# Demand Related Articles

HTX News Center provides the latest articles and in-depth analysis on "Demand", covering market trends, project updates, tech developments, and regulatory policies in the crypto industry.

The First Year of Computing Power Inflation: The Cheaper DeepSeek Gets, the Harder It Is to Stop This Round of Price Hikes

The year 2026 marks the beginning of "computing power inflation." While AI inference costs have dropped by over 80% in 18 months globally, China's three major cloud providers—Alibaba Cloud, Baidu AI Cloud, and Tencent Cloud—simultaneously announced price hikes of 20–30%. This reflects a deeper structural shift driven by Jevons Paradox: as unit costs fall (e.g., via models like DeepSeek-R1), demand explodes, especially with the rise of reasoning models and AI agents that consume 10–50x more tokens per task. Although DeepSeek open-sourced its model weights, it did not release its inference optimization stack, leaving a significant engineering efficiency gap between cloud providers and smaller players. The big three are leveraging this advantage to reposition: Alibaba focuses on high-margin premium clients, Baidu filters out low-value users, and Tencent capitalizes on ecosystem lock-in. Meanwhile, ByteDance’s Volcano Engine adopts a more moderate pricing strategy to capture displaced customers. Unexpectedly, the price surge is pushing large enterprises toward self-built computing solutions once their cloud bills exceed a certain threshold. While cloud providers aim to boost profitability, they risk driving away innovative startups and accelerating competition from GPU leasing and domestic hardware providers like Huawei. The涨价 trend is expected to persist for 2–3 years, fueled by rising token consumption from reasoning models, AI agent adoption, and NVIDIA export restrictions. The inflection point depends on whether domestic chips can match NVIDIA’s efficiency, likely around 2027–2028. Until then, cloud providers will maintain pricing power, and the key for AI companies is to optimize token usage—the real moat in this era.

marsbit22m ago

The First Year of Computing Power Inflation: The Cheaper DeepSeek Gets, the Harder It Is to Stop This Round of Price Hikes

marsbit22m ago

48 Hours, $2.7 Billion: Strategy's STRC ATM Mechanism is Accumulating Bitcoin at an Unprecedented Pace

Strategy's STRC ATM (At-The-Market) mechanism is accelerating its Bitcoin acquisition at an unprecedented pace. In just the first two trading days of the week, it generated $2.74 billion in volume, absorbing approximately 29,914 BTC—more than double the 13,927 BTC acquired in the entire previous week, representing a 115% increase. Notably, 100% of the STRC shares traded on both Monday and Tuesday were above the $100 face value threshold, the condition required to trigger the ATM and convert equity demand into Bitcoin purchases. Tuesday alone saw an estimated $1.57 billion in volume, absorbing 16,762 BTC—equivalent to 37 times the daily Bitcoin mining output. This surge demonstrates a new scale of sustained demand for the variable-rate perpetual preferred shares. If this pace continued, the weekly acquisition could reach roughly 75,000 BTC, fundamentally redefining corporate Bitcoin treasury strategies. While such extreme velocity may not be sustained, the mechanism is consistently converting market demand into large-scale Bitcoin accumulation.

marsbitYesterday 09:35

48 Hours, $2.7 Billion: Strategy's STRC ATM Mechanism is Accumulating Bitcoin at an Unprecedented Pace

marsbitYesterday 09:35

Bank of Korea Interprets the AI Semiconductor Cycle: The Most Dangerous Signal Lies in Financing

