Akash Network's AKT Goes Live on Solana in Cosmos Exit

Akash Network's AKT token went live on Solana on November 12, marking the start of a planned 24-month migration away from the project's Cosmos-based blockchain. The launch, confirmed in a Solana announcement, routes AKT onto Solana through Sunrise, the Wormhole-introduced bridging platform, with trading supported across Jupiter, Raydium, Phantom, Kamino, Meteora, and Titan Exchange.

The numbers behind the move are unambiguous. Governance Proposal 346 passed on November 2 with approximately 97% community support, authorizing a full relocation of Akash's infrastructure over roughly two years.

What does the migration change for holders?

An official portal opened on November 12 and will stay available for two years. Holders can transfer AKT from Cosmos to Solana at a 1:1 ratio through a one-way mechanism: tokens get locked on the original chain, and an equivalent amount is minted on Solana.

The mechanics are straightforward. Self-custody users connect a wallet, pick a Solana receiving address, and authorize the transfer. The portal says the process typically takes two to three minutes. The service charges an Akash network fee of 0.0125 AKT, and a relayer covers Solana-side transaction costs.

Akash has told holders there is no rush. Staking rewards continue until the network cutover, and balances held through Akash Console migrate automatically. Centralized exchanges will handle transfers for their customers on their own schedules.

What happens to staked AKT?

Staked tokens need separate handling. Holders who withdraw must sit through a 21-day unbonding period before they can transfer. Akash advises stakers to keep using the existing chain until the marketplace migration begins.

There are limits, too. AKT moved to Solana cannot return through the portal and cannot be staked on Solana until a new staking system ships.

Why Solana, and why now?

Founder Greg Osuri explained the choice in an October 26 technical post. The team evaluated several blockchain architectures against requirements for transaction capacity, operating costs, liquidity, and developer infrastructure before settling on Solana.

Cost was a driving factor. Akash currently pays to maintain a separate Cosmos chain secured by roughly 100 validators. The project estimates that running its marketplace on Solana would cost about 0.075 SOL in daily network fees. An Ethereum layer-2 was also considered, but the team cited transaction costs under heavy workloads, the absence of a centralized sequencer, and existing infrastructure for decentralized physical infrastructure networks as reasons to prefer Solana.

Osuri framed the decision as part of the company's vision of "making compute a liquid resource."

Akash operates a decentralized cloud marketplace where developers and AI companies rent GPU resources from independent providers. Solana reports the network has processed approximately 644,000 compute leases over six years of operation.

The migration will eventually carry Akash Marketplace, the AkashML inference platform, and the Homenode computing initiative onto Solana.

What comes next?

A separate governance vote will set the timing for the computing marketplace's move. Once that cutover happens, existing workloads keep running on the Cosmos chain for 90 days before the original blockchain is scheduled to halt — a hard deadline that gives users a clear final window to complete their transfers.