Chainstack carries 26 APIs, and the count tells you exactly what the company does: it runs blockchain nodes as managed infrastructure, and nearly every API is a different chain’s node interface. It’s one of the cleanest control-plane / data-plane splits in the catalog, and the split maps directly onto how Web3 infrastructure actually works.
What’s actually in the surface
The 26 APIs sort into two kinds:
- The control plane —
Platform API(provision, manage, and monitor your nodes and networks) andFaucet API(test-network funds). This is the account-and-orchestration layer, and there’s exactly one of it. - The data plane — one node API per supported protocol:
Ethereum,Ethereum Beacon Chain,Solana,Bitcoin,BNB Smart Chain,Polygon,Arbitrum,Optimism,Base,Avalanche,Fantom,Gnosis,Cronos,Aurora,Ronin,TRON,TON,Starknet,zkSync Era,Polygon zkEVM,Hyperliquid,Monad,Plasma,Tempo. Each is the JSON-RPC surface for talking to that chain.
What’s interesting about the shape
- The API count is the chain count. Where Plaid’s 39 APIs come from splitting one product by regulatory role, Chainstack’s 26 come from supporting 26-plus protocols, each with its own RPC dialect. The portfolio is a direct readout of coverage — and the newest names in the list (
Monad,Hyperliquid,Tempo) are a live indicator of which chains are gaining traction. - One control plane, many data planes. You provision through the single
Platform API, then talk to each chain through its own node API. That’s the textbook shape for infrastructure-as-a-service, and Web3 makes it unusually literal because every chain speaks a slightly different protocol. - Beacon Chain is separated from Ethereum. Execution-layer and consensus-layer RPC are distinct APIs — a modeling choice that mirrors Ethereum’s own post-Merge architecture rather than papering over it.
- An AsyncAPI spec sits alongside the RPC. Node infrastructure isn’t only request/response; the event-driven contract is there for subscriptions and streaming — the part of RPC that request/response docs usually under-serve.
The takeaway
Twenty-six APIs is what “run every chain so your customers don’t have to” looks like as a contract. The pattern to borrow from Chainstack: keep the control plane singular and the data planes plural, and let the API count honestly reflect your coverage. When each supported target is its own spec, the catalog — and your customers — can see exactly what you support and what you just added. Walk the full surface on the Chainstack provider page.