Sahara AI (SAHARA) recorded an 850% increase in trading volume and a 42% rise in price over the past week. This surge followed the launch of its Data Services Platform (DSP), which allowed users to earn tokens by completing simple AI-related tasks. While Sahara gained attention, most other AI tokens saw losses during the same period. Bittensor (TAO), Fetch.ai (FET), and Render (RNDR) all declined between 5% and 8% over 24 hours.
Sahara briefly led the AI token market in daily volume. The project’s rise came not from listings or marketing, but from real activity on its platform.
Users Earn SAHARA Tokens for Labeling and Reviewing AI Data
The DSP was launched on July 22. It allows users to contribute to AI training by labeling data, classifying images, or reviewing AI outputs. Participants are paid in SAHARA tokens. On the first day alone, Sahara paid out more than $450,000 in token rewards.
This attracted a wave of users. Within 24 hours, the token’s price doubled from $0.082 to $0.165. The trading volume jumped above $2.89 million. The SAHARA price later dropped to around $0.11 as early buyers took profits, but weekly gains remained above 40%.
Unlock Schedule May Add Pressure if Demand Slows
Sahara has a total supply of 10 billion tokens. As of July 24, only 2.12 billion (21.2%) are in circulation, while 7.88 billion remain locked. These tokens are set to unlock gradually over the next four years.
Starting in late 2025, Sahara will unlock 132.6 million tokens every month — equal to 1.33% of the total supply. At current prices, each unlock would add over $14 million worth of new tokens to the market. On top of that, 100 million tokens are scheduled to unlock in March 2026.
These unlocks will go to several groups, including early backers, core contributors, and ecosystem development funds. Ecosystem Development 2 alone holds 25.45% of the supply, the largest allocation. If demand weakens or platform use drops, these monthly releases could push the price down.
The Sahara token’s fully diluted valuation stands at $1.1 billion, compared to a current market cap of $233 million. This gap shows how much supply is still waiting to enter the market.
The current demand came mainly from the DSP launch. The project also plans to release a Developer Platform and an AI Marketplace. These tools are not live yet. If users lose interest or rewards become less attractive, activity may fall.
The 30% price drop after the peak shows that many holders are still trading short-term. Without steady use of the token, the price may not continue to hold up against ongoing monthly unlocks.