# Sahara AI

> A VC-backed AI blockchain platform with $51.5M in funding, a credentialed USC professor as CEO, and a shipping data labelling product. But the blockchain is not yet live, validators are permissioned, governance is inactive, the token contract can be paused by the owner, and SAHARA is deeply below its ATH. This is a centralised AI company wearing decentralised clothing.

- Scores: Freedom 3.3/10 (grade F), Returns 4.5/10 (grade D)
- Category: data · Token: SAHARA
- Published: 2026-03-03 · Updated: 2026-10-04
- Canonical: https://ownyourmind.ai/projects/sahara/
- Data (scores + integrity verdicts, JSON): https://ownyourmind.ai/api/projects/sahara.json
- Cite as: Own Your Mind (ownyourmind.ai), licence CC BY 4.0. Link the canonical URL.

Charts and interactive widgets are omitted here; their data is in the JSON above.

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## What it does

Sahara AI is a venture-backed AI platform attempting to build full-stack infrastructure for creating, contributing to, and monetising AI development. The vision spans data collection and labelling, model training and deployment, an AI marketplace, and a dedicated L1 blockchain called Sahara Chain.

Four layers make up the architecture. The Application Layer provides user interfaces including Sahara ID and wallets. The Transaction Layer features the Sahara Blockchain, an EVM-compatible chain built on Tendermint consensus with specialised AI-Native Precompiles (SAPs) for AI operations. The Data Layer manages metadata, attributions, and proofs on-chain while large datasets remain off-chain. The Execution Layer handles distributed AI computations with privacy-preserving protocols including TEEs and differential privacy.

AI assets are registered on-chain as Ownership NFTs (ERC-721) with metadata records and dedicated accounts. A licensing system supports Partnership Licences, API Licences, Full Access, and Long-term Licences, all enforced via Licence Token NFTs. Attribution tracking records TRAINED_ON, FINETUNED_FROM, and DERIVED_FROM relationships for data provenance.

Co-founders are Sean Ren and Tyler Zhou. Ren is an Associate Professor of Computer Science at USC (University of Southern California), holding the Andrew and Erna Viterbi Early Career Chair, with 15-plus years of NLP and AI research experience. He directs the Intelligence and Knowledge Discovery (INK) Research Lab at USC and contributes to the Allen Institute for AI (AI2). Zhou is COO, formerly an Investment Director at Binance Labs (2022-2023) and Executive Director of Consumer Data and AI at Wells Fargo. Entity: Sahara AI Ltd., registered in the Cayman Islands. Team size is approximately 92.

SAHARA token launched on 26 June 2025 via Binance HODLer Airdrop and Buidlpad IDO. Sahara Chain mainnet is registered on ChainList (chain ID 3132023) but is not operational as of September 2026, and the RPC host registered for it did not resolve when we checked on 18 September 2026; the mainnet target has been reset to Q4 2026 (from the original Q3 2025), per Sahara's 2026 roadmap. The SIWA public testnet launched in March 2025.

## Value proposition

Sahara calls itself "the world's first full-stack AI-native blockchain."  That claim is ambitious given the blockchain is not yet fully live. What it does have is a functioning data labelling product. Sahara reports that its Data Services Platform processed 2.55 million approved datapoints in Season 2 at a 95% accuracy rate, with over 200,000 users participating. That is comparable to what Scale AI and Appen do in the centralised world. Season 1 produced 289,000 approved datapoints at 92% accuracy. The quality trajectory is improving.

VC backing is substantial: $51.5 million total. $6 million seed led by Polychain Capital (March 2024), $37 million Series A co-led by Pantera Capital, Polychain, and Binance Labs (August 2024), and $8.5 million IDO via Buidlpad (June 2025). Investors include Sequoia Capital, Samsung NEXT, Matrix Partners, dao5, Mirana Ventures. Sean Ren's academic credentials (MIT Technology Review Innovator Under 35, Samsung AI Researcher of the Year) add credibility that most crypto projects lack.

