8-E-2- FIL - BUILDERS
8-E-3- FilOz
8-E-4- Space Meridian
8-F- Tokens
8-F-1- USDFC
8-F-2- Wrapped FIL
8-G- FIL – RetroPGF
9- Stakeholders
9-A- Developers
9-B- ETFs
9-B-1- Grayscale filecoin trust
9-B-2- Valour filecoin SEK
9-C- Filecoin TLDR
9-D- Storage Providers
9-E- Projects
9-F- Staking
9-F-1- GLIF
9-F-2- FILET
9-F-3- Filliquid
9-F-4- MineFi
9-G- Retrieval providers
10- Filecoin ups and downs
10-A- Supply
10-B- Supply increase
10-B-1- Minting
10-B-2- Unlocking program
10-C- Supply decrease - Locking as Collateral
10-D- Supply reduction - Burning
11- Why would someone need to buy FIL
11-A- Filecoin client nodes
11-B- Storage provider nodes
12- Why Filecoin go down ?
12-A- Users
12-B- Competition - Decentralized storage
12-C- Unstaking
12-D- Unlock selling
12-E- Minting
12-F- List of possible other reasons FIL price can go down:
13- Why Filecoin go up ?
13-A- Users
13-B- Competition - centralized storage
13-C- New exchange listing
13-D- Staking
13-D-1- Filecoin client nodes
13-D-2- Storage provider nodes
13-E- Grants
13-F- Data
13-G- List of possible other reasons FIL price can go up:
14- Where to trade Filecoin?
14-A- Buy
14-B- Sell
15- How to stay informed about Filecoin?
15-A- Filecoin News:
15-B- Limited access / require subscription
Summary
Filecoin the network is a Storage solution similar to AWS S3 bucket, Microsoft azure, and google cloud storage, but Filecoin is a decentralized solution. Actually apps developers are facing some pricing and billing problems with centralized cloud providers. Any new provider that can bring cost reduction, predictability and transparency could basically attract clients.
As an infrastructure targeted to software developers, Filecoin have the cards that can allow them to compete with google, AWS,… in a lucrative market. This process is already initiated by the launch of :
- - Filecoin onchain cloud which is a fully decentralized cloud,
- - Filecoin warm storage service,.…
If google started as a search engine, and amazon started as an e-commerce, Filecoin started as a cold storage provider. We are now in different times, and Filecoin will succeed if they can catch opportunities linked to the next decade. FIL the token has an ongoing unlocking program running for the next 2 years at least, the chances for FIL price to rise are lower compared to other cryptocurrencies. But in theory at the end of the unlock program, a price increase is possible.
FIL can be considered a long term investment, but volatility can push FIL price up for short periods of time. Allocating no more than 0.25% of an entire crypto portfolio is probably the right thing to do, depending on the size of your portfolio.
1- Category
1-A- Filecoin - the network
Filecoin is a peer-to-peer network that enables reliable, decentralized file storage through built-in economic incentives and cryptographic proofs. Clients, or users, pay any number of storage providers, or data centers, to store the client’s data-- storage providers then provide cryptographic proofs daily as evidence to the clients that the data is still at the data center. Storage providers lock a certain amount of filecoin as collateral---should they repeatedly fail to provide a proof, their collateral gets burned, serving as a strong deterrent from the data center losing the data.
1-B- Fil - the token
Filecoin’s native currency, FIL, is a utility token that incentivize persistent storage on the Filecoin network. Storage providers earn FIL by offering reliable storage services or committing storage capacity to the network.
2- the storage market
Filecoin is a Decentralized Storage solution and DePIN (Decentralized Physical Infrastructure Network). storage is provided in 3 categories:
| Category | Storage in |
|---|---|
| hot | SSD : Solid State Drives |
| warm | HHD : Hard Disk Drives |
| cold | objects |
With proof of replication, Filecoin started as a cold storage solution, but in 2025 Filecoin launched (PDP) proof of data possession which allow hot storage when fast retrieval is needed.
3- Filecoin use cases
Filecoin is used as a storage solution for a range of products, including from :
- web3-native NFT storage: such as NFT.storage that leverages filecoin for NFT content and metadata storage,
- smart contracts data,
- Enterprise data,
- dApps database,
- creative commons media,
- public data,
- incentivized permanent storage,
- scientific papers,
- historical documents and arch traditional web2 datasets : shoah foundation and the internet archive use filecoin for content preservation and backup.
Data stored in filecoin came from projects such as :
- Wikipedia,
- OpenStreetMap,
- gnomAD,
- Project Gutenberg,
- OpenAQ,...
