What we'll cover in this article:

• $AKT Utility & Protocol Revenue 💸

• Token Distribution & Supply Schedule 🪙

• Investors & Funding Rounds 📈

• Token Unlocks & Inflation Schedule 🔓

• AKT 2.0, Akash at Home & much more 🏠💻

What is Akash Network?

Akash is a decentralized could computing marketplace, offering permissionless access to high-end GPUs and CPUs. It offers cheaper compute than AWS and other Web2 hyperscalers. Akash is a L1 chain built on the Cosmos SDK and fully IBC compatible.

Akash History

• 2015: Overclock Labs was founded by Greg Osuri & Adam Bozanich

• Dec 2017: Release of the Akash whitepaper

• Sept 2020: Akash Mainnet Launch

• Aug 2023: GPU support with Mainnet 6 upgrade

• May 2025: DeepSeek-R1 goes live on AkashChat

$AKT Token Overview

• Genesis supply: 100M

• Circulating supply: 278M (71.5%)

• Max supply: 388.5M

• AKT Price: $1.17

• Market Cap = FDV = $327M

*There are no more token unlocks, only staking rewards paid out to $AKT stakers via inflation.

Investors & Funding

A) Private Sale:

• Date: March 2020

• AKT sold: 33.8M (10% of max supply)

• Price per token: $0.057

• Money raised: $2M at an FDV of $20M

• ROI: 2,050%

B) Public Token Sale:

• Date: October 2020

• AKT sold: 2.28M (0.6% of max supply)

• Price per token: $0.35

• Money raised: $800K at an FDV of $136M

• ROI: ~334%

This event marked the TGE, post mainnet launch.

Initial Token Distribution

At genesis, 100M $AKT were distributed as displayed in the chart below:

• Genesis supply was ~25.7% of max supply.

• The remaining 74.3% (288M $AKT) are allocated to mining rewards paid out to AKT stakers.

Token Unlocks

On March 25, 2023, the final $AKT token unlock occurred. Now, 100% of the genesis tokens are fully unlocked and distributed to investors and team members.

New $AKT issuance solely derives from inflation.

AKT Supply Schedule

Circulating supply = 71.5%

• No more token unlocks for investors or team members.

• Remaining tokens will be distributed to AKT stakers through inflation.

• Max supply of 388M $AKT is expected to be reached by 2050.

Inflation Rate

$AKT has a dynamic inflation model, adjusting based on the bonded staking ratio.

• Inflation ranges from a min. of 4% to a max. of 8%.

• Inflation rewards are split 50/50 between the community pool & stakers.

• Current Inflation: 8%

• Staking APR: 10.31%

Targeted Bonding Rate = 2/3

If the bonded ratio is below the goal of 2/3 (66.7%), inflation drifts upward within the band. If it's above the goal, it drifts downward, bounded by the minimum.

The current bonding rate is 38.8%, meaning 107.7M $AKT are staked relative to the circulating supply of 277.7M.

Since 38.8% < 67%, inflation should rise.

However, inflation has already reached its upper limit of 8% and cannot rise further.

Token Utility

• 1) Security & Staking: Holders can stake AKT to secure the network and earn rewards.

• 2) Compute: AKT is used to lease compute power (GPUs & CPUs) on Akash and for gas payments.

• 3) Governance: AKT holders have voting rights on network proposals and upgrades.

AKT 2.0: Take Rates

AKT 2.0 is an initiative that introduced USDC payments to Akash and added utility to the $AKT token.

A take rate (2% on USDC, 1% on AKT payments) is charged on leases, directly flowing into the community pool, creating a sustainable revenue stream for the network.

The take rate can be changed at any time via governance.

USD spent on Akash

On average, $8K–$12K is spent daily on Akash to purchase compute.

Depending on the payment method, a 1% or 2% cut is taken and funneled back to the community pool.

This is real protocol revenue used to fund public goods, provider incentives, and potentially support AKT buyback and burn mechanisms.

Over $4M has already been spent on the Akash Supercloud.

Protocol Revenue

Let's suppose $10K is spent daily on Akash to buy compute. Depending on the take rate (1%–2%), we can calculate daily protocol revenue:

$10K × 1% = $100 (AKT take rate)
$10K × 2% = $200 (USDC take rate)

=> Daily revenue is somewhere between $100–$200.

Community Pool Spending

The Akash community pool spent over $12M YTD

• And over $17M in 2024

• That's roughly $4M per quarter

More on why the CP is aggressively investing in growth right now.

Main Community Pool funding buckets

a) Expenses for Conferences & Events
b) Community Activities & Programs
c) Marketing & Growth
d) Tenant Incentive & Provider Incentive Programs

CP sell pressure or industry trend?

Despite heavy CP spending, the $AKT chart mirrors other DePIN and decentralized cloud networks.

This indicates CP spending isn't the sole reason for the price crash. A broader industry trend is clearly visible.

Competitors in decentralized compute infra

Render, Aethir Cloud, Cudos, Golem, Flux, Io.net and a handful of other projcets.

All of them offer slightly differentiated products, yet the DePIN sector for compute is highly competitive.

CEX & DEX listings

• CEXs: HTX, Gate, Coinbase, Upbit, BitMart, KuCoin
  => Wen Binance?

• DEXs: Osmosis

Roadmap & Future Catalysts

A) Akash at Home

• Enable "home" users to participate in Akash as providers and earn

• Lighter edge compute devices like gaming PCs, laptops, or small servers

• Grows supply, cuts costs, improves privacy and decentralization

• Estimated completion: 12/31/2025

B) Starcluster

A global mash of decentralized AI compute running on Akash

• Think many compute clusters stitched together into one network

• Pushes compute closer to users for resilience and cost

• Ties directly into Akash at Home for edge supply

• Starbonds to crowdfund high-end GPUs

C) Confidential Computing

• Apps on Akash run in a private locked room (TEE)

• So that even the host cannot peek at the data

• Ideal for AI and sensitive data like customer files, keys, or healthcare

• Increases trust & privacy

• Estimated completion: EoY

To sum it up: The Good

a) No more token unlocks to insiders (VCs + team)
b) Explosive narrative with AI and DePIN
c) AskVenice and Passage are using Akash GPUs
d) Starcluster + Akash at Home paired with Confidential Compute could lead to a massive surge in compute supply

Challenges

1. Fierce competition from Web2 hyperscalers and Web3 protocols

2. Generation of sustainable revenue — Akash still subsidizes GPU providers

3. High community pool spend to bootstrap the network

Akash is still in its early stages, actively bootstrapping GPU supply and heavily investing in network growth and adoption.

The key KPI for assessing Akash's future success is whether the network can continue to scale its capacity by 10x annually.

Also, check out our $AKT Tokenomics Deep Dive on YouTube:

Full Tokenomics thread on X!

Thanks for reading folks!

We hope this article helped you stay up-to-date with the latest developments in the Cosmos ecosystem.

Disclaimer

This article is intended to educate readers about certain topics and should not be considered financial advice in any way.