Introduction

The InterPlanetary File System (IPFS) is often seen as a fundamental building block of the decentralized web (Web3), enabling censorship-resistant, distributed storage. Unlike traditional cloud services like AWS or Google Cloud, IPFS does not rely on centralized data centers. Instead, it uses a peer-to-peer network where users can store and retrieve content.

But what is the economic footprint of IPFS? If we were to measure its Gross Domestic Product (GDP) equivalent, what industries, revenue streams, and market activities would we include? This blog post explores the economic impact of IPFS by examining its revenue-generating ecosystem, enterprise adoption, and financial metrics.

The Economic Framework of IPFS

GDP typically measures the total value of goods and services produced within a defined economy. In the case of IPFS, we can define its economic output by analyzing:

1. Pinning Services – Companies providing IPFS-based storage solutions.
2. Filecoin Market – Tokenized incentives for decentralized storage.
3. DApps & Web3 Services – Applications built on top of IPFS.
4. Enterprise Adoption – Businesses integrating IPFS for secure data storage.
5. VC Investments & Funding – Capital flowing into the IPFS ecosystem.

1. Pinning Services: Monetizing IPFS Storage

IPFS nodes do not inherently store data permanently, requiring third-party pinning services to ensure content remains available. Several companies monetize IPFS pinning:

• Pinata – Offers both free and paid pinning solutions for individuals and businesses.
• Filebase – Provides a simple interface for managing IPFS storage.
• Infura (Consensys) – Supports IPFS API integrations for developers.

Revenue Estimates

• Pricing models vary from freemium plans to enterprise storage contracts.
• Estimated market size: $40-$50 million
  • This estimate is based on publicly available data about money raised by pinning services, customers, and price points for paid plans across these services

2. Filecoin: Archival Storage For IPFS

Filecoin ($FIL) incentivizes users to provide long-term, archival storage for IPFS. Unlike centralized cloud providers, Filecoin enables a decentralized marketplace where storage providers compete for business.

Market Data

• Filecoin market cap: $2 billion (at the time of writing).
• Total storage capacity: 23 exbibytes (EiB), with 2.0 EiB of data actively stored.

3. DApps & Web3 Services Built on IPFS

A growing number of applications leverage IPFS for decentralized content distribution. Some notable examples include:

• NFT Marketplaces (OpenSea, Rarible, Zora) – Many NFTs reference metadata stored on IPFS.
• Decentralized Publishing (Mirror.xyz) – A censorship-resistant blogging platform.
• Memecoin launchpads (Pump.fun) - A simple way to create memecoins and trade them
• Decentralized AI & Data Hosting – Various projects use IPFS for AI model hosting and research datasets.

NFTs represent the easiest and most traceable numbers for helping us calculate the market impact of IPFS for dApps and web3 services. According to a 2024 study, approximately 39% of NFTs had their metadata and assets stored on IPFS. This may be significantly under-counting the reality, but we’ll use it as our baseline.

Economic Impact

Annual Trading Volumes:

• 2024: NFTs recorded a total sales volume of approximately $8.83 billion, slightly surpassing the $8.7 billion achieved in 2023.
• $831 million in volume so far in 2025 (as of Feb 12, 2025)
• Pump.fun has a $4 billion market cap across the coins its users have created, all of which are backed by IPFS.

4. Enterprise Adoption: Businesses Using IPFS

IPFS is not just for crypto-native applications. Some enterprises are integrating it into their workflows for:

• Data archival and redundancy (e.g., blockchain companies, researchers, publishers).
• Decentralized identity and verification (e.g., Verifiable Credentials).
• Censorship-resistant communication (e.g., Web3 social media platforms).

Calculating the market contributions of enterprise IPFS adoption is difficult as these numbers are not widely published. However, we know that in 2023, the global market for Enterprise File Synchronization and Sharing was approximately $9.5 billion. IPFS surely represents only a small portion of this overall market, but even at 0.5%, the enterprise IPFS market could represent $45 million.

5. VC Investments & Funding in the IPFS Ecosystem

The growth of IPFS-related businesses is fueled by significant venture capital investment. Protocol Labs (the creators of IPFS and Filecoin) have raised funding, and multiple startups are building around the ecosystem.

Investment Data

• Total funding raised by Protocol Labs
  • $237 million ICO
  • $152 million in VC fundraising
• Notable IPFS-related startup funding rounds
  • Pinata raised $21.5 million
  • Filebase raised $3 million

The Future of the IPFS Economy

While IPFS is still evolving, it has already generated significant economic activity. By analyzing pinning services, Filecoin’s market impact, DApp usage, enterprise adoption, and venture capital flows, we can start to estimate the GDP of IPFS.

It is clear that IPFS has generated a significant amount of capital into the market. In fact, just from the limited data we’ve been able to analyze in this blog post, we can see billions of dollars of market activity.

As demand for verifiable, immutable, and portable storage systems continue to rise, the GDP of IPFS will only continue to expand.