Ankr

Ankr receives a C+ risk grade (36/100) from Hindenrank, where lower scores indicate lower risk. Ankr is a well-established liquid staking and infrastructure provider, but the 2022 insider exploit is a significant mark on its track record. Post-exploit security improvements have been implemented, but the incident demonstrates the real risk of supply chain attacks in crypto. The multi-chain approach provides diversification but also broadens the attack surface. Moderate risk for users who value the convenience of multi-chain liquid staking. Ankr is a Web3 infrastructure provider that offers liquid staking services across 9+ Proof-of-Stake blockchains including Ethereum, Polygon, Avalanche, and Fantom. When you stake your tokens through Ankr, you receive liquid staking tokens (like ankrETH for Ethereum) that represent your staked position and can be used in other DeFi applications while continuing to earn staking rewards. Ankr also provides RPC node infrastructure used by many Web3 applications. The ANKR token has no built-in inflation, and node providers must stake 100,000 ANKR as collateral.

The key risks identified for Ankr are: (1) Ankr suffered a $5M exploit in December 2022 that was confirmed as an insider attack by a former employee who inserted malicious code (2) Multi-chain liquid staking across many blockchains creates a wide attack surface where a vulnerability on any chain could affect users (3) The protocol has centralized control over validator selection and contract upgrades, creating trust dependencies (4) Liquid staking tokens can temporarily lose their peg to the underlying asset during market stress, as seen across the LST sector

Ankr scores 36/100 across eight risk dimensions: Mechanism Novelty: 2/15, Interaction Severity: 5/20, Oracle Surface: 3/10, Documentation Gaps: 2/10, Track Record: 12/15, Scale Exposure: 3/10, Regulatory Risk: 3/10, Vitality Risk: 6/10. The highest risk area is Track Record at 12/15.

Among 83 rated Liquid Staking protocols on Hindenrank, Ankr ranks #59 by safety (lowest risk score = safest). Its 36/100 risk score and C+ grade place it among the riskier Liquid Staking protocols.

Ankr scores 12/15 on the Track Record risk dimension, indicating some history of security incidents or exploits. Higher scores reflect more severe or frequent incidents. Review the full risk report for details.