Ankr's RPCfi: Bringing value back to developers of the Tron Ecosystem

TBL
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Project Name: Ankr

Project Track: depin-rwa

Team Name: Ankr

Team Members: 50+. I am representing the RPCfi initiatives in this forum

Social Info

Telegram: https://t.me/ankrnetwork

X (Twitter): https://x.com/ankr

Discord: Ankr Community

Website: http://ankr.com/

Project Overview

Project Goal: Our goal is to introduce RPCfi to the Tron ecosystem and invite the Tron Foundation and community to collaborate with us on its activation. RPCfi is a new model that sends value back into the ecosystem by turning RPC usage into liquidity, buybacks and yield for developers. We want to show how this benefits Tron directly, how it grows long-term liquidity for the TRX token and how it creates a new incentive mechanism for builders. We are also proposing a (minimum) one year liquidity commitment from the Tron Foundation to help bootstrap the first Ankr/Tron liquidity pool connected to RPCfi.

Unique Value Proposition:

RPCfi is the first system that turns real infrastructure spending into onchain value for the networks that generate it. Developers already pay for RPC to run their applications and that money normally leaves the ecosystem. With RPCfi, part of that spend is converted into liquidity, buybacks and rewards that stay inside the Tron economy. This creates a value loop that grows based on real usage instead of emissions.

The benefits for Tron are direct. RPC usage on Tron translates into consistent TRX buybacks and deeper long term liquidity for the token. Based on the current traffic, we already expect annualized buyback levels of roughly $30k-40k for just the $TRX token. As more applications grow on Tron, this number increases automatically because it is tied to actual usage rather than incentives.

Developers on Tron benefit as well. Teams using Ankr Premium RPC receive value back through the rewards generated by the liquidity pool sitting on Neura. Their net RPC costs are reduced and they gain from the activity they create on the Tron blockchain. The more their applications are used, the more value flows back to them.

No other RPC provider or infrastructure project has ever deployed an economic loop like this. RPCfi is the first model that connects routine infrastructure usage to onchain value growth for both the ecosystem and its developers.

Project Demo: There is no traditional demo to show because RPCfi operates at the infrastructure level. Ankr’s Tron RPC is already fully live and used in production today. Anyone can retrieve Tron endpoints from the Ankr website and start reading and writing to the chain immediately: https://www.ankr.com/rpc/tron/.

Since launch, Ankr has handled more than 16 billion RPC requests on Tron and currently supports over 150 monthly active developers building with these endpoints (averaging over 200 requests/sec in the last 30 days). All of the infrastructure needed for RPCfi is already in place on the RPC side. The only part that cannot be demonstrated yet is the RPCfi value routing itself, which will activate once Neura’s mainnet goes live.

For a clear explanation of how RPCfi works and how developers benefit, we recommend the detailed breakdown in this Cointelegraph article:
https://cointelegraph.com/news/how-the-new-movement-of-rpcfi-aims-to-revive-defi-yield

Expected Completion Date: RPCfi will go live on day 1 of Neura’s mainnet, which is expected toward the end of Q1 2026. The activation happens as soon as Neura is live since RPCfi depends on the mainnet environment and the veDEX integration.

Current Progress (%): 80%. The RPCfi backend logic is finished and Ankr’s Tron RPC has already been running in production for years. All remaining steps depend on the launch of Neura’s mainnet, which will enable the buybacks and the liquidity routing to go live.

Technical & Governance Details

Project Test Instructions: Anyone can test the current infrastructure by retrieving Tron RPC endpoints from the Ankr platform. The endpoints support all read and write calls, full blockchain data access. RPCfi itself cannot be tested until Neura mainnet is live since it relies on the veDEX liquidity support and mainnet launch.

Technical Details: Ankr operates fully bare metal infrastructure across six continents. There is no cloud dependency. The service includes automatic geolocation routing for optimal performance, proprietary load balancing, dedicated premium RPC plans and high throughput APIs. Integration into RPCfi connects the billing layer to Neura where part of the RPC spend is routed into liquidity on the veDEX. All existing Tron RPC tools and APIs continue to work exactly as they do today.

Smart Contract Links: Not applicable. RPCfi is not a smart contract product yet and is centrally operated at the infrastructure layer.

How is the Project Governed?: The RPCfi rewards system is centrally coordinated. As the model matures we will explore ways to gradually decentralize some components.

Funding & Business Model

Funding Request: We are requesting a $50k TRX contribution from the Tron Foundation to bootstrap the Ankr–Tron liquidity pool on Neura that powers RPCfi. Ankr will match up to $50k in tokens so both sides are aligned at launch.
The liquidity would be committed for one year under the initial agreement. Ideally the foundation would keep the position for longer so the pool can compound over time, but the first term is set at one year and the proportional share is returned at the end of that period.

Additionally, we would be glad to work with the Tron Foundation and the community to see if a pool of subsidized TRON RPC credits, funded by the foundation, makes sense for early builders. If the community supports it, these credits could help new teams begin developing on Tron while also initiating the first buybacks for TRX and ANKR.

Revenue Model: RPCfi is driven entirely by existing developer spending on Ankr’s Tron RPC. This revenue already exists and once Neura is live a portion of it automatically converts into TRX buybacks and liquidity growth. The system turns on immediately at mainnet launch and scales with real usage rather than emissions.

Interested in TRON Having a Stake?: While this project doesn’t have a way to have any form of stake, we would welcome any type of additional incentives by the Tron foundation to either distribute as the form or RPC credits to developers on Tron and increase visibility for this new mechanism.

