Ankr

[[PROJECT:1577]] is a Web3 infrastructure company founded in 2018 that operates a decentralized physical infrastructure network (DePIN) of bare-metal nodes across more than 30 global regions. The company's core business is providing Remote Procedure Call (RPC) access to blockchain networks — the data layer that wallets, dApps, and trading bots rely on to read chain state and broadcast transactions. That infrastructure now handles 8 billion daily RPC requests across over 70 chains, with an average response time of 56ms and a claimed uptime of 99.99%.

RPC Infrastructure and the Solana Endpoint

Among the chains Ankr supports is Solana, available through a public endpoint at solana.ankr.com. The network serves roughly 760,000 unique geographic locations per month, with nodes distributed globally to minimize round-trip latency. Ankr's tiered service model distinguishes public endpoints (available at no cost, with rate limits) from premium tiers that offer higher throughput — up to 1,500 requests per second — archive data access, and MEV-enabled paths. The company positions itself against single-provider RPC services by distributing requests across multiple independent node operators, creating geographic redundancy without requiring users to manage their own validator infrastructure.

In July 2026, Ankr introduced Verifiable RPC (vRPC), which attaches cryptographic proofs to RPC responses. The mechanism lets applications verify that the data they received was not tampered with in transit, addressing a trust gap in standard RPC delivery where a compromised or misconfigured node can silently return incorrect state. The company followed that in August 2026 with Agent RPC, a product variant designed for AI agent deployments that aims to reduce token consumption in LLM-driven on-chain workflows.

Liquid Staking

Ankr operates a liquid staking platform with $83 million in total value locked and more than 18,000 users. Supported assets include Ethereum, Polygon (POL), Avalanche (AVAX), BNB, Polkadot (DOT), Fantom (FTM), and Kusama (KSM). Users deposit assets and receive liquid staking tokens — ankrETH for Ethereum, for example — that accrue staking rewards while remaining transferable and usable in DeFi. Solana staking is not currently offered through Ankr's platform.

Beyond liquid staking, Ankr provides AppChains tooling that lets projects deploy their own rollups and sidechains using Ankr's node infrastructure as the underlying provider layer.

Ankr Forge: Token Utility Through Infrastructure Revenue

The ANKR token's utility is being reshaped through Ankr Forge, a rewards program launched in July 2026. Holders who maintain at least 13,500 ANKR on Ethereum mainnet qualify to earn Forge Points, which accumulate from two sources: passively from holding the token, and actively from completing on-chain missions on partner chains that Ankr's node network supports. Each month, a rewards pool funded by infrastructure deals with partner chains is distributed proportionally across point holders as "Forge Drops."

The model ties token value to RPC deal flow rather than protocol emissions. As Ankr onboards more chains and negotiates revenue-sharing agreements, the pool available to ANKR holders grows. Ankr positioned Forge publicly as its response to questions about what the token does beyond governance — anchoring it to the commercial activity the infrastructure generates.

Neura: An AI-Native Layer 1

In parallel with its infrastructure business, Ankr has backed the development of Neura, a dedicated Layer 1 blockchain targeting AI agent infrastructure and DeFi. Neura launched its public testnet in April 2024 and has since accumulated over 1.5 million testnet users and more than 100 million testnet transactions.

Neura is EVM-compatible and built on the Hyperledger Besu client, running QBFT consensus for sub-second finality. The ANKR token serves as its native gas currency, creating a direct link between Ankr's infrastructure network and Neura's economic activity. Ankr's RPC infrastructure provides node coverage for Neura, and a concept called RPCfi is designed to route value generated by that RPC traffic back into Neura's ecosystem rather than to external providers.

Three product areas define Neura's roadmap. The first is a decentralized exchange built around concentrated liquidity (veDEX), where AI agents can automate liquidity management on behalf of users — selecting price ranges, compounding fees, and rebalancing as market conditions shift. The second is an AI agent marketplace built on an on-chain identity standard (ERC-8004) where agents accumulate verifiable performance histories: positions managed, fees generated, drawdown events. Users set capital and risk parameters, hire an agent from the marketplace, and can revoke access at any time; the agent earns a fee from the yield it produces. The third is the Neuraverse, an on-chain environment where humans and AI agents interact, complete quests, and transact together.

Neura's mainnet had not launched as of August 2026. In April 2026 the project announced a $1 million grant program targeting DeFi and application developers building on the chain ahead of mainnet.

Context for Solana

Ankr's role in the Solana ecosystem is infrastructure: the RPC layer applications and tools use to query the chain. The company does not currently offer Solana liquid staking, and neither Ankr nor Neura runs programs on the Solana network directly. What Ankr provides is access — developers and protocols building on Solana can use its distributed node network as their RPC provider without operating their own validator infrastructure.

The broader Ankr picture in 2026 is two tracks running together: a mature infrastructure business with billions of daily requests and commercial partnerships across 70+ chains, and a new chain in Neura that uses the ANKR token to capture some of that infrastructure value while building a dedicated environment for AI-driven DeFi. Whether both tracks reinforce each other depends on Neura reaching mainnet and generating the RPCfi revenue its design anticipates.

:::metric-cards

• label: Daily RPC requests value: 8B sentiment: neutral
• label: Supported chains (RPC) value: "70+" sentiment: neutral
• label: Liquid staking TVL value: $83M+ sentiment: neutral
• label: Neura testnet users value: 1.5M+ sentiment: neutral :::