Crypto Gloss

Alchemy

Alchemy occupies the same role in crypto that AWS occupies in web2: the invisible infrastructure layer that most applications rely on but few users think about. When you interact with Uniswap, OpenSea, or Aave, there’s a significant chance the read/write calls being made to Ethereum are going through Alchemy’s data infrastructure. The company has built what it calls “Supernode” — a proprietary node infrastructure layer that goes beyond basic RPC endpoints to offer enhanced APIs, reliability guarantees (99.9%+ uptime), and developer tooling that dramatically reduces the complexity of building blockchain applications. As a private company, Alchemy has not issued its own token, which sets it apart from most of the infrastructure discussed in the crypto space — making it a pure B2B developer tool business funded by VC (Series C at $10.2B valuation, 2022).

What Alchemy Does: Core Products

The main product offerings are described below.

1. Alchemy Supernode: Enhanced RPC

The core product is managed blockchain node infrastructure:

Standard RPC provider (Infura, self-hosted):

  • Direct JSON-RPC calls to Ethereum node
  • Call eth_getLogs → get raw log data → parse yourself
  • Single node; if it falls behind or crashes, your app fails

Alchemy Supernode:

  • Enterprise load balancing → requests distributed across many nodes
  • Automatic failover if a node goes down
  • Enhanced APIs: Pre-parsed responses for common queries (no raw log parsing)
  • Historical data without full archive node costs
  • Real-time event streaming via WebSockets

Supported chains (2025): Ethereum, Polygon, Arbitrum, Optimism, Base, Solana, Starknet, Astar, Scroll, zkSync, Berachain, Linea, and 20+ others.

2. Enhanced APIs

Beyond basic RPC, Alchemy’s value-add APIs:

NFT API:

  • getNFTsForOwner(address) → returns all NFTs with metadata for a wallet
  • getNFTMetadata(contract, tokenId) → returns parsed NFT data
  • Eliminates need for custom indexing of ERC-721 transfer events

Token API:

  • getTokenBalances(address) → returns all ERC-20 balances for a wallet
  • Used by MetaMask, Trust Wallet, Coinbase Wallet for portfolio display

Transfers API:

  • Historical transfer data for any address
  • No need to scan every block; Alchemy pre-indexes and serves

Webhook API:

  • Subscribe to address activity events (e.g., “notify me when this address receives ETH”)
  • Used for exchange deposit detection, dApp activity monitoring

Trace API:

  • Full transaction execution traces
  • Used by block explorers and analytics platforms

3. Account Kit: ERC-4337 SDK

Launched in 2023, Account Kit is Alchemy’s SDK for building smart account applications using ERC-4337:

  • Abstract away seed phrases: Enable email/social login for embedded wallets
  • Sponsorable gas: Dapps pay gas on behalf of users (no ETH needed to onboard)
  • Batch transactions: Multiple contract calls in one user confirmation
  • Session keys: Time-limited permissions for gaming/subscription use cases

Target: Consumer-facing dApps that want to improve onboarding UX without users needing MetaMask or ETH balance.

UsedBy: Multiple major consumer apps have integrated Account Kit for mobile-first UX.

4. Alchemy Pay

Separate but related product:

  • Crypto-fiat payment gateway for businesses
  • Accept crypto payments, receive fiat (or vice versa)
  • ACH token is Alchemy Pay’s separate listed token (distinct from Alchemy developer platform)
  • Covers 173+ countries; integrated with Visa and Mastercard networks

Important distinction: Alchemy Pay (ACH token) is a separate company from Alchemy developer platform. Despite similar names, they are not the same product and the ACH token is not related to Alchemy’s developer platform valuation.

Usage Scale

Alchemy reports (as of 2022–2023 data):

  • Processing 100M+ API calls per day
  • Used by 70%+ of the “top dApps” (self-reported; includes Uniswap, OpenSea, Crypto.com, Nansen, etc.)
  • 90%+ of US crypto companies use Alchemy in their stack
  • “$100B+ in transactions” processed per day (across all chains)

Note: Alchemy is a private company; these are self-reported marketing figures. Independent verification is limited, but their customer list (Uniswap, OpenSea, etc.) is verifiable through developer documentation of those protocols.

Competing Infrastructure Providers

Provider Strengths Model
Alchemy Richest APIs, Account Kit, developer experience VC-backed private, paid tier
Infura (ConsenSys) First mover, Ethereum focus, MetaMask link ConsenSys subsidiary
QuickNode Multi-chain, competitive pricing VC-backed
Ankr Decentralized, ANKR token, cost-efficient Token model
Chainstack Enterprise-grade, on-prem options Enterprise SaaS
Moralis Web3 backend as a service, more full-stack VC-backed
Gelato Automation + infrastructure Token model

Decentralized alternatives: Pocket Network (POKT token), Flux, Lava Network aim to create decentralized RPC networks where node operators earn tokens — but face quality/latency challenges vs. Alchemy’s optimized centralized infrastructure.

The Centralization Concern

The critical risk: If Alchemy and Infura both went down simultaneously:

  • MetaMask (reads via Infura/Alchemy) would stop displaying balances
  • Most major dApp frontends would fail to load on-chain data
  • Actual smart contracts would be unaffected (EVM keeps running)

This is “dependency centralization” — not a protocol-level attack, but a critical infrastructure single point of failure for the UX layer of DeFi. The community recognizes this and there are ongoing efforts to diversify via self-hosted nodes and decentralized RPC networks.

Business Model

Alchemy follows a SaaS freemium model:

  • Free tier: 300M compute units/month (enough for small dApps)
  • Growth tier: Pay per compute unit beyond free tier
  • Enterprise: Custom pricing; dedicated infrastructure; SLAs

Revenue model: API usage fees, much like Twilio (SMS) or Stripe (payments) — infrastructure charged per API call.

Private company: Alchemy has not issued its own governance or utility token and has consistently declined crypto-native fundraising. Funding comes from traditional VC: a16z, Coatue, Silver Lake, and others.

How Developers Use Alchemy

Getting started:

  1. Create account at alchemy.com
  2. Create an app → receive API key for selected chain
  3. Replace default RPC URL in your project (e.g., in Hardhat, Foundry, Wagmi config) with Alchemy endpoint
  4. Use Alchemy SDK or ethers.js/viem with Alchemy URL for enhanced API access

No specific token needed: Alchemy has no on-chain token component for its core developer platform.

Social Media Sentiment

Alchemy maintains a community presence typical of DeFi protocols in its niche. CT sentiment is generally sentiment-neutral, with discussion largely among existing users around protocol mechanics, yield opportunities, and security incidents. Token price action drives periodic community activity.

Last updated: 2026-04

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