Blockchain applications are becoming increasingly sensitive to infrastructure latency. For decentralized exchanges, algorithmic trading systems and real-time Web3 applications, the difference between a transaction request arriving in milliseconds rather than hundreds of milliseconds can affect execution, slippage and user experience.

ZAN, the Web3 technology brand of Ant Digital Technologies, is positioning its node infrastructure around that problem. The company says its ZAN Node Service can deliver average RPC response times below 30 milliseconds across Asia-Pacific, while achieving API throughput three times higher than what it describes as an industry benchmark. Those figures are company-reported and have not been independently verified.

The broader significance is less about one latency number than the infrastructure race developing underneath Web3: as decentralized applications become more sophisticated, blockchain access is increasingly being treated as a performance-critical enterprise infrastructure layer.

RPC infrastructure is becoming a competitive layer in Web3

Remote Procedure Call, or RPC, infrastructure is one of the less visible components of blockchain applications.

When a decentralized application checks a wallet balance, reads smart-contract data, submits a transaction or queries blockchain state, it generally relies on an RPC endpoint to communicate with the underlying network.

That makes RPC infrastructure the connective tissue between an application and a blockchain.

For simple applications, latency may be largely invisible. For high-frequency decentralized finance, however, it can become a business variable.

An arbitrage strategy may depend on detecting a price difference, submitting a transaction and having it processed before the opportunity disappears. A market maker can be affected by delays in receiving current blockchain state. A gaming application may need rapid access to on-chain data to maintain a responsive user experience.

ZAN is attempting to compete in that infrastructure layer by optimizing the path between applications and blockchain nodes.

What ZAN is optimizing

According to the company, ZAN Node uses several infrastructure techniques to reduce latency, including customized TCP optimization, intelligent routing, multi-region deployment, caching and state-management optimization.

The objective is not simply to make a blockchain node faster in isolation.

The entire request path matters.

A user in Singapore accessing a node physically located far away may experience network latency before a request even reaches the blockchain infrastructure. Routing traffic to geographically appropriate nodes can therefore have a meaningful effect on response time.

ZAN says its network uses regional deployments and optimized access paths to address that problem, with Asia-Pacific and European infrastructure currently positioned as particularly competitive on latency and cost.

The company also says validator-co-located infrastructure serving Solana workloads has achieved round-trip times as low as 2–5 milliseconds in certain configurations.

Again, these are vendor-reported measurements rather than independent benchmarks across competing RPC providers.

Why 30 milliseconds matters to DeFi

Latency becomes most consequential when applications operate in markets where prices and blockchain state can change rapidly.

Decentralized exchanges and DeFi protocols increasingly use automated market makers, aggregators, trading bots and algorithmic strategies. Those systems may issue large numbers of blockchain queries while simultaneously monitoring prices, liquidity and pending transactions.

A slow RPC endpoint can become a bottleneck even when the underlying blockchain itself is functioning normally.

ZAN’s pitch is therefore aimed at developers and institutions that need consistent access rather than simply occasional connectivity.

The distinction between latency and reliability is important. A fast endpoint that becomes unstable during periods of heavy demand is of limited value to a trading application.

ZAN says its architecture is designed to maintain performance under high-concurrency read workloads and offers dedicated nodes for enterprise customers that need exclusive resources and higher request quotas.

That is closer to the way traditional cloud infrastructure is sold: shared resources for general workloads and dedicated capacity for applications where predictable performance matters.

One API for a fragmented blockchain landscape

Another issue ZAN is attempting to solve is fragmentation.

Developers building multi-chain applications may need to integrate with Ethereum, Solana, BNB Smart Chain, Polygon, Arbitrum, Optimism, Base, Avalanche, Sui, Aptos and numerous other networks.

Each blockchain can have different RPC methods, network behavior, node requirements and performance characteristics.

ZAN says its Node Service supports more than 28 major blockchain RPC services and more than 47 mainnet and testnet networks, with access managed through a single API key and centralized console.

The company’s listed networks include Ethereum, Solana, BSC, Polygon, Optimism, Arbitrum, TON, Base, zkSync Era, Starknet, Tron, Avalanche, Sui, Aptos, Near, Hyperliquid and others.

For enterprises, abstraction can be valuable. Instead of maintaining separate relationships and monitoring systems for every blockchain network, a centralized RPC layer can simplify infrastructure management.