Filecoin decentralized approach not only aims to enhance data security and privacy but also prevents censorship of stored information by any singular entity, including governments or other intermediaries.
4- Utility
FIL is used on the Filecoin network for :
- network payments : users pay in FIL to the storage providers,
- blockchain rewards : providers are rewarded for storage space, tasks performed, validation, block added, processing,….
- Collateral for storage deals,
- governance : holders can propose, deliberate, design, contribute to consensus for network changes,…
5- Market capitalization
according to coinmarketcap.com as of Apr 30, 2026 Filecoin rank 69 with a market capitalization of $716.94M.
6- Analytics and Explorers
6-A- Analytics
| Name | Category | Focus | Metrics |
|---|---|---|---|
| starboard | analytics | economics | +110 |
| coinglass | analytics | futures | +100 |
| defillama | analytics | DeFi / TVL | +30 |
| filecoin data portal | analytics | none | 25 |
| token terminal | analytics | financial | 20 |
| Dune | analytics | 14 | |
| nansen | analytics | screener | +9 |
| filecoin tldr | data | Paid deals | 6 |
6-B- Explorers
| Name | Category | Focus | Metrics |
|---|---|---|---|
| filscan.io | explorer | blockchain explorer | +75 |
| blockscout | explorer | blockchain explorer | +30 |
| filfox | explorer | blockchain explorer | +25 |
| beryx | explorer | blockchain explorer | +15 |
7- Competition
decentralized storage is in competition with :
- - traditional cloud services,
- - content delivery networks.
as a cold long term storage niche solution, Filecoin was targeted to not for profit institutions operating in fields like : edition, education, research, archive,…. Its a none commercial sector but very important at the same time, funded through donations, grants, charitable aid, philanthropy, governments funding,… From this point of view, Filecoin can in the long term be an important solution for researchers and with time Filecoin can attract those institutions and grow its user base as a decentralized archive storage solution.
By 2025, Filecoin launched PDP and Filecoin Onchain Cloud. Filecoin ecosystem can now offer a decentralized cloud and target application developers requiring warm or hot storage, in addition to specification that only decentralization can allow.
8- Ecosystem
8-A- Filecoin Foundation
Filecoin is the world’s largest decentralized storage network. Filecoin foundation ‘s mission is to preserve humanity’s most important information, as well as to facilitate the open source governance of the Filecoin network, fund research and development projects for decentralized technologies, and support the growth of the filecoin ecosystem and community.
8-B- Protocol Labs : R & D
Protocol Labs is an innovation network that connects over 600 tech startups, service providers, investment funds, accelerators, foundations, and other organizations developing breakthrough technologies and products in the frontiers of computing : web3, AI, AR, VR, BCI, hardware, And more.
8-C- Curio
Curio is the enterprise-grade platform for Filecoin storage providers, unifying sealing, proving, deal-making, and retrieval into one resilient cluster architecture. Beyond replacing legacy Lotus and Boost, Curio powers Market 2.0 with automated deal pipelines, integrates with IPNI for fast, verifiable retrieval, and enables Snark Markets, letting SPs outsource or monetize GPU capacity for zk-proofs.
8-D- Filecoin Onchain Cloud
Filecoin Onchain Cloud addresses demand for faster access, dynamic payments, and cryptographic verification that can operate within smart contracts. They addresses this next-generation demand by re-imagining storage as a programmable cloud service layer where each capability (storage, retrieval, billing, verification) exists as a composable onchain module. These modules can be combined, forked, or extended, giving builders the flexibility to create customized decentralized applications and data-driven services.
8-E- Contributors
8-E-1- Fil Dev Summit
Fil Dev Summit is a gathering of developers, builders, and engaged community members who want to contribute to the core protocol and network evolution of Filecoin (think IPFS Thing, but bigger !). this summit is more than just a meetup—it’s a place for meaningful and impact full conversations that help push Filecoin forward.
8-E-2- FIL - BUILDERS
FIL-B (fil-builders) is a public goods developer experience team committed to helping builders design, unlock, and implement on-chain solutions on Filecoin’s decentralized storage protocol.
8-E-3- FilOz
FilOz is an independent public good Filecoin protocol design and development team in the Filecoin Network working on protocol improvements and security.
8-E-4- Space Meridian
Space Meridian is a product-driven R & D lab that spun out of protocol labs in early 2024. they ship open-source protocols and systems rooted in privacy, verifiability, cryptography, self-sovereignty, and long-term resilience.
8-F- Tokens
8-F-1- USDFC
USDFC is stablecoin exclusively backed by Filecoin, with all operations occurring on the Filecoin Virtual Machine (FVM).
