by Anies Khan and Jascha Samadi – October 28, 2025

We’re excited to share that we’ve built a position in peaq, the infrastructure layer for machines, robots and connected devices. This investment reflects two of Greenfield’s core theses: first, that the Machine Economy – where autonomous robots, machines and devices act as economic agents – will become one of the defining drivers of blockchain adoption; and second, that the future of crypto infrastructure lies in purpose-built, application-specific blockchains rather than generalized, one-size-fits-all networks.

Alongside the investment, Greenfield operates a validator through Greenfield Labs, further aligning our long-term commitment to the network’s growth.

Machines become agents

With the advent of AI, robotics, and autonomous systems, machines are becoming independent economic agents. They are not just executing tasks; they are also providing, consuming, and monetizing services. This lays the foundation for the Machine Economy, a market expected to reach $30T by 2030. In this new paradigm, machines own wallets, make payments, exchange data, and generate revenue seamlessly.

peaq facilitates this infrastructure by being the first purpose‑built Layer‑1 (L1) blockchain designed specifically for the Machine Economy. Early Decentralized Physical Infrastructure Networks (DePINs) on general‑purpose chains often focus on sending data on‑chain in one direction. DePINs on peaq can operate more sophisticated models. By embedding machine-native, multi-directional data and value flows at the protocol layer, peaq enables machines not only to report information but also to transact and coordinate with each other in real-time, a prerequisite for real-world Machine Economy use cases. 

For instance, an autonomous vehicle pulls up to a charging station, authenticates, and pays directly, machine-to-machine, using its own self-sovereign identity and wallet, neither of which is bound to a specific platform or manufacturer. The vehicle’s wallet settles the transaction on peaq while both machines exchange usage data and verify the service in real time. This kind of multi-directional coordination takes place as peaq integrates machines at the runtime (VM) level, allowing them to interact natively with the network, holding identities, executing logic, and transacting directly, rather than being limited to interactions through external smart contracts. Another example is a fleet of autonomous cars that can be tokenized, enabling revenue distribution across a multitude of stakeholders. 

This is made possible by a suite of machine‑native tools and services that bring its infrastructure to life in real‑world applications:

• peaq ID assigns every machine a verifiable on‑chain identity, enabling autonomous interactions.
• Universal Machine Time synchronizes devices to nanosecond precision, critical for coordination among autonomous vehicles or industrial robots.
• Access, Verify, Pay, and Reputation modules provide secure permissions, trusted data exchange, micropayments, and reliability scoring, the primitives of large‑scale, trustless collaboration.
• Beyond the core DePIN SDK, peaq provides advanced, purpose-built Machine Economy SDKs: The Robotics SDK simplifies building robotics applications while establishing shared standards for interoperability and for value creation and exchange between machines. The Machine Tokenization SDK enables financing models for machines and robots, allowing these assets to be funded, owned, and monetized on-chain.

Together, this stack transforms ordinary machines into interoperable, revenue‑generating agents. Importantly, payments and transactions must be on‑chain; without an open, decentralized settlement layer, machines would remain captive to siloed, centralized infrastructure.

The rise of purpose-built blockchains

Crypto infrastructure is gradually being defined by specialization. In DeFi, Hyperliquid has become one of the clearest examples. The high-throughput, purpose-built L1 blockchain for on-chain perpetuals has captured a significant market share. With over 70% of all on-chain perpetuals volume and roughly 10% of Binance’s volume, this shows that performance gains come from focus, not generality.

The same logic applies to the Machine Economy. Just as Hyperliquid is optimized for trading, peaq is purpose-built for machines, with infrastructure designed for identity, data exchange, and real‑time machine‑to‑machine transactions at scale.