But the counter-narrative is straightforward. The token launched at a high IDO valuation and has declined substantially from ATH (July 2025), meaning IDO buyers at $0.06 are deeply underwater. Enterprise partnerships with Microsoft, AWS, and Google Cloud sound impressive but the depth of these relationships is never specified. Microsoft and AWS "partner" with thousands of companies; a logo on a slide deck is not the same as a production integration.

A year past the original Q3 2025 target, the core blockchain is still not operational, and Sahara's 2026 roadmap now places mainnet in Q4 2026. For a project that raised $51.5 million and employs 92 people, this delay is notable. Every decentralisation claim (permissionless validators, on-chain governance, distributed compute) is a roadmap item rather than a current feature.

## Tokenomics

SAHARA is an ERC-20 on Ethereum and BNB Chain. Fixed supply: 10 billion. Total supply: 10 billion. Circulating supply: 4.24 billion (42.38%). (figures as of 2026-10-19)

Distribution:

- **Ecosystem Development:** 33.93% (25% at TGE, remainder linear over 48 months; developer grants, hackathons, validator rewards, liquidity incentives)
- **Community Incentives:** 20.75% (25% at TGE, remainder linear over 48 months; dataset rewards, agent development, ambassador programmes)
- **Early Backers:** 19.75% (1-year cliff deferred by three months, then linear over 36 months; the first quarter released on 25-26 September 2026)
- **Core Team and Contributors:** 15.00% (1-year cliff, then linear over 36 months; 0% unlocked as of June 2026)
- **Airdrops:** 8.15% (Knowledge Drop 5%, Binance HODLer 1.25%, OKX Campaign 0.4%; phased releases)
- **Buidlpad IDO:** 1.42% (100% unlocked at TGE; IDO price $0.06)
- **Liquidity and Market Stability:** 1.00% (100% unlocked at TGE)

The headline says 64.25% goes to community categories. Read the fine print. Ecosystem Development (33.93%) and Community Incentives (20.75%) are controlled by the team and foundation: team-directed spending pools dressed up as community ownership. The effective insider allocation is 34.75% (19.75% early backers plus 15% team), with standard vesting: 1-year cliff then linear over 36 months.

The insider cliff was scheduled for 26 June 2026, when the investor and team allocations expire. Approximately 1.03 billion tokens (25% of the combined insider allocation, representing roughly 10.3% of total supply) were due to begin unlocking into a market where the token is already deeply underwater. On 24 June 2026, after a roughly 60% price crash earlier that month, the team voluntarily deferred the cliff: investor tokens by three months and founder, core-team and advisor tokens by six, pushing the first insider unlocks to roughly Q3 and Q4 2026. The remaining 75% of insider tokens unlock linearly over the following 36 months. The deferral pushes the overhang back without clearing it.

The investor tranche has now landed. On 25 and 26 September 2026 the Safe that received exactly the Early Backers allocation, 1.975 billion SAHARA, three days after launch sent out 493.5 million, about a quarter of it. The tokens went through a token-lock factory and a monthly distributor contract to dozens of wallets, and several recipients moved theirs on within hours ([the Safe on Blockscout](https://eth.blockscout.com/address/0xc92F951375a87e31cE25F87E1A98cFabCF35DfD3?tab=token_transfers)). The team's quarter is next, due around the end of December 2026.

Funding totals $51.5 million across three rounds:

- **Seed:** $6 million (Polychain Capital, March 2024)
- **Series A:** $37 million (Pantera, Polychain, Binance Labs co-leads, August 2024)
- **IDO:** $8.5 million via Buidlpad (June 2025)

Listed on seven major CEXs:

- Binance, OKX, KuCoin
- MEXC, HTX, Upbit, Bithumb

The ATH was hit on 24 July 2025, roughly one month after launch. The token has since declined sharply from that level. Live price data is displayed above.

## How to participate

**Contribute data.** The most accessible entry point. Join the Data Services Platform to contribute to AI dataset creation through data collection, labelling, annotation, and quality assurance tasks. No capital required. Earn SAHARA token rewards based on task completion and quality. Sahara reports 2.55 million approved datapoints at 95% accuracy in Season 2.

