Ankr just rolled out a rewards platform called Forge, and it comes with a twist that separates it from the usual “stake tokens, get more tokens” playbook. Instead of printing new $ANKR to fund incentives, the platform ties its rewards to revenue generated by Ankr’s existing infrastructure business.

How Forge actually works

The mechanics are straightforward enough. Users convert their $ANKR holdings and complete various missions, think on-chain transactions and app interactions, to earn something called Forge Points. Those points then determine how much of the periodic “Forge Drops” each user receives.

Forge Points also unlock eligibility for token generation event allocations from Ankr’s partner projects. In English: do stuff on-chain, earn points, get rewarded with actual value rather than inflated token emissions.

The platform launched on July 15, and eligible participants have already started accumulating Forge Points. The first Forge Drop is expected to roll out soon, though Ankr hasn’t pinned down an exact date.

The infrastructure behind the incentives

Ankr operates blockchain infrastructure across more than 80 supported chains and processes over 1 trillion RPC requests per month. For the uninitiated, RPC requests are essentially the API calls that let wallets, dApps, and services communicate with blockchains. Every time you check your MetaMask balance or swap tokens on a DEX, there’s an RPC request happening behind the scenes.

That volume of requests translates into real revenue. And that revenue is what Ankr says will fund the Forge rewards program.

Ankr’s CTO Stanley Wu framed the launch as repositioning the utility of the $ANKR token entirely. He called it a “win for holders, partners, and Ankr.”

What this means for $ANKR holders and the broader market

There’s a competitive angle here too. Blockchain infrastructure is a crowded field. Infura, Alchemy, QuickNode, and others are all vying for the same developer mindshare. Most of them don’t have a native token, which means they can’t offer this kind of user-facing incentive layer.

The first Forge Drop will be the real test of whether Ankr’s infrastructure revenue can translate into rewards compelling enough to change user behavior at scale.