The Bank of Korea (BoK) released a report examining the sustainability of the current AI-driven semiconductor supercycle, concluding that the expansion is likely to continue until at least the first half of 2026. The report highlights three key differences from past cycles: unprecedented demand growth (driven by HBM and AI accelerators), severely constrained supply (due to complex HBM production and conservative industry expansion), and a significantly larger and longer supply-demand gap. Five critical factors will determine the cycle's longevity: 1. The profitability of AI investments, as market focus shifts from market share capture to earnings. 2. The ability of major tech firms to secure financing, with internal cash flows already insufficient to cover massive CAPEX, leading to increased corporate debt issuance and risky vendor financing structures reminiscent of the telecom bubble. 3. Uncertain impact of AI model efficiency improvements, which could either reduce per-unit demand or increase total consumption. 4. Expansion speed of major memory manufacturers, with significant new capacity from SK Hynix, Micron, and Samsung only expected from late 2027. 5. Ramping production from Chinese manufacturers, whose DRAM market share is projected to grow rapidly, pressuring prices. The report warns that financing fragility—evidenced by rising CDS spreads, off-balance-sheet SPV financing, and redemption halts in private credit funds—is the most critical risk. While the cycle remains robust through 2026, pressures are expected to build in 2027, with a heightened risk of overcapacity by 2028.

marsbit04/13 08:51

Bank of Korea Interprets the AI Semiconductor Cycle: The Most Dangerous Signal Lies in Financing

marsbit04/13 08:51

Giants Collectively Raise Prices, Is the AI Price Hike Wave Coming? Can We Still Afford Lobster Employees?

Major AI companies, including Alibaba Cloud, Baidu Intelligent Cloud, Tencent Cloud, and Zhipu, have recently announced significant price increases for AI computing and storage services, with hikes ranging from 5% to over 460% in some models. This trend follows similar moves by global giants like Amazon AWS and Google Cloud earlier this year. The price surge is driven by explosive demand for computing power, fueled by the rapid adoption of AI agents like OpenClaw (referred to as "Lobster" in the article), which consume tokens at rates dozens or even hundreds of times higher than traditional AI applications. This has created a severe supply-demand imbalance. Additionally, shortages in high-end hardware—such as AI chips and high-bandwidth memory (HBM)—have constrained computing capacity and raised operational costs. The industry is shifting away from loss-leading pricing strategies toward value-based models, prioritizing sustainable development over market-share competition. A new "token economy" is emerging, where pricing is increasingly based on token usage, complexity, and speed rather than flat fees. This reflects AI computing's evolution from a generic service to a specialized, high-value resource. Some companies are even considering token allowances as part of employee benefits, highlighting its growing role as both a production tool and a cost factor. The article concludes by questioning whether AI services will remain affordable as compute costs continue to rise.

marsbit04/13 04:20

Giants Collectively Raise Prices, Is the AI Price Hike Wave Coming? Can We Still Afford Lobster Employees?

marsbit04/13 04:20

Avalanche transactions hit a 2026 high of 3.5 mln: Can AVAX reach $10 again?

Avalanche's on-chain activity has surged significantly, with daily transactions reaching a yearly high of 3.5 million. This growth is attributed to three key factors: the launch of Grayscale's AVAX staking ETF (GAVA) on Nasdaq, regulatory clarity from the SEC and CFTC classifying AVAX as a digital commodity, and Broadridge bringing proxy voting on-chain. Active addresses have also risen substantially, from 100K to a new floor of 500K-700K, while non-Sybil users increased from 5k to 49k, indicating growth driven by real users rather than bots. Despite this surge in network usage and increased demand from large entities (with whales establishing a demand wall around $8.9-$9.3), AVAX remains in a bearish trend. It has been in a downtrend for the past two weeks, trading below its key moving averages. For a trend reversal, demand needs to drive AVAX above $10; otherwise, it may continue trading sideways in the $8.4-$9.7 range.

ambcrypto04/11 03:03

Avalanche transactions hit a 2026 high of 3.5 mln: Can AVAX reach $10 again?

ambcrypto04/11 03:03

Value Calculator Puts XRP At $1,632, But Pundit Says You Shouldn’t Be Looking At Price

An XRP enthusiast recently shared a valuation model predicting a price of $1,632 per token, based on assumptions including $19 trillion in daily transaction volume and $30 trillion in store-of-value demand. The model, derived from a framework by Ripple board member Susan Athey, uses inputs like a five-day average holding period and a 5% discount rate to project future value. However, a commentator emphasized that the specific price is less important than the underlying assumption: that XRP could facilitate global financial flows on a massive scale. While such ultra-bullish predictions are common in the XRP community, they often ignore basic market realities—a $1,000 price would imply a $60 trillion market cap, exceeding double the U.S. GDP. The key takeaway is to focus on the utility and adoption variables rather than fixating on price projections.