8-F-2- Wrapped FIL
Wrapped FIL (wFIL) is the canonical wrapper token of the native Filecoin (FIL) token. Wrapped FIL features a 1-to-1 ratio pegged to FIL. It’s a wrapper token based on the ERC-20 token standard for the native Filecoin token (FIL). It allows FIL to be bridged and used in Ethereum-compatible decentralized applications (dApps) hosted on other blockchain, such as decentralized exchanges (DEXs), lending platforms, and other places where FIL is not natively supported.
8-G- FIL – RetroPGF
FIL-RetroPGF-3 is an optimism-inspired retroactive public goods funding round for the filecoin ecosystem.
9- Stakeholders
9-A- Developers
developers can improve speed and reduce gas fees by storing smart contract data on Filecoin. With Filecoin, the data itself is stored off-chain, but is used to generate verifiable CIDs and storage proofs that are recorded on the Filecoin chain and can be included in their smart contracts. This design pairs well with multiple smart contract networks such as Ethereum, Polygon, Avalanche, Solana, and more. Their smart contract only needs to include the compact content ids. This design allows developers to offer new programmable data services and provide them with features such as payments automation, verifiability, proof of availability.
Developers could choose Filecoin to satisfy specific development project requirements such as :
- - storage,
- - AI datasets storage,
- - decentralized applications,
- - data dApps monetization,
- - compliance,
9-B- ETFs
9-B-1- Grayscale filecoin trust
Grayscale filecoin trust is one of the first investment vehicles that enables investors to gain exposure to the token underlying the filecoin platform (‘’FIL’’) in the form of a security while avoiding the challenges of buying, strong, and safekeeping FIL, directly.
9-B-2- Valour filecoin SEK
valour filecoin sek is an exchange-traded product that tracks the price of FIL.
| ETF | AUM |
|---|---|
| Grayscale filecoin trust | $2,143,154 |
| Valour filecoin SEK | $73,143 |
9-C- Filecoin TLDR
Filecoin TLDR provide digestible news, insights and updates on the Filecoin network and FIL.
9-D- Storage Providers
Filecoin miners, also known as storage providers, provide storage space and maintain the network, in exchange they are rewarded with newly minted FIL tokens for their contributions to the network....
here i would like to highlight the difference between the miners community in Bitcoin and the miners community in Filecoin. Bitcoin miners community is very organized, many of them are publicly traded companies, operating data centers globally, and employing a significant number of technician and engineers.
Through the years, they launched initiatives aimed at:
- Bitcoin advocacy,
- Spreading knowledge about Bitcoin in different media,
- political lobbying for a better Bitcoin policy,
that is partially how BTC reached $120k and allowed Bitcoin miners to stay afloat.
it is not the case for filecoin, miners in the Filecoin ecosystem are not influential, constrained into selling their FIL to cover their costs.
9-E- Projects
Data in this section is from : [ fil.org/ecosystem-explorer ]
| Category | Number |
|---|---|
| storage | 80 |
| tooling & productivity | 43 |
| public goods & dweb | 11 |
| artificial intelligence | 10 |
| media & entertainment | 10 |
| climate & decentralized science | 8 |
| finance | 4 |
| network | 4 |
| education, academia & health | 3 |
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9-F- Staking
9-F-1- GLIF
GLIF enables custom capital markets for decentralized physical infrastructure (DePIN) networks. Token holders of specific DePIN network tokens can earn rewards by productively putting them to use with hardware providers in the network. Hardware operators borrow against locked stake, hardware receipts, or future revenue, expanding storage, compute, an energy capacity. Proven on Filecoin with 35M FIL TVL and over $1B USD in cumulative borrow/lend volume, GLIF is now rolling the model out across chains – becoming the essential credit layer for every DePIN network.
9-F-2- FILET
Filet is a decentralized Filecoin staking service powered by the Filecoin mining power tokenization protocol. It provides Filecoin holders with a secure and competitive staking service, with all returns generated from Filecoin mining rewards rather than from other external lending platforms.
9-F-3- Filliquid
FILLiquid is a unique DeFi protocol within the Filecoin ecosystem, combining Liquid Staking with DePIN.
9-F-4- MineFi
MineFi is a decentralized service platform based on FVM smart contracts that allows ordinary people to provide storage services for Filecoin and get Filecoin token rewards. The products are sold directly by storage providers without intermediaries, aiming to provide users with a convenient, efficient, safe and higher-yield investment experience.
9-G- Retrieval providers
retrieval providers, or RPs, specialize in delivering quick access to data rather than long-term storage. While many storage providers also offer retrieval services, standalone RPs are increasingly joining the network to enhance data accessibility.