But abstraction also creates dependency. If an application relies heavily on one infrastructure provider, that provider becomes a critical component of its operational stack.

That makes redundancy, service-level agreements, observability and portability important considerations for enterprise buyers.

RPC performance extends beyond trading

Although DeFi is the clearest latency-sensitive use case, ZAN’s infrastructure proposition reaches further.

Web3 gaming and social applications require frequent reads of blockchain state. Slow responses can translate into visible interface delays, particularly when applications continuously synchronize user activity with on-chain events.

Institutional applications have different requirements. Compliance systems, risk-monitoring platforms and blockchain analytics products may need to ingest and process state changes across multiple networks.

In those cases, the key metric may not be the fastest possible response to an individual request but consistent throughput, data availability and predictable performance.

This is where blockchain infrastructure increasingly resembles conventional enterprise cloud infrastructure.

The question is shifting from “Can the application connect to the blockchain?” to “Can it connect reliably enough to support a production workload?”

The infrastructure competition is getting more sophisticated

ZAN operates in a market that already includes specialized blockchain infrastructure providers such as Alchemy, Infura, QuickNode and Chainstack, as well as cloud platforms and organizations running their own nodes.

The competition is therefore not simply about who offers the most blockchain endpoints.

Enterprise customers increasingly need a combination of geographic coverage, latency, throughput, reliability, security, observability, pricing and support for multiple networks.

There is also a decentralization trade-off.

Public RPC endpoints provide convenient access but can become shared infrastructure during traffic spikes. Dedicated nodes offer greater control and predictable capacity, but increase cost and operational responsibility.

The most appropriate architecture depends on the workload.

A consumer wallet may prioritize broad network coverage and cost. A DeFi trading system may prioritize latency and consistency. An institutional compliance platform may put data integrity, auditability and availability ahead of absolute response time.

What enterprises should watch

ZAN’s infrastructure push reflects a broader maturation of Web3.

As blockchain applications move toward mainstream financial, gaming and enterprise use cases, infrastructure performance becomes part of the product experience. Developers can no longer assume that decentralization automatically translates into acceptable application performance.

For fintech and financial-services teams evaluating blockchain infrastructure, the key questions extend beyond advertised latency.

They should ask how performance is measured, under what traffic conditions, across which regions and against which competing providers. They should examine redundancy, dedicated capacity, data integrity, rate limits, monitoring and disaster-recovery arrangements.

The strategic value of RPC infrastructure is ultimately determined by the application sitting above it.

For high-frequency DeFi, milliseconds can matter. For other enterprise workloads, reliability and data consistency may matter more.

ZAN’s push toward sub-30ms RPC performance signals where the market is heading: blockchain infrastructure is becoming less about simply providing access to networks and more about delivering the predictable, measurable performance expected from modern cloud services.

Market Landscape

The blockchain infrastructure market is evolving from basic node access toward specialized infrastructure for production applications. Providers now compete on multi-chain coverage, latency, geographic routing, dedicated capacity, observability and enterprise support.

For DeFi and institutional applications, RPC has become a strategic dependency. A trading platform or blockchain analytics system can be operationally constrained by its data-access layer even when the underlying blockchain remains available.

The competitive field includes Alchemy, Infura, QuickNode and Chainstack, alongside cloud infrastructure and self-hosted node architectures. Enterprises increasingly need to balance performance with redundancy, cost and decentralization.

ZAN’s emphasis on regional infrastructure, dedicated nodes and multi-chain access puts it directly into that broader infrastructure competition.

Top Insights

• ZAN is targeting sub-30ms RPC performance in Asia-Pacific, positioning low-latency blockchain access as critical infrastructure for high-frequency DeFi and Web3 applications.
• The company’s multi-chain RPC service aims to simplify infrastructure management by giving developers access to numerous blockchain networks through a centralized API and console.
• Dedicated node infrastructure gives enterprise customers greater resource isolation and higher request capacity, addressing reliability requirements beyond conventional shared RPC endpoints.
• RPC latency affects more than trading, influencing Web3 gaming, social applications, blockchain analytics, compliance monitoring and other real-time workloads.
• Enterprise buyers should benchmark independently, evaluating latency, throughput, availability, geographic coverage and redundancy rather than relying solely on provider-reported performance claims.

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