We are witnessing the transition from general‑purpose blockchain infrastructure to purpose-built technology serving a single industry or use case. Over the last cycle, chains like Solana positioned themselves as universal platforms for DeFi, DePIN, and consumer applications simultaneously. That breadth brought early traction and liquidity, but also created limitations due to a lack of focus. As verticals evolve, they develop unique infrastructure needs: trading requires low-latency performance, machines need real-time coordination and identity, and social apps have their own demands. Generalized blockspace can’t meet all these needs equally. peaq delivers the specialized infrastructure that powers the Machine Economy.

Regulatory clarity meets technological maturity

Regulatory clarity is emerging. The UAE has become one of the most active regions for the Machine Economy, and there, peaq has launched its Machine Economy Free Zone that was acknowledged by the Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority (VARA), Dubai’s official regulator for virtual assets. Together, peaq and VARA pilot frameworks and develop standards for machine tokenization, DePIN, and on-chain robotics, creating a regulatory basis for real-world deployments and the at-scale tokenization of machines. Early pilots include vertical farms, automated robo-cafés, and further projects in smart infrastructure, construction, and hospitality. In addition, peaq is working with leading private- and public-sector stakeholders to advance the Machine Economy in the UAE.

With core DeFi primitives such as a machine DEX and stablecoin in place, builders now have the tools to scale machine‑native applications. Meanwhile, investor interest in the crypto x robotics intersection continues to grow. Figure, a humanoid robotics company developing autonomous general‑purpose robots, and Skild AI, which builds foundation models for robotics and embodied intelligence, have both raised significant rounds of capital this year. In parallel, research is advancing on robot swarms as decentralized oracles and on‑chain coordination systems for embodied AI. The convergence between robotics and crypto is becoming increasingly clear: robots will not just be built, they will need open, on‑chain infrastructure to handle payments, authentication, and coordination at scale.

60+ projects, 6 million devices – peaq outgrows Solana in DePIN traction

peaq’s ecosystem already includes more than 60 DePIN projects across over 20 industries, connecting upwards of 6 million devices worldwide. By contrast, Solana’s DePIN traction stands at roughly 2.3 million devices – with Helium as a flagship project, accounting for roughly 375k hotspots, and 24,800 5G radios by late 2024 (definitions differ across ecosystems). peaq’s growth reflects a broader, more diversified ecosystem of builders and applications demonstrating real paths toward the emerging Machine Economy. Three examples:

1. Silencio is building the auditory layer for machine perception by crowdsourcing noise data through smartphones. This accounts for more than 1.1M smartphone sensors on its own, illustrating how machine identities translate to at‑scale deployments.
2. XMAQUINA launched a tokenized robo‑café demo and is structuring a DAO that gives exposure to private robotics companies and tokenized machine assets. 
3. DualMint has introduced the first tokenized robo‑farm – a showcase that even traditional sectors such as agriculture can be transformed when machines transact and generate value on‑chain. 

The peaq founders Leonard Dorlöchter, Till Wendler, and Max Thake have steadily built toward this vision, maintaining focus through multiple market cycles and strengthening the team in key areas. The addition of Martin El‑Khouri, who previously led Web3 initiatives at Bertelsmann Investments, has expanded peaq’s business development and ecosystem capabilities. Having collaborated with Martin during his time at Bertelsmann – an investor in Greenfield’s funds – we’ve seen first-hand his strategic clarity and ability to build meaningful partnerships across the Web3 landscape. We have had the team on our radar since 2020 and waited for the right moment to invest, once the vision, team and traction for peaq aligned. 

Shaping the Machine Economy

The Machine Economy is not a distant idea but a fast‑emerging reality. We believe this will be one of the most important shifts of the coming decade, and peaq is positioned at its core. Machines are starting to act as autonomous participants in markets. peaq provides the infrastructure to ensure this happens in an open and decentralized way. At Greenfield, we’re excited to join the team on this journey, contribute to the network as a validator, and look forward to working alongside the team as they scale globally. 

If you are building at the intersection of Web3, AI, robotics, or IoT, we encourage you to connect with peaq and with us. Together, we can shape a Machine Economy that empowers both machines and people to participate in global value creation.