How DeFiLabs Scaled to 1M Users with Tokra
DeFiLabs needed to expand from Ethereum-only to 8 chains in 6 weeks. Here's how they did it without rewriting their infrastructure or hiring a DevOps team.
Feb 6, 2026
5 min
When DeFiLabs launched their yield aggregator in early 2024, they were Ethereum-only and serving 50K users. By November, they'd grown to 1M+ users across 8 different chains.
We sat down with their CTO, James Wu, to understand how they scaled so fast.
The Challenge
"Our users kept asking for Polygon and Arbitrum support," James explained. "We were losing users to competitors who supported more chains."
Their challenge was threefold:
Expanding to 8 chains meant managing 8 different RPC providers
Their smart contract monitoring system would need major rewrites
They had a 6-week deadline before their Series A announcement
Why They Chose Tokra
DeFiLabs evaluated three solutions: building in-house, using multiple providers, or using Tokra.
"Building ourselves would take 4 months and require two full-time DevOps engineers. Using multiple providers meant different APIs, authentication methods, and reliability issues. Tokra gave us one API for all chains."
The Implementation
Week 1: Migrated Ethereum mainnet to Tokra Week 2: Added Polygon and Arbitrum support Week 3-4: Rolled out BSC, Optimism, Base, and Avalanche Week 5: Testing and optimization Week 6: Public launch
Total code changes: ~500 lines. Most of that was adding chain-specific UI elements, not infrastructure work.
The Results
User Growth:
50K to 1M+ users in 6 months
8 supported chains (vs. 1 previously)
89% user retention rate
Technical Performance:
99.97% API uptime (vs. 98.1% with previous provider)
62ms average response time
Zero infrastructure incidents since launch
Cost Savings:
$8,400/month saved vs. managing multiple providers
Avoided 2 DevOps engineering hires ($300K+ annual cost)
Reduced monitoring and alerting complexity by 70%
What James Would Tell Others
"Start with infrastructure that scales. We initially went with the cheapest option and paid for it later when we needed to scale. Tokra handles the complