Akash Network's Potential Cosmos Exit: Analyzing the Rationale and Future Implications

Akash Network, a project lauded as a cornerstone of the decentralized physical infrastructure (DePIN) space, has made a startling announcement. Founder Greg Osuri confirmed via a post on X that the network will deprecate its native Cosmos-based chain and begin a public search for a new network. The stated goal is to find a network with “strong security, a high-quality community, deep liquidity and exciting growth.”

On the surface, this is framed as a strategic evolution. But when you place this decision alongside the network’s most recent quarterly performance data, a different, more urgent picture emerges. This isn’t just a move; it’s a pivot born from necessity. The numbers suggest Akash’s foundational model was beginning to show cracks under the weight of its own ambition.

The Narrative vs. The Numbers

To understand the gravity of this move, one has to appreciate the dual narratives currently surrounding Akash. The first is the official story of success and expansion. In Q2 2025 alone, Akash secured high-profile integrations with AI players like Morpheus, Gensyn, and Saga. It was added to Grayscale’s “AI Tools & Resources” index and the Coinbase 50 Index, signaling significant institutional recognition. This is the story of a project becoming the default backend for decentralized AI—a true "Supercloud."

Then there is the second narrative, the one told by the unvarnished data in their own State of Akash Q2 2025 report. And this is the part of the report that I find genuinely puzzling. While the project was celebrating these partnerships, its core usage metrics were heading in the wrong direction. New leases, a primary indicator of user adoption, plummeted 59% quarter-over-quarter, falling from 46,000 to just 19,000. GPU usage, the very resource powering the AI revolution, contracted by 33%. Total lease revenue fell by a fifth—or 20% to be exact—from $1 million to $820,000.

The official explanation for this decline is that usage consolidated into fewer, higher-value, longer-running leases from enterprise and AI clients. This is plausible, to a degree. It’s logical that one major AI training job could replace hundreds of smaller deployments. But does it fully account for the sheer scale of the drop? A 33% contraction in GPU usage and a 59% fall in new customer agreements are not trivial figures. They are flashing red lights on the dashboard.

These numbers raise a critical question the official narrative doesn't quite answer: If you are successfully attracting the high-value enterprise clients you’ve been courting, why are both your top-line revenue and core resource utilization in decline? The spam attack in March (which temporarily halted new deployments) certainly didn't help matters, but it feels insufficient to explain the entirety of a quarter-long trend. It suggests the existing structure may not be as sticky or economically viable for the big fish as hoped.

A Calculated Search for Solid Ground

Viewed through this lens, Greg Osuri’s announcement to migrate off the Akash chain isn’t just a proactive upgrade; it’s a direct response to these underlying metrics. The criteria he listed for a new home—security, liquidity, community—read like a direct prescription for the ailments revealed in the Q2 report.

Let's break it down. An independent Cosmos appchain, for all its benefits in sovereignty, carries an inherent economic risk. Its security is directly tied to the value of its native token, AKT. For a project aiming to host mission-critical AI workloads for large enterprises, relying on the security budget of a sub-$300 million market cap token is a tough sell. Migrating to a massive, established Layer 1 instantly inherits a multi-billion-dollar security blanket. Why would a major AI company risk its models on a chain it could theoretically attack for a few hundred million dollars when it could settle on a network where that cost is orders of magnitude higher?

The search for "deep liquidity" is just as telling. The Q2 report highlighted a divergence between fee revenue in AKT terms (up 13%) and in USD terms (down 27%). This demonstrates a painful vulnerability: even if on-chain activity is healthy, the network's real-world economic output is beholden to the volatile price of its native token. Moving to an ecosystem with a robust, liquid base asset and mature DeFi infrastructure could insulate the network from this volatility and create more stable economic rails for providers and tenants.

This is like a promising specialty boutique that built its own store on a quiet side street. It has a loyal following, but to attract the major, high-volume shoppers, it needs to move into the city’s main shopping mall. The mall provides shared security, a stable financial system (ATMs and banks), and a massive amount of ambient foot traffic. Osuri’s mention of Solana as a "strong contender" underscores this thinking. The choice to even consider Solana signals a potential shift in philosophy, prioritizing raw throughput and a massive retail user base over the bespoke, interoperable sovereignty offered by the Cosmos ecosystem.

The search for a new chain is an admission that the old one, the very foundation Akash was built on, is no longer sufficient for the mission. The data showed that while the brand was growing, the economic and security engine was sputtering. The team saw this, and to their credit, they are acting decisively rather than trying to patch a leaking ship.

The Data Demanded a Different Path

Let's be clear: Akash’s decision to migrate is not a sign of failure, but a sign of brutal honesty. The Q2 2025 performance data was a clear signal that the appchain model, while revolutionary for its time, could not provide the economic scale and security guarantees required to become the undisputed infrastructure for decentralized AI. The narrative of attracting high-value clients was colliding with the reality of declining core metrics.

This move is a calculated, high-stakes bet to align the project's infrastructure with its grand vision. They are trading the comfort of their own sovereign chain for the security and liquidity of a larger ecosystem. It is a strategic retreat from a foundational thesis that was proving insufficient. The most important question now isn't about the partnerships they're making, but whether this fundamental architectural pivot can truly build a platform robust enough to finally make the numbers match the narrative.