**Build on Sahara.** Use the developer platform to build, train, deploy, and monetise AI models and agents. SDKs and APIs available. Deploy models (Llama, Mistral, Gemma supported) and create AI agents. List assets on the AI Marketplace for licensing revenue. Documentation at docs.saharaai.com.

**Run a validator.** Currently permissioned, limited to approved professional node operators. Testnet requirements: 8-core CPU, 32 GB RAM, 2 TB NVMe SSD, 100 Mbps network. Production recommended: 32-core CPU, 128 GB ECC RAM, 8 TB NVMe RAID, 1 Gbps network. Phased transition to permissionless planned but no timeline.

**Governance.** Hold SAHARA tokens to participate in future DAO governance. Not yet active. No governance proposals have been submitted.

## Honest assessment

### What works

Sean Ren's credentials are exceptional for a crypto project. A tenured USC professor with an active research lab (INK Lab), contributions to the Allen Institute for AI, MIT Technology Review Innovator Under 35, and Samsung AI Researcher of the Year. He's a working academic with verifiable output, light years from the typical pseudonymous founder with a Medium post. Tyler Zhou's Binance Labs and Wells Fargo background adds enterprise and crypto distribution experience.

The Data Services Platform has demonstrable traction. Sahara reports 200,000-plus users and 2.55 million approved datapoints in Season 2 at 95% accuracy. This is measurable, quality-controlled data labelling work. The accuracy improvement from 92% (Season 1) to 95% (Season 2) suggests actual iteration on quality assurance processes.

The VC syndicate (Pantera, Polychain, Sequoia, Binance Labs, Samsung NEXT) provides significant runway and exchange listing support. The Binance HODLer Airdrop listing was the 25th in that programme, giving strong distribution to retail. Exchange coverage across Binance, OKX, KuCoin, and four other major venues ensures adequate liquidity.

Open-sourced components include the x-function agentic protocol and Verifiable-ClawGuard (TEE attestation for agents). The chain node code (sahara repo, 128 commits in Go) is public on GitHub. 31 repositories total under the SaharaLabsAI organisation (GitHub API, 24 September 2026).

### What doesn't work

The blockchain isn't operational. Sahara Chain mainnet was targeted for Q3 2025. It is registered on ChainList with a chain ID and RPC endpoint, though that mainnet RPC host returned NXDOMAIN on three public resolvers on 18 September 2026 while the testnet host on the same domain served blocks. Multiple sources, including CoinMarketCap, describe the mainnet launch as "imminent" as of early 2026, though Sahara's own 2026 roadmap now schedules it for Q4 2026. There is no public block explorer. You cannot independently verify transactions, validators, or network activity. For a project that calls itself "the world's first full-stack AI-native blockchain," having no functioning blockchain a year past the original target is a serious credibility gap.

In April 2026 the team shipped **Sorin**, a centrally hosted full-asset investment agent that covers crypto, equities, prediction markets and tokenised assets. Sorin is non-custodial, and Sahara reported 20,000 early-access users at launch. It is a shipping product and a credible pull on user attention, but it lives off-chain. The Sahara Chain still isn't there to anchor any of it.

The token contract includes ERC20Pausable functionality. The contract owner, a 5-of-6 Safe, can halt all SAHARA token transfers at any time; the pause isn't engaged today. For a project promoting "AI sovereignty" and decentralisation, a pause button is a remarkable contradiction.

In practice, governance is absent. The documentation describes DAO governance with token-based voting, but no governance proposals have been submitted. No governance forum exists. No on-chain voting has occurred. All decisions are made by the founding team and Sahara AI Ltd.

The GitHub metrics are revealing. The primary chain repository has 128 commits, 0 stars, and 0 forks. Compare that to Vana's personal-server (113 stars, 196 commits) or Ocean Protocol's ocean-node (55 stars). Zero external developer interest in the core chain code is a signal. The organisation has only 107 GitHub followers (24 September 2026) despite X and Discord audiences in the hundreds of thousands.  The community is there for the airdrop, not the code.

