1. Project Introduction

1. Basic information of the project

Sahara AI is positioned as a full-stack, AI-native decentralized blockchain platform. Its core vision is to break the current artificial intelligence (AI) landscape dominated by a few large technology companies, and aims to build an open AI collaborative economy driven by the global community, where contributions can be accurately traced and benefits can be fairly distributed.

The fundamental mission of the project is to provide transparent attribution, complete ownership control, and efficient on-chain monetization channels for AI assets (including data sets, models, and agents) through blockchain technology. In essence, Sahara AI is committed to becoming the "Ethereum of AI", providing a secure and reliable underlying infrastructure for a new generation of decentralized AI applications, and ultimately returning the ownership and value of data and AI innovations to every creator and contributor.

Note : Data as of June 28 , 2025

2. Project development history

Early 2023: The project is officially launched. The initial idea is to create exclusive "Knowledge Agents" for experts in different fields, fine-tune the basic model by introducing personal experience data, and provide services to the outside world in return. However, since the development threshold for experts in different fields is too high, the team subsequently adjusted its direction and began to build an ecosystem consisting of data contributors, model developers, node validators, application developers, and downstream users around the core element of "data" using the Web3 incentive mechanism.

Mid-2023: Completed a $6 million seed round led by Polychain Capital. This financing not only provides financial support for the initial development of the project, but also marks that Sahara AI's innovative model has begun to be recognized by professional investment institutions, initially established the project's influence in the market, attracted more attention from industry insiders, and laid a good foundation for subsequent development.

2024: Sahara AI has made significant progress in technology research and development and ecosystem construction. After the launch of its platform, it quickly gained market recognition and reached cooperation with major companies such as Microsoft and Amazon, obtaining relevant orders. These cooperations not only verified the technical strength and commercial value of the Sahara AI platform, but also brought actual business income and rich application scenarios to the platform, further promoting the development of the project.

August 2024: Official announcement of USD 43 million Series A funding led by Pantera, Binance Labs and Polychain Capital. This huge round of financing is a great affirmation of the Sahara AI project. The participation of many well-known investment institutions fully demonstrates the market's high expectations for its future development potential. The injection of funds has accelerated the project's technical research and development process, helped the team expand its scale, and promoted the rapid expansion and improvement of the ecosystem.

From the beginning of 2025 to date: Continue to promote the implementation of the platform's product matrix. On June 26, 2025, the official announced that its AI Agent Builder and AI Marketplace have officially entered the public testing phase. Agent Builder enables users to quickly build, deploy and own their own AI agents based on their own ideas without the need for code and configuration; the Sahara AI Marketplace, which was launched simultaneously, is an aggregation platform for selected open source models and data sets. Users can directly connect the required assets to the construction process without jumping to external platforms such as GitHub or Hugging Face, and the platform's trading functions and monetization mechanisms are also planned to be launched in the near future. The launch of this series of products marks the gradual maturity of Sahara AI's ecosystem, and the beginning of its move from the proof-of-concept stage to the actual application stage, providing users with more convenient and efficient AI development and application services.

3. Core issues and solutions

The current centralized AI industry is generally faced with key pain points such as data silos, unclear model ownership, high innovation costs, and unfair value distribution. Sahara AI has proposed a set of systematic solutions based on blockchain to address these challenges.

Data and model monopoly: In the traditional model, high-quality data and advanced models are controlled by giant companies. Sahara AI establishes a decentralized market, allowing anyone to register and trade AI assets on the chain, and using blockchain technology to ensure clear and verifiable ownership.

Contributions cannot be traced: The labor value of contributors such as data annotators and model optimizers is difficult to quantify and trace. Sahara AI uses the immutability of blockchain to record every contribution, providing a credible foundation for transparent and automated benefit distribution.

High barriers to collaboration: AI development requires a deep technical background and expensive computing resources. Sahara AI provides standardized development tools (SDK/API), including the code-free AI Agent Builder, to lower the development threshold and promote collaborative innovation around the world.

4. Core Team Background

Sean Ren (CEO): Tenured professor at the University of Southern California, MIT TR35 innovator, leading AI collaboration projects with 35 companies including Microsoft and Amazon.

