Surplus Intelligence reports 312.6 billion daily tokens as rival questions demand metrics

Surplus Intelligence recorded 312.6 billion tokens processed in a single day on October 18, 2026, while a competitor argues token counts do not reflect actual spending.

Surplus Intelligence, an onchain AI inference market on Base, reported a record 312.6 billion tokens processed in a single day on October 18, 2026. The figure rose from 133.6 billion on September 23, 2026, reflecting about 2.3 times growth in under a month, according to its dashboard.

The announcement comes as token volumes rise across inference markets, and a competitor calls for dollar-based metrics. Amos Meiri, co-founder of the inference marketplace AntSeed, wrote that token counts “say almost nothing” and that “at minimum, we should ask for transparent USD spend.” Surplus’s dashboard reports user savings rather than spend.

Meiri cited Venice as an example of the disclosure he advocates: 500 billion tokens a day and $150 million in annual recurring revenue. AntSeed’s own onchain figures are smaller. It has settled about $310,000 on Base since launch and retained roughly $12,000 in fees, according to Bankless.

Analyst @0xJeff posted that Dolphin, whose token is DLPHN, reached 32.2 billion daily tokens one week after its API went live. That figure rose from about 14 billion tokens a day, which he cited three days earlier.

Inference has become one of the largest uses of x402 payments. Onchain markets offer discounted model access and settle payments from a crypto wallet, rather than an account tied to an email, card, or identity check.

According to Surplus’s site, developers using it have reduced inference costs by 81%. Each call routes to the healthiest offer at the user’s minimum discount. AntSeed describes itself as a peer-to-peer marketplace where requests go directly to providers and payments settle in USDC on Base.