No published security audits exist. For a project that has raised $51.5 million, deployed smart contracts on Ethereum and BNB Chain, and is building a blockchain, the absence of any public audit from a recognised firm is notable. Compare with Vana (nine audits across Hashlock and Nethermind, with every Hashlock audit rated "Secure") or [Olas](https://ownyourmind.ai/projects/autonolas/) (Valory audits published). The August 2024 Discord compromise (hacked official server) adds to the security concerns.

### The risk

Execution complexity is the defining risk. Sahara is attempting to build everything simultaneously: a data labelling platform, model training infrastructure, an AI marketplace, an agent framework, and a dedicated L1 blockchain. Most projects struggle with one of these layers. Attempting all five with a team of 92 people, while maintaining a professor's academic position, is an enormous ask.

The insider cliff is a material event, deferred on 24 June 2026 from its original 26 June date (investor tokens by three months, team by six). The investor tranche, about 494 million SAHARA, left the backers' Safe on 25-26 September, and the team tranche follows around December. Insider tokens becoming liquid while the token is already deeply below ATH could create significant selling pressure.

Academic founder risk is material. Sean Ren holds the Viterbi Early Career Chair at USC and directs an active research lab. Running a 92-person crypto startup and a university research lab simultaneously creates potential split attention. This is not unique to Sahara, but it matters.

Competitive positioning is challenging. [Vana](https://ownyourmind.ai/projects/vana/) has a live mainnet with 1.3 million users by its own count and nine security audits. [Ocean Protocol](https://ownyourmind.ai/projects/ocean/) has seven years of production history. Bittensor has permissionless mining across 129 subnets. Sahara's competitors have shipped; Sahara is still building. (figures as of 2026-10-19)

### My position

I do not hold SAHARA. The academic credentials and data labelling traction are clear differentiators. But a blockchain that is not live, governance that doesn't exist, a pausable token contract, no published audits, and a token deeply below ATH tell me the market has already priced in the gap between narrative and delivery. I would reconsider if the mainnet launches with permissionless validators, if an independent security audit is published, and if governance materialises beyond documentation. Until then, this is a well-funded centralised AI company, not a decentralised network.

## Freedom Score: 33/100

Sahara AI scores 33/100 (F grade). Full methodology at [Freedom Score Methodology](https://ownyourmind.ai/resources/freedom-score-methodology/).

**Infrastructure decentralisation (5/20):** Sahara Chain mainnet is registered (chain ID 3132023) but not operational as of September 2026, and its registered mainnet RPC host doesn't resolve. No public block explorer exists. The initial validator set is permissioned, limited to professional node operators and established institutions. A phased decentralisation plan exists (professional, then qualified, then permissionless) but is currently in Phase 1. The SAHARA token is deployed on Ethereum and BNB Chain. Data Services Platform and AI development tools run on centralised infrastructure operated by Sahara AI Ltd.

**Governance decentralisation (4/20):** DAO governance with token-based voting is documented but not active. No governance proposals have been submitted or voted on. All decisions are currently made by the founding team and Sahara AI Ltd. Token distribution gives 64.25% to community categories, but Ecosystem Development (33.93%) and Community Incentives (20.75%) are controlled by the team and foundation. No governance forum or on-chain voting record exists.

**Token distribution fairness (7/15):** Community-oriented categories total 64.25% of supply (Ecosystem Development 33.93%, Community Incentives 20.75%, Airdrops 8.15%, IDO 1.42%, Liquidity 1%). Insider allocation is 34.75% (19.75% early backers plus 15% team) with enforced vesting (1-year cliff then linear over 36 months). IDO was open via Buidlpad at $0.06. Binance HODLer Airdrop provided broad distribution. However, the community percentage is misleading as most community pools are team-controlled spending. IDO buyers remain deeply underwater given the subsequent price decline.

**Censorship resistance (4/15):** The platform is enterprise-focused with KYC and registration requirements (Sahara ID). The token contract includes ERC20Pausable functionality, meaning the contract owner, a 5-of-6 Safe, can halt all transfers. Permissioned validator set. No evidence of permissionless participation in core platform functions beyond testnet tasks. Terms of service govern platform usage.

**Data sovereignty (7/15):** Data provenance and ownership are core to Sahara's mission. On-chain attribution tracking with Ownership NFTs and Licence Token NFTs is designed into the architecture. Privacy features including TEEs and differential privacy are documented. However, the chain isn't fully live, so these features are aspirational. Actual data is stored off-chain on centralised infrastructure. Privacy guarantees are not independently auditable (no audits found). The platform intermediates all data interactions.

**Open source and transparency (6/15):** 26 GitHub repositories under SaharaLabsAI. Key open-source repos include the sahara blockchain node (Go, 128 commits), Verifiable-ClawGuard (Apache-2.0, TEE attestation), and x-function (open-source agentic protocol). However, the main chain repo has 0 stars and 0 forks suggesting minimal external engagement. Core platform components (Data Services Platform, AI Marketplace, Knowledge Agent) appear proprietary. No published audit reports. The ERC-20 token contract is verified on Etherscan. Funding and team information is transparent via press releases.

### Path to improvement

Three changes would materially increase Sahara's score:

1. **Launch the blockchain.** The mainnet, originally targeted Q3 2025, is now slated for Q4 2026. Delivering a functioning chain with a public block explorer, verifiable transactions, and at least a path to permissionless validators would address the infrastructure and censorship resistance deficits simultaneously. Without a live chain, every other decentralisation claim is aspirational.
2. **Publish a security audit.** $51.5 million raised and zero public audits is an indefensible gap. Commissioning audits from recognised firms (Trail of Bits, OpenZeppelin, Hashlock) for both the smart contracts and the chain itself would demonstrate the security maturity that the funding level implies. This is table stakes, not an advanced requirement.
3. **Remove the token pause function.** A project promoting AI sovereignty and decentralisation should not have an owner-controlled kill switch on the token. Either renounce the pause capability or transfer it to a timelock controlled by on-chain governance. This single change would improve both censorship resistance and the project's credibility with sovereignty-focused users.

## Returns Score: 45/100

SAHARA scores 45/100 (D grade). Full methodology at [Returns Score Methodology](https://ownyourmind.ai/resources/returns-score-methodology/).

**Token utility (12/20):** SAHARA is intended to be the native token for Sahara Chain, powering validator staking, data labelling rewards, AI marketplace transactions, and governance. On Ethereum and BNB Chain where it currently lives, the token functions as a standard ERC-20 with transfer and holding capabilities. The planned utility is broad and reasonable: data labelling payments, model licensing fees, and agent development rewards would create durable demand sinks. The problem is that the blockchain these utilities depend on isn't operational. Current token utility is limited to holding and trading on exchanges, with data labelling rewards being the only active demand driver.

**Value accrual (6/20):** The path from SAHARA token to value accrual is unclear. Sahara has a data labelling business (2.55M approved datapoints and 200,000+ users, by its own count), but this business runs on centralised infrastructure, not on Sahara Chain. The connection between enterprise data labelling revenue and token value is entirely aspirational. No on-chain fee capture exists because the chain isn't live. The AI marketplace, which would enable licensing revenue to flow through the token, is a roadmap item. There is no mechanical link between productive activity and token demand today.

**Supply dynamics (6/20):** Ten billion tokens with a pausable contract is a concerning combination. The effective insider allocation of 34.75% (19.75% early backers plus 15% team) has contractual vesting protection (1-year cliff then linear over 36 months), but the insider cliff, deferred on 24 June 2026, is now landing: the early backers' quarter (about 494 million) released on 25-26 September and the team's follows around December, into a market where the token is already deeply below ATH. The team-controlled Ecosystem Development (33.93%) and Community Incentives (20.75%) pools mean the headline "64.25% community" figure is misleading; these are team-directed spending pools, not community-owned allocations.