10- Filecoin ups and downs
Filecoin supply is capped and the tokenomics allow many type of operations for FIL token:
- Minting,
- Locking,
- Unlocking,
- Staking,
- Unstaking,
- Burning,....
This makes the circulating supply dynamic and multi variables.
10-A- Supply
Filecoin is not an inflationary cryptocurrency, With a maximum circulating supply of 2 billion FIL, no more than 2 billion Filecoin will ever exist.
from : observablehq.com/@starboard/a-primer-to-filecoin-circulating-supply/2
| Allocation | % | Category | vesting | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| filecoin foundation | 100 000 000 | 5,00 % | over | |
| PL Team & Contributions | 90 000 000 | 4,50 % | Protocol Labs allocation | |
| Protocol Labs | 210 000 000 | 10,50 % | Protocol Labs allocation | over |
| Fundraising Remainder | 50 000 000 | 2,50 % | investor allocation | |
| Fundraising SAFT | 150 000 000 | 7,50 % | investor allocation | |
| Mining reserve | 300 000 000 | 15,00 % | mining rewards | |
| Storage Mining allocation | 1 100 000 000 | 55,00 % | mining rewards | |
| 2 000 000 000 | 100,00 % |
10-B- Supply increase
10-B-1- Minting
Filecoin miners, also known as storage providers, provide storage space and maintain the network, in exchange they are rewarded with newly minted FIL tokens for their contributions to the network..
10-B-2- Unlocking program
Filecoin has an ongoing unlocking program, according to tokenomics.com this program will run until 2030 at least, it will inject millions of FIL to the market, and this will constantly increase sale pressure with the price decline as a consequence.
only around 40 % of total FIL supply is in circulation, and with an ongoing unlocking program running for the next 3 years at least, the chances for FIL price to rise are lower compared to other cryptocurrencies.
10-C- Supply decrease - Locking as Collateral
to ensure network security and reliable storage, storage providers must lock FIL as pledge collateral during block reward mining. In case a SP fail to meet their commitments, their collateral gets slashed.
to satisfy the varied collateral needs of storage providers in a minimally burdensome way, Filecoin includes three different collateral mechanisms :
- - initial pledge collateral, an initial commitment of FIL that a miner must provide with each sector.
- - block rewards as collateral, a mechanism to reduce the initial token commitment by vesting block rewards over time.
- - storage deal provider collateral, which aligns incentives between storage provider and client and can allow providers to differentiate themselves in the market.
10-D- Supply reduction - Burning
the network burns FIL in the form of gas fees. Most activity on-chain has some level of gas involved. FIL’s maximum circulating supply is capped at 2 billion FIL. However, this maximum will never be reached, as a portion of FIL is permanently removed from circulation through gas fees, penalties, and other mechanisms.
11- Why would someone need to buy FIL
to interact with the cross-chain bridge as a developers, they need a wallet with enough native tokens (FIL & AVAX) and ERC-20 tokens for fees and storage payments.
11-A- Filecoin client nodes
Filecoin client nodes are required to stake Filecoin tokens as collateral to participate in the network,
11-B- Storage provider nodes
Storage provider nodes are required to stake Filecoin tokens as collateral to participate in the network,
12- Why Filecoin go down ?
12-A- Users
For users looking for storage space for their data, it is all about finding a better solution with interesting features and improved security. If some users has reached a significant size, they will express requirements and specifications for their storage space purchase. With the important competition in the cloud storage market, it means that users finding alternatives and leaving Filecoin is something that can happen.
12-B- Competition - Decentralized storage
Filecoin is not the only blockchain in the decentralized storage market, there is other networks such as :
A competitor able to provide useful features, better quality at a better price is something possible, if one or many succeed in doing so, they will be able to grap market share from Filecoin, lower demand for filecoin and push FIL price down.
12-C- Unstaking
If one or many Filecoin client nodes and Storage provider nodes are no longer interested in participating in Filecoin network, they will unstake their collateral. by doing so they can increase circulating supply and push the price down.
Other holders such as traders or investors can find better opportunities, unstake their FIL and push the price down.
12-D- Unlock selling
ICO participants and team members are constrained by their FIL holding locking program. once their FIL are unlocked, they basically have two choice, selling or holding. if many of them decide to sell, they will certainly push the price down
12-E- Minting
an increase in storage providers mining activity will allow them to access rewards through the minting of new FIL. which than will increase circulating supply, specially if they have no choice but to sell, to cover their mining costs.
