active leases growing by 26% QoQ to 875.output: title: Akash Network (AKT)

Akash (AKT) is a decentralized cloud computing marketplace that facilitates the buying and selling of compute resources.

00. Active leases also rose 26% QoQ to reach 875 daily leases on average. These metrics indicate a strong demand for Akash’s decentralized cloud services, driven by key initiatives such as NVIDIA’s acquisition of Brev.dev and Akash’s expansion into Latin America.

Akash’s compute resource utilization saw notable shifts, with a 428% YoY increase in GPU usage and a 214% YoY rise in RAM usage. This reflects a growing preference among users for deploying AI and machine learning workloads on Akash's decentralized infrastructure. Despite a decline in storage usage, capacity continued to expand, ensuring Akash remained equipped to handle diverse workloads.

The network also saw a steady increase in active providers, rising 11% QoQ to reach 67 providers. This growth was fueled by the Provider Incentives Pilot 2 program, which aimed to onboard advanced GPUs and expand Akash’s capacity for high-performance computing.

On the token front, AKT’s market capitalization increased 26% YoY to reach $692 million, while the total staked AKT decreased by 11.0% QoQ. The staking ratio also dropped from 55% to 47% of the circulating supply, reflecting adjustments in network incentives or strategic reallocation of assets by validators and delegators.output: Key Insights

Primer

Akash (AKT) is a decentralized cloud computing marketplace that facilitates the buying and selling of compute resources. It is an open-source, permissionless protocol that provides an alternative to today’s centralized cloud services (i.e., AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud). Akash aims to leverage the global amount of underutilized server capacity, which can range from 5% to over 30%. The Akash marketplace functions via a reverse auction, giving users the ability to name a price and describe the resources they want for deployments. Akash’s decentralized network of compute providers runs its open-source software and competes to provide resources, often at a fraction of the cost of big cloud providers. Specifically, Akash hosts containers where users can run any cloud-native application (e.g., AI workloads, gaming servers, blockchain nodes, and websites). Akash offers extensive cloud management services like Kubernetes, which can be used for hosting and managing containers. Additionally, Akash supports decentralized AI applications such as Venice.ai, AkashChat, and AkashGen, reflecting its role in enabling AI infrastructure.

Akash is a Tendermint-based blockchain built using the Cosmos SDK. Marketplace activity (requests, bids, lease details, etc.) is stored onchain and payments are settled with Akash’s native token (AKT). For a full primer on Akash, refer to our Initiation of Coverage report.

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Key Metrics

Usage and Provider Analysis

Leases and Revenue

Akash’s marketplace uses a reverse auction, in which users propose a bid that describes the resources they’d like to use for a deployment. When accepted, a lease is opened onchain managing the activity of this relationship.

New leases on Akash Network represent agreements between users and providers for renting computational resources. In Q4 2024, Akash recorded a 274% QoQ increase in new leases, rising from 16,000 in Q3 to 61,000 in Q4, and a 317% YoY growth compared to 15,000 in Q4 2023. This growth reflects the impact of key developments in Q3 and Q4 2024.

A key driver was NVIDIA’s acquisition of Brev.dev in Q3, which enhanced Akash’s GPU ecosystem and attracted enterprise users focused on AI and high-performance computing. In Q4, Akash’s expansion to three countries in Latin America supported regional adoption. The beta release of Akash Console 2.0 introduced fiat payments and free trials, reducing barriers for non-crypto-native users. Additionally, reduced take rates for uAKT (1%) and axlUSDC (2%) made leasing more affordable, while the launch of permissionless AI access to advanced models broadened Akash’s appeal to developers and researchers, further driving adoption.

Active leases on Akash represent ongoing agreements where users utilize and manage computational resources on the network. Leases remain active as long as they are in use and cease once closed. In Q4 2024, Akash Network’s average daily active leases increased 26% QoQ and 74% YoY, rising from 693 in Q3 to 875 in Q4. This growth was driven by strategic integrations, enhanced accessibility, and broader adoption across diverse workloads. Key partnerships, such as those with Sentinel Scout and Passage, introduced scalable and recurring use cases, including AI