**Revenue sustainability (10/25):** The data labelling business is shipping and, by Sahara's figures, growing: 2.55M approved datapoints at 95% accuracy in Season 2, up from 92% in Season 1. This is comparable to what Scale AI and Appen deliver in the centralised world, and it represents productive activity, though the figures are Sahara's own. Enterprise partnerships with Microsoft, AWS, and Google Cloud are claimed but the depth is unspecified, and "partnership" at that level can mean anything from a production integration to a logo on a slide deck. The underlying business has substance. None of this revenue flows through the token or the blockchain yet, but a functioning data labelling operation with improving quality metrics is a stronger sustainability foundation than most pre-mainnet projects can demonstrate.

**Liquidity and access (11/15):** SAHARA is listed on Binance, OKX, KuCoin, MEXC, HTX, Upbit and Bithumb, across 45 venues in all, which is exceptional exchange coverage for a project at this stage. Bitget is the one venue this review named that carries no SAHARA pair, checked at Bitget. Seven major exchanges plus the Binance HODLer Airdrop still give it among the strongest listing-and-distribution profiles in the DeAI space. However, the sharp decline from ATH means IDO buyers at $0.06 are deeply underwater, and the looming insider cliff, deferred on 24 June 2026 to roughly Q3-Q4 2026, still adds downward pressure to an already distressed price. In late November 2025 the token also fell roughly 50% in minutes, which analysts (not Sahara) attributed to a market maker unwinding its book; founder Sean Ren said the contracts and infrastructure stayed secure with no exploit, but the episode underlined how thin the real liquidity is beneath the broad listing profile.

### Path to improvement

Three changes would materially increase Sahara's returns score:

1. **Launch Sahara Chain and move data labelling on-chain.** The data labelling business works but is disconnected from the token. Launching the blockchain and routing data labelling payments, marketplace fees, and validator rewards through SAHARA would create the mechanical link between productive activity and token demand that currently doesn't exist. This is now slated for Q4 2026, well past the original Q3 2025 target.
2. **Remove or governance-lock the pause function.** A pausable token contract is incompatible with credible tokenomics. Investors can't assess supply dynamics or liquidity risk when the contract owner can halt all transfers at any time. Renouncing the pause capability or transferring it to a timelock with on-chain governance approval would remove a material risk discount from the token.
3. **Publish transparent enterprise revenue data.** The Microsoft, AWS, and Google Cloud partnerships need specificity. Publishing annual data labelling revenue, enterprise customer count, and the percentage of revenue flowing through SAHARA tokens would let investors distinguish between a real business and a logo collection. The data labelling traction is a standout asset; it just needs to be verifiable.