12-F- List of possible other reasons FIL price can go down:
| Stakeholder | How they can push the price down? |
|---|---|
| Community | Start taking profit or liquidating their FIL position |
| Payment solutions providers | not interested in integrating FIL in their platforms |
| Media or Social media influencer | Start criticizing FIL |
| Filecoin ETF holders | Traditional investors start selling their ETF shares. |
13- Why Filecoin go up ?
13-A- Users
For users looking for storage space for their data, it is all about finding a better solution with interesting features and improved security. Decentralized storage is not the market dominant, traditional cloud services providers are the one controlling the market, with giant such as Microsoft, google, amazon and Oracle. Few years ago, before the AI wave, cloud services were the main focus on the IT services market. This mean that things can evolve, if Filecoin is able to improve its features and security, it can increase its clients demand, which can push FIL price up.
13-B- Competition - centralized storage
ChatGPT was launched on November 30, 2022. while Filecoin was launched on October 15, 2020. at that time Microsoft and google clouds were making the headlines as the main technology of the moment, It was a thing.
the data storage marketplace is very competitive, with multiple providers offering their services to customers seeking affordability to reduce their costs. The price are still very expensive for small or failing projects and the pricing is not transparent, even corporate are training specialists to reduce or optimize cloud services costs. the price will always be balanced through competition, which mean (in theory) that the increase in storage capacity utilization rate is the way storage providers can increase their market share.
Filecoin was cold storage solution at launch, but the Filecoin ecosystem is evolving to a decentralized cloud that can provide hot storage. This process is at its beginning and could with time offer the features that developers are looking for.
13-C- New exchange listing
the listing of Filecoin in new exchanges capture investors attention and expose the crypto to a new demand, it also lead to the launch of new FIL/fiat pairs.
13-D- Staking
Staking is a way traders and investors can diversify their portfolios, but for entities interacting with the network its a requirement. for the network is a way cover risks, incentivize or sanction behaviors in the network.
For market supply it is less FIL available for sale in crypto exchanges, and scarcity lead to increase in price.
13-D-1- Filecoin client nodes
Filecoin client nodes are required to stake Filecoin tokens as collateral to participate in the network.
13-D-2- Storage provider nodes
Storage provider nodes are required to stake Filecoin tokens as collateral to participate in the network.
13-E- Grants
dApps projects that luck funding are actively looking for Grants opportunities that can help them launch or develop their solutions. those projects in return could increase demand for FIL, and by doing so they can push the price up.
13-F- Data
Data production is expected to increase in the future, and archive solutions that are safe and affordable could see an increase in demand, if Filecoin is able to catch this opportunity, their will be more demand for FIL and and an increase in FIL price as a consequence.
13-G- List of possible other reasons FIL price can go up:
| Stakeholder | How they can push the price up? |
|---|---|
| Payment solutions providers | Major payment solutions providers start integrating Filecoin in their platforms |
| Media and Social media influencer | Promote Filecoin |
| Miners | Have enough cash at hand, decide to hold Filecoin rewards for the long term. |
| Filecoin ETF holders | Traditional investors start investing Filecoin ETF shares due to change in perception or market conditions. |
14- Where to trade Filecoin?
I recommend using BloFin.com, a crypto trading solution that provides an easy-to-use, secure and reliable trading experience to beginners and experienced traders.
BloFin allow users to trade +500 cryptocurrencies and provide services and features such :
- - DCA,
- - trading bots,
- - demo trading,
- - copy trading,
- - staking,….
To start trading Filecoin you need to Sign up, you can use this LINK to quickly register as a user with no KYC needed, or use this checklist if you are interested in getting more details.
Once you are registered you can follow steps bellow to start trading Filecoin:
As a beginner you should start using 2 order types:
- Market order : allow trader to buy or sell immediately at the best available price in the market,
- Trigger order : trigger orders convert to market order when ever a specific condition is met,
14-A- Buy
- go to spot tab,
- click on spot,
- select FILUSDT,
- go to the order panel (trade) on the right side,
- click on buy,
- select order type,
- enter the order amount,
- review the order details,
- click FIL Buy,…..
14-B- Sell
- go to spot tab,
- click on spot,
- select FILUSDT,
- go to the order panel (trade) on the right side,
- click on sell,
- select order type,
- enter the order amount,
- review the order details,
- click FIL sell,….
15- How to stay informed about Filecoin?
Here you can find a list of resources to stay informed about Filecoin.
15-A- Filecoin News:
15-B- Limited access / require subscription:
| News Outlet | |
|---|---|
| 1 | bloomberg.com/search?query=filecoin |
| 2 | forbes.com/search/?q=filecoin |
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