Tyler Zhou (COO): Former investment director of Binance Labs, led a $43 million Series A financing round and brought in traditional capital such as Samsung and Matrix Partners.

Technical team: Members come from Google Brain, Fetch.ai, and Ocean Protocol, and hold multiple distributed machine learning patents.

2. Business Model

1. Platform architecture and core technologies

In order to balance decentralization, security and efficiency, Sahara AI adopts a hybrid blockchain architecture optimized for AI application scenarios. This architecture strikes a delicate balance between ensuring the transparency and trustworthiness of on-chain operations and the efficiency and low cost of off-chain computing.

ØTechnical architecture: The platform is built on a unique four-layer structure, including application layer, transaction layer, data layer and execution layer, ensuring modularity and scalability.

Ø Hybrid mode: Key metadata (such as ownership, permissions, and transaction records) are recorded on the chain to ensure that they are open, transparent, and cannot be tampered with. Large-scale data sets and AI models themselves are stored off-chain to meet high-performance, low-latency computing requirements.

ØCore main chain: The project is developing its own first-layer (L1) blockchain, Sahara Chain. This chain is not only compatible with the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) to facilitate developer migration, but also pre-compiled and optimized for AI-related operations (such as zero-knowledge proof verification), which can significantly improve performance and reduce on-chain operation costs.

Ø Security certification: The platform has passed the strict SOC2 enterprise-level security and privacy certification, proving that it has met the industry's high standards in data security and management, laying a foundation of trust for enterprise-level applications.

2. Product Ecosystem

Sahara AI is committed to providing full life cycle tools from data processing, model development to asset trading, building a fully functional, self-sufficient ecological closed loop to meet the diverse needs of different roles within the ecosystem.

ØData Service Platform (DSP): As one of the important infrastructures of the ecosystem, DSP provides a convenient crowdsourcing data annotation platform for data contributors. It simplifies the data annotation process, allowing anyone to easily participate in the data annotation task. At the same time, using blockchain technology, DSP realizes the on-chain traceability of the data annotation process, ensuring that the source and operation of each annotated data are clearly recorded, which not only improves the credibility of the data, but also provides a basis for subsequent data use and equity distribution.

ØSahara Studio: This is a powerful one-stop development suite that provides all-round support for model developers. As mentioned above, it integrates multiple functions such as model fine-tuning, workflow orchestration and deployment tools, which greatly reduces the difficulty and threshold of model development and improves development efficiency. Developers can focus more on model innovation and optimization on this platform without spending a lot of time and energy on building a complex technical environment and integrating tools.

ØAI Exchange: AI Exchange is an important bridge connecting data contributors, model developers and users. On this platform, developers can authorize or sell AI assets such as AI models and data sets they have developed to realize asset monetization. Users can purchase or lease the required AI assets in the exchange according to their needs for their own project development or practical applications. The existence of AI Exchange promotes the circulation and trading of AI assets, stimulates the vitality of the market, and injects strong development momentum into the entire ecosystem.

Ø Secure execution environment: In view of the high requirements for data security and privacy protection in the process of AI development and application, Sahara AI has built a secure execution environment. In this environment, AI tasks are executed off-chain, and the execution results are verified on-chain, which effectively ensures the security of sensitive data. This combination of off-chain execution and on-chain verification not only fully utilizes the efficiency of off-chain computing, but also gives play to the advantages of blockchain technology in data verification and storage, providing users with a safe and reliable AI development and application environment.

At present, the platform has attracted more than 200,000 global AI trainers to participate, and has completed more than 3 million data labeling tasks in total, which has initially demonstrated the activity and potential of its community.

3. Market entry and growth strategy

Sahara AI has adopted a two-pronged strategy to drive the cold start of its community and ecosystem. On the one hand, it attracts high-quality early users through precise incentive mechanisms, and on the other hand, it quickly establishes market brand and liquidity by cooperating with top industry partners.

Ø User acquisition strategy: The project launched an innovative "Knowledge Airdrop" program and held multiple quarterly testnet incentive activities. This approach aims to screen and reward core users who truly contribute to the ecosystem, rather than speculative "airdrop hunters." This strategy successfully attracted more than 1.8 million users to sign up.

Ø Brand and market strategy: The project was listed on many first-tier exchanges at the beginning of its launch, and quickly gained widespread market attention and recognition through its appearance on high-exposure channels such as Binance Alpha.

Ø Ecosystem incubation strategy: Sahara AI has established a dedicated incubator to support and accelerate AI startup projects developed based on its ecosystem, thereby enriching platform applications, forming a strong network effect, and building a positive growth flywheel.

4. $ SAHARA Token Economic Model

$SAHARA is the core value medium that drives the entire Sahara AI ecosystem. Its token economic model is carefully designed to incentivize long-term contributors, promote sustainable growth of the network, and ultimately achieve complete decentralized governance.

Total Supply: The total supply of $SAHARA tokens is capped at 10 billion.

Core uses: Tokens run through all core aspects of the platform, including as a means of payment for platform services, participating in network security and obtaining income through staking, exercising voting rights in network governance, paying transaction fees, and serving as an incentive for ecosystem contributors.

Ø Community and Ecosystem Development (64.25%): This is the largest part of the token distribution, which fully reflects the project's emphasis on community building and ecological development. Among them, 33.93% is used for ecosystem construction. This part of the funds will be used to support the continuous optimization of platform infrastructure, the development of new functions, and the expansion of ecological partnerships, so as to promote the prosperity and development of the entire ecosystem; 20.75% is used for community incentives. Through various incentive mechanisms, such as token rewards for users who actively participate in data annotation, model development, community promotion and other activities, community members are encouraged to actively participate in ecological construction and enhance the cohesion and activity of the community; 8.15% is used for airdrops. Airdrop activities are an effective means to attract new users to join the ecosystem. By distributing a certain number of SAHARA tokens to potential users for free, they can experience and participate in the Sahara AI ecosystem, thereby expanding the user group and influence of the project; another 1.42% is distributed through the Buidlpad community. With the resources and influence of the Buidlpad community, the Sahara AI project will be further promoted and more high-quality projects and developers will be attracted to join the ecosystem.

Ø Core Contributors (15%): This part of tokens is allocated to the core team members, consultants and other personnel who play a key role in the development of the project. They have invested a lot of time and energy in the creative conception, technical research and development, and operation management of the project. By allocating tokens, they can be encouraged to continue to contribute to the success of the project, and their interests will be closely tied to the long-term development of the project.

Ø Early supporters (19.75%): Early supporters include institutions and individuals who participated in the project's seed round, A round and other early financing stages. They took higher risks in the early stages of the project's development and provided important financial support for the project. This part of the token allocation is a reward for their early support, and we also hope that they can continue to pay attention to and support the subsequent development of the project and grow with the project.

Ø Liquidity and market stability (1%): This part of the tokens is used to maintain the liquidity of SAHARA tokens in the market, ensuring that the tokens can be traded smoothly in the trading market and avoiding large price fluctuations caused by insufficient liquidity. At the same time, it also helps to stabilize the market price of tokens and provide investors and users with a relatively stable trading environment.

Token generation and listing: The token was successfully listed on many mainstream exchanges around the world, including Binance, OKX, KuCoin, etc. in June 2025, ensuring its early liquidity and market accessibility.

3. Project Prospects

1. Industry analysis

Sahara AI is working on one of the most promising cross-fields: decentralized AI. This field aims to solve the fundamental problems faced by the traditional AI industry - data monopoly, algorithm opacity, privacy leakage risks and unfair value distribution caused by centralization. Web3 technology provides a new solution for building a more open, fair and collaborative AI ecosystem through its trustless, verifiable and tokenized features.

The market demand for decentralized AI is growing, driven by:

Ø Awakening of data sovereignty awareness: Users and enterprises increasingly value the control over their data and are unwilling to hand it over entirely to large technology companies.

Ø Requirements for AI transparency and fairness: The bias and discrimination issues that may arise from “black box” AI models have prompted the market to seek auditable and explainable AI solutions.

Ø The rise of long-tail AI demand: A large number of small and medium-sized enterprises and individual developers need lower-cost and more flexible AI services, which is a market that centralized giants find difficult to fully cover.

According to market analysis, the global decentralized AI market is expected to experience explosive growth, from approximately US$2.5 billion in 2024 to more than US$80 billion by 2030, with a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of more than 60%.

At the data level, with the widespread application of AI technology, the demand for high-quality data has exploded. However, the current data market has problems such as data monopoly and data silos, and it is costly and difficult for companies and developers to obtain data. Sahara AI attracts data contributors through incentive mechanisms and builds an open data market that can meet the market's demand for diversified and high-quality data.

In terms of AI development, the traditional AI development model has high barriers to entry and requires a lot of technical resources and capital investment, which limits the participation of small and medium-sized developers and enterprises. Sahara AI's one-stop development kit Sahara Studio lowers the development threshold, allowing more developers to participate in the development of AI models, meeting the market's demand for low-cost, high-efficiency AI development platforms.

At the application level, the demand for personalized AI applications in various industries is increasing. Enterprises hope to improve production efficiency, optimize business processes, and enhance customer experience through AI technology. Sahara AI's ecosystem can support developers to quickly develop AI applications that meet the needs of different industries, and has broad market prospects.

2. Analysis of competition landscape

The decentralized AI track is highly competitive, with multiple projects emerging, but their entry points and technical paths are different. Sahara AI's main competitors include Bittensor (TAO), Olas (OLAS) and Ritual. They jointly promote the development of decentralized AI, but there is obvious differentiated competition between them.

3. Development plan

( 1 ) Short-term planning ( 1-2 years)

In terms of technology research and development, Sahara AI will continue to optimize its core technology architecture and improve the performance and stability of the platform. It will focus on improving the secure execution environment and further enhance the ability to protect data privacy and run models safely. At the same time, it will continue to improve the SaharaStudio development kit and add more practical functions and tools, such as introducing more advanced model training algorithms and optimizing the intelligence of workflow orchestration, to meet the growing needs of developers.

In terms of ecosystem construction, we will accelerate the official launch and improvement of AI AgentBuilder and AI Marketplace. In the early stage of launch, we will attract more developers and users to join the platform through a series of promotional activities to enrich the AI models and data set resources on the platform. At the same time, we will actively establish cooperative relationships with more companies and institutions to expand application scenarios, such as carrying out more pilot projects in the fields of medical care, finance, education, etc., to verify the technical feasibility and commercial value of the platform.

In terms of token economy, we will improve the incentive mechanism of SAHARA tokens and optimize the distribution and circulation model of tokens. By holding various community activities and reward programs, we will encourage more users to participate in the ecological construction and increase the activity and usage of tokens. At the same time, we will strengthen cooperation with exchanges to improve the market liquidity and price stability of SAHARA tokens.

( 2 ) Medium-term planning ( 3-5 years)

Technically, Sahara AI plans to achieve breakthroughs in cross-chain technology, interconnect with more blockchain platforms, and expand the coverage of the ecosystem. Through cross-chain technology, the free flow and interaction of AI assets and data on different blockchains can be achieved, further improving the openness and compatibility of the platform. At the same time, research and application of next-generation AI technologies, such as quantum machine learning and edge AI, will be carried out to maintain the leading position in technology.

In terms of ecological construction, we are committed to building a world-leading decentralized AI ecosystem. We will attract top developers, research institutions and enterprises from around the world to join the ecosystem and form a large and active community. We will establish a sound ecological governance system and allow token holders to participate in the decision-making and management of the ecosystem through community autonomy to ensure the healthy development of the ecosystem.

In terms of business development, we will increase marketing efforts to enhance Sahara AI's visibility and influence in the global market. We will demonstrate the platform's advantages and application results to global users by participating in international industry exhibitions and holding technical seminars. We will actively explore overseas markets, especially in Europe, America, Asia and other regions where AI and blockchain are developing more actively, establish localized operation teams and partnerships, and promote the international development of the platform.

