Akash holders approve Solana migration, ending AKT staking

What happened

Akash Network token holders approved a plan to move the project from its sovereign Cosmos chain to Solana, Blockonomi reported. Governance Proposal 346 passed on Nov. 2, 2026, with 97.27% of votes in favor. CryptoSlate, which checked the proposal before the voting deadline, reported that the authorization covers the migration and token portal but leaves the marketplace cutover to a later proposal.

The approval allows AKT to launch as an SPL token, expected two to three weeks after the vote once token and portal audits are complete, according to Blockonomi. Holders would swap AKT for SPL AKT at a 1:1 ratio through a portal open for two years. The token keeps the AKT ticker, uses six decimals and does not change total supply. The swap is irreversible, and AKT sent through the portal leaves akashnet-2 permanently.

Staked AKT can migrate in one transaction, starting a 21-day unbonding period, claiming unpaid rewards and queuing the balance for Solana. Exchanges will move customer balances on their own schedule, Console-managed wallets will migrate automatically, and AKT on Osmosis or other IBC chains must return to akashnet-2 first; no SOL is needed. Until cutover, AKT on the current chain still pays gas, earns staking rewards and can vote. Current-chain rewards and inflation end at cutover, and validator roles and income end when the old chain halts 90 days later. The proposal does not set a cutover date. The marketplace will move only after audits, a provider testnet of at least six weeks with 25 or more operators, a 14-day rehearsal with zero blockers and a separate cutover vote. Existing leases will keep running for 90 days after cutover before the halt.

Why it matters

The vote separates how AKT balances are represented after migration from how holders earn income. A 1:1 conversion preserves a balance at transfer, not the staking yield attached to it. CryptoSlate reported that Akash's draft economic framework would allow new AKT issuance for provider incentives and the community treasury, so a passive holder could lose staking income while new tokens are issued for other purposes. Founder Greg Osuri said in an Oct. 26 explanation that replacement staking mechanisms would be announced before cutover, but no yield or payout formula has been published.

What the data shows

Blockonomi reported the final tally as about 59.98 million AKT in favor, 796,071 against, 888,416 abstaining and 765 veto votes, with 69.52% turnout against a 33.40% quorum. The portal would stay open for two years, staked migration carries a 21-day unbonding period, and the old chain would halt 90 days after cutover. The proposal estimates marketplace-wide network fees at about 0.075 SOL a day, about nine times less than an EVM layer 2 on a calm day and about 300 times less under load.

Background

Akash is a decentralized cloud-computing marketplace, and AKT helps govern and secure its sovereign Cosmos chain. Blockonomi reported that Akash says it pays the full cost of a sovereign chain without using the powers that come with it, and that its core team maintains forks of cosmos-sdk, CometBFT and gogoproto. Solana was chosen after an open request for proposals and a review of seven options against 15 hard requirements; only Solana mainnet and an existing EVM layer 2 met all of them. Akash will give up its own consensus, native IBC links and live slashing. The Solana Foundation has offered engineering, audit and gas-subsidy support, though the plan does not depend on it.

What is still unclear

The replacement economics are not settled. CryptoSlate reported that Akash's AEP-79 migration design provides for new AKT directed to provider incentives and the community treasury, with reduced gross emissions described as the intended direction. The numerical curve is left to modeling and governance, including the gross rate, decay, recipient split and cumulative hard cap. The token-migration draft sets a cap separate from the migration budget; its amount is unresolved, and once set from the ratified model it could not be raised by governance. The schedule would remain adjustable through the DAO and a timelock within that limit, with a guardian able to pause emissions. If the model is not ratified before the cutover supply snapshot, the program would start with zero scheduled emissions and wait for governance activation.

Earlier descriptions of the migration flow differ. CryptoSlate noted that an Oct. 20 technical draft used seven days to token launch and 14 days for unbonding, while an Oct. 26 blog said two weeks to launch and 21 days of unbonding before using the portal. The current proposal authorizes the migration, but final audited instructions would still need to reconcile those accounts. Compute-credit accounting is also unsettled: AEP-76 describes ACT as a nontransferable, dollar-denominated credit, while the proposed Solana architecture says AKT supplied for ACT stays in a vault as collateral and forbids the burn-mint equilibrium program from minting AKT. A vault balance removed from trading is not the same as tokens permanently destroyed.

What to watch

The next milestones are audits of the token and portal, the token launch, the provider testnet and community rehearsal, and a separate cutover proposal. Before cutover, Akash has said it will publish the emissions curve and explain replacement staking terms. Holders would then have more information to judge the post-migration model, including how new issuance might affect supply and how compute-credit collateral might move AKT into and out of trading. The proposal says the token launch date will come through official channels and warns that phishing is the top threat, with only one official portal domain.

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