Preferred Collaboration Method:
We would like a close and ongoing collaboration with Tron DAO that includes co-marketing, support for builders, education around RPCfi and regular updates on how RPC driven liquidity is benefiting the Tron ecosystem. We are happy to coordinate content, technical documentation, community sessions and developer outreach together.

Ecosystem Impact

Partnerships: Ankr and Neura are working together to deliver RPCfi. Neura is the layer on top of which the liquidity from RPCfi will live. Zotto, is the veDEX on which the $ANKR/$TRX liquidity pools will be. Ankr also already supports over 80+ blockchains but RPCfi is exclusively for the top chains in terms of volume. We expect to launch RPCfi on the DEX Zotto, which will be the exclusive DEX on which TRON liquidity will live on Neura.

The top 10 foundations which will have the highest RPC volume on Ankr will also be eligible for RPCfi rewards for their developers.

Time on TRON: Ankr supports Tron since May 2022, which was showcased in this announcement https://medium.com/ankr-network/ankr-partnering-with-tron-for-our-newest-rpc-34cc285b3b94

Since then, Ankr has deployed both private and public endpoints, enabling over 15 Billion RPC requests using its infrastructure.

Project Milestones:

  1. Complete the backend for RPCfi (completed).

  2. Launch the Neura veDEX on testnet (completed).

  3. Prepare for Neura mainnet launch and integrate RPC routing. (Q1 2026)

  4. Deploy the first $ANKR/$TRX liquidity pool.(Q1 2026)

  5. Begin redirecting RPC spend into onchain liquidity through RPCfi. (Q1 2026)

  6. Publish ongoing metrics and updates for the Tron community. (past deployment)

Project in 5 Years:

In five years we see RPCfi reshaping how developers think about building on Tron. Today RPC costs are sunken costs. With RPCfi that changes completely. Developers finally earn from the RPC calls they make. Every call, every read, every blockchain interaction becomes part of a value loop that rewards the teams actually driving usage. This is something the industry has talked about for years but never been able to deliver until now.

As RPCfi grows we expect the Tron-linked liquidity pool to become a strong and continuously expanding asset for the ecosystem. Based on current usage levels we estimate roughly forty thousand dollars of TRX buybacks each year once RPCfi is deployed. Over a longer horizon our goal is to see this build toward more than $500k of cumulative buybacks as developer activity compounds (The Ankr team has seen over 150% YoY growth on its Tron RPC volume).

The bigger vision is simple. Developers feel supported because the infrastructure they rely on gives something back. Projects are more motivated to launch on Tron because their growth translates directly into tangible returns. The ecosystem gains deeper liquidity, constant buyback pressure and a healthier economic engine that reflects real usage. Five years from now we want RPCfi to be one of the reasons people say Tron is one of the most rewarding places to build.

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Welcome to TBL, your submission is quite lengthy but worth the read. How will developer rewards be calculated and claimed? Would rewards be in TRX or Ankr or a stable coin? Thank you!

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Hi Manfred, great question! Developer rewards will be calculated from the rewards coming from the underlying liquidity pool.

There are 3 main sources of rewards for this liquidity pool. The first source is the fees from the liquidity pool. The Neura foundation receives the $TRX & $ANKR from the trading fees (as chain-owned liquidity) and volume generated via those pools and gives that value back to the developers through NEURA emissions for long-term sustainability, with NEURA incentives estimated at around 16% APY on a $250k TRX/ANKR pool. Secondly, developers will also receive $ZOT, Zotto’s governance token (which is the veDEX), following a voting-escrow model, with Zotto emissions estimated to be around half of the trading fees. Finally, Neura-related incentives will be further distributed to those pools and thus developers as part of the overall reward structure.

I’d be happy to give additional charts or graphs if the community is interested in how the yield flows back to developers, I would just need to censor some specific numbers (exact $ revenue, etc.)

Let me know if this is clear for you or if you need additional information!
Hugo

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I understand vividly your general standpoint from your explanation. Moving forward, in situations where trading volume is low but emissions remain high, what then happens to developer rewards?

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The emissions follow a formula taking into account factors like TVL, fees and risk rating of the protocol.

In this casem a lower trading volume would mean lower fees for this pool and thus slightly lower emissions to the developers.

In the case you mentioned, the APY reduction will affect the developer rewards negatively, but still on a small scale

So it is also something to note: any increase in TVL, volume, or price will mean higher rewards to the developers. The exact simulations depend on multiple factors (TVL, $TRX/ANKR prices, volume, Zotto and Neura emissions, risk rating, etc.)

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Thanks for your reply, I’m still a little curious as to how risk rating changes, can a pool’s risk rating change suddenly, or you have like a grace period in place before new emissions apply?

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So there are 2 different levels of ratings: One for Neura-related incentives and one for Zotto’s.

In our case, for Neura, we plan on setting RPCfi as a standalone app (higher incentives) and giving it the highest rating possible, or as close as possible to it.

The rating acts as a multiplier on the incentives and ranges from A++ to C-. Ratings for the different apps are planned to be decided by governance and should be sticky. So we don’t expect rating changes on apps or pools to be made too often.

I would need to sync with the Zotto team to give more details on risk ratings from their end. These ratings should be based on factors like a token’s liquidity, CEX listings, and similar metrics, all of which would likely place $TRX among the top coins.

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Oh wow, very detailed explanation.
But in all of this, if for instance a rating change is proposed, would there be something like a public proposal period?

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Maybe not at the very start and in case of urgencies or critical events (hacks, etc.)

But as time goes by and both governances start to get decentralized, these are the kind of decisions that would be voted on by participants. (Note that there is also a possibility for this to be fully automated, with human oversight, but the first approach is more likely)

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Thanks for the clarification, I’m all clear now moving forward.