( 3 ) Long-term planning ( more than 5 years)

In the long run, Sahara AI aims to become a leader in the decentralized AI field and promote the popularization and democratization of AI technology. Through continuous technological innovation and ecological construction, the threshold for AI development and application will be lowered, allowing more individuals and enterprises to enjoy the dividends brought by AI technology.

In terms of technological innovation, we continue to explore new application scenarios and business models that integrate AI and blockchain, and lead the development trend of the industry. For example, in emerging fields such as smart cities, the Internet of Things, and the metaverse, we use decentralized AI technology to achieve more efficient and intelligent system management and service provision.

In terms of ecological construction, we will build a highly prosperous and diversified ecosystem, covering multiple fields such as AI development, data trading, and application services. Through the synergy of the ecosystem, we will achieve optimal allocation of resources and maximize value creation. At the same time, we will actively participate in the formulation of industry standards and enhance our voice and influence in the global decentralized AI field.

In terms of social impact, Sahara AI hopes to promote social equity and progress by promoting the democratization of AI. AI technology will no longer be the exclusive domain of a few large companies, but will become an inclusive technology that promotes global economic development and social progress, and provide technical support for solving global problems such as climate change and disease prevention and control.

IV. Conclusion

1. Core conclusions

After a comprehensive analysis of Sahara AI, we can draw the following core conclusions:

Ø Accurate positioning and grand vision: Sahara AI precisely cuts into the intersection of AI and Web3. Its positioning as "Ethereum in the AI field" aims to solve the fundamental pain points of centralized AI. The market narrative is strong and forward-looking.

Ø Full-stack solutions constitute the core barrier: Unlike most competitors who focus on a single link, Sahara AI provides end-to-end solutions from data services, model development, asset trading to AI agents. This full-stack layout can build a stronger ecological closed loop and network effect.

Ø Strong team and capital: The founding team with top academic and industrial backgrounds, plus the endorsement of first-tier VCs such as Binance Labs, Polychain, Pantera and US$51.5 million in financing, provide solid guarantee for the long-term development of the project.

Ø The token economic model is well designed: $SAHARA tokens are deeply integrated into every aspect of the ecosystem, and most of the tokens are allocated to the community and ecosystem construction, which helps to incentivize long-term contributions and sustainable growth of the network.

2. Valuation and investment advice

The valuation and investment decision of $SAHARA tokens should comprehensively consider its market positioning, competitive landscape, token economics and potential risks.

Valuation analysis: $SAHARA was listed at a fully diluted valuation (FDV) of approximately $6 billion, which is at a relatively high level in the DeAI track, reflecting the market's high expectations for its strong fundamentals and grand narrative. Compared with competitors (such as Bittensor, which has an FDV of approximately $2-3 billion), Sahara AI's valuation premium comes from its more comprehensive ecological layout and stronger commercial landing expectations. However, the high valuation also means that the token price is more sensitive to project progress and market sentiment.

Investment advice: Based on the comprehensive SWOT analysis, we give the investment advice of "cautiously optimistic, layout on dips" . Sahara AI is undoubtedly the leading project in the DeAI track, with huge long-term potential. However, in the short term, investors need to pay attention to the selling pressure that may be brought about by early investors and the unlocking of airdrop shares, as well as the actual delivery of the project roadmap. For long-term investors with higher risk appetite, they can build positions in batches when the market pulls back; for conservative investors, it is recommended to keep an eye on it and make a decision after its mainnet is launched and the ecological data is verified.

3. Outlook

The future of Sahara AI is full of imagination. If it can successfully execute the roadmap, build Sahara Chain into an efficient and secure AI-specific L1, and attract a large number of developers and users to build applications on it, it will not only be an AI asset market, but also more likely to become the underlying operating system of the future decentralized smart economy.

In the long run, the success of Sahara AI will have a profound impact on the entire industry: it will verify the feasibility of reconstructing AI production relations through Web3, accelerate the popularization and democratization of AI technology, and give birth to new business models and application scenarios, such as decentralized science (DeSci), decentralized organizations (DAOs) driven entirely by AI, and personal data monetization. Sahara AI is on a path of challenges and opportunities, and its development deserves the attention of the entire technology and crypto industry.