bitcoinist04/10 16:55

Value Calculator Puts XRP At $1,632, But Pundit Says You Shouldn’t Be Looking At Price

bitcoinist04/10 16:55

GPUs Have No 'Price': Four Indices Clash, the Compute Market Is More Chaotic Than You Think

The GPU compute market lacks a clear price benchmark, with four major indices on Bloomberg Terminal showing significant divergence—differing by over $2 and moving inconsistently. This reveals a fragmented and inefficient market for AI compute power, particularly for H100 and B200 GPUs. While demand surges and supply constraints are real, pricing is highly opaque and varies by contract type, provider, and location. The absence of standardized contracts, reliable benchmarks, and liquid secondary markets leads to hoarding and informal subleasing. Key issues include inconsistent pricing methodologies, unstandardized agreements, quality assurance gaps, and no forward pricing mechanism. Without coordinated improvements in infrastructure and market design, establishing a true price for GPU compute remains impossible.

marsbit04/08 09:24

GPUs Have No 'Price': Four Indices Clash, the Compute Market Is More Chaotic Than You Think

marsbit04/08 09:24

Cardano’s whale growth is positive, but will it be enough for demand to catch up?

Cardano's ADA price has moved sideways amid a weak altcoin market, but whale accumulation has increased significantly. Wallets holding at least 10 million ADA reached a 4-month high, rising 5.2% over nine weeks, suggesting growing confidence among large holders. However, this accumulation has not translated into strong price momentum, with ADA gaining only about 11% since February's low. The price remains range-bound between $0.24–$0.25, facing selling pressure near $0.27 and $0.31. Weak demand, limited capital inflow, and competition from other narratives like AI and RWA have capped ADA's upside. While whale growth is positive, a sustained breakout depends on broader altcoin strength and stronger market demand.

ambcrypto04/08 06:33

Cardano’s whale growth is positive, but will it be enough for demand to catch up?

ambcrypto04/08 06:33

The Overestimated Individual: A Survival Guide to China's 'One-Person Companies'

The article "The Overestimated Individual: A Survival Guide to China's 'One-Person Companies'" explores the rise and challenges of solo entrepreneurship in China. It contrasts viral success stories, like Maor Shlomo's $80M exit and Pieter Levels' $2.7M annual revenue, with the harsh reality for most Chinese OPC founders. Based on a community of 2,500+ solo founders, only 20% achieve a sustainable business, with an annual revenue ceiling of ~¥1.2M due to the constraints of trading time for money. Most successful founders don’t stick to their original industry but instead identify unmet market needs. Breaking through the ceiling is extremely difficult. While AI and automation are often touted as solutions, they are hard to implement effectively due to complex delivery chains and the risk of quality degradation. Alternative paths include forming collaborative networks with other solo founders or scaling by handing off validated business models to a team. The author concludes that the window of opportunity for OPCs is temporary. Lower barriers to entry mean markets get crowded faster, shortening the "shelf life" of an idea. A one-person company is not a sustainable end state but a precarious, time-sensitive phase to validate a idea before the competition catches up or the market window closes.

marsbit04/07 11:02

Expert Explains What Strategy’s 89,599 BTC Buy In Q1 Means For The Bitcoin Price

Expert Adam Livingston analyzes the significance of Strategy's purchase of 89,599 BTC in Q1 2026—its second-largest quarterly accumulation—amid a downtrend and negative market sentiment. He emphasizes that this pace, if sustained for three years, could push Strategy's holdings to 1.84 million BTC by 2029, significantly reducing market supply. Notably, Strategy bought more aggressively at higher prices, with 39% of purchases in the $90k-$110k range. Livingston argues that even conservative projections point to substantial upside for both Strategy’s valuation and Bitcoin’s long-term price, especially if BTC reverts toward its $360k power-law trend by 2028.

bitcoinist04/07 04:02

Expert Explains What Strategy’s 89,599 BTC Buy In Q1 Means For The Bitcoin Price

bitcoinist04/07 04:02