## Score change log

| Date | Score | Change | Reason |
| - | - | - | - |
| 2026-10-04 | Data | N/A | The early backers' cliff executed on 25-26 Sep 2026: the Safe holding the 1.975B Early Backers allocation sent out 493.5M SAHARA (Ethereum, Blockscout). Deferral prose updated; the team tranche is still due ~Dec. Scores unchanged. |
| 2026-09-24 | Data | N/A | Circulating supply bound to the live source (was 34.07% at June); mainnet RPC NXDOMAIN finding, 5-of-6 Safe pause owner and Bittensor subnet count added; datapoint, user and Sorin figures attributed to Sahara; GitHub counts refreshed. Scores unchanged. |
| 2026-09-23 | Data | N/A | Integrity records re-cut: 0 claims now quote Sahara's own pages verbatim and 7 are our own measurements. Scores unchanged. |
| 2026-09-07 | Data | N/A | WS3b censorship rail: the Pausable claim is confirmed (paused reads false) and qualified, because the owner behind it is a 5-of-6 Safe rather than a single party, the most conservative multisig on this rail. Censorship Resistance 4/15 held. |
| 2026-09-06 | Data | N/A | WS3b liquidity rail: Bitget returns Parameter SAHARAUSDT does not exist (control FLOCKUSDT online), so it is removed from both venue lists; the other seven confirm across 45 venues with Binance top at 38.1%. Turnover 20.40% 7-day median, against a 325.85% single-day spike on 6 September. Liquidity & Access 11/15 held. |
| 2026-08-10 | Data | N/A | WS3 holder-source: authored token_distribution_fairness (`inflated`, onchain), confirming the 7/15 score. Ethereum (canonical) top-10 ex-infra ~82%; 46.85% sits in three team/treasury Gnosis Safes plus a 17.2% EOA. The 64% "community-weighted" figure is the allocation plan, not the current concentrated supply. No score change. |
| 2026-06-29 | Data | N/A | Correction (reverses the two rows below). Sahara's team DEFERRED the 26 June 2026 cliff on 24 June 2026: founder, core-team and advisor tokens pushed back six months and investor tokens three, a voluntary vesting extension after a roughly 60% price crash on 9 June 2026 (a futures-liquidation cascade per the team; insider-sale accusations denied, buybacks ruled out). Verified across CryptoRank, coingabbar and CoinMarketCal. This corrects the 2026-06-27 row, which recorded the cliff as having reached its date (the insider tokens did not release), and the 2026-06-25 row, which rejected the extension lead as uncorroborated and treated the 9 June 2026 crash as a confusion with the November 2025 unwind (the June crash is real and is what triggered the deferral). First insider unlocks now fall in roughly Q3 2026 (investor) and Q4 2026 (team). Downstream corrected: @0xbobski live post corrected via reply, @ownyourmindai staged quote-post deleted, newsletter Issue 05 reframed to the deferral. No score change now; Supply dynamics (6/20) and Liquidity and access (11/15) to be reassessed at the next monthly review, the deferral lowers near-term cliff pressure while the crash and the buyback refusal cut the other way. |
| 2026-06-27 | Data | N/A | X-posting reconcile. The ~1.03B SAHARA insider cliff unlock (10.3% of supply, ~30% of released float) reached its scheduled 26 June 2026 12:00 UTC date. Flagged pending in the 2026-06-25 row and already factored into Supply Dynamics; this records that the date has passed. Price impact muted in the first day per trackers. No score change. Watch the unlocked allocations for on-chain movement and any OTC flow. |
| 2026-06-25 | Data | N/A | DefiLlama-harvest cross-check. RE-VERIFIED the 26 June 2026 cliff unlock is still scheduled (~1.03B SAHARA at 12:00 UTC, ~30% of released float) across Tokenomist, CryptoRank, CoinGlass and CoinMarketCal; our unlock framing holds, no change. Two leads from the LlamaAI harvest snapshot were checked and REJECTED as uncorroborated: a claimed 23 June "unlock-schedule extension" (no tracker shows any delay) and a claimed 9 June 2026 "60% CCIP-bridge crash" (the real, verifiable crash was 29 November 2025). Added that verified Nov-2025 event to Liquidity and access: ~50% drop in minutes, attributed by analysts (not Sahara) to a market maker unwind, founder Sean Ren stating no exploit. No score change. |
| 2026-06-02 | Data | N/A | June monthly review. Circulating supply refreshed 29.09% (~2.91B) → 34.07% (~3.41B of 10B) per CoinGecko. Mainnet-timing framing updated: target reset from the original Q3 2025 to Q4 2026 (per Sahara's 2026 roadmap); "nine months past target" phrasing refreshed. The ~1.03B insider cliff (26 June 2026) remains pending, not yet executed. SAHARA staking launched ~13 May 2026 (noted; pre-mainnet, on the ERC-20). No score change (mainnet still not live, decentralisation claims still aspirational). |
| 2026-05-02 | Editorial | N/A | Added Sorin (centrally hosted full-asset investment agent, launched 15 April 2026, 20K early-access users). Sahara Chain mainnet still not live. No score change. |
| 2025-03-03 | Both | N/A | Initial publish. Freedom 33/100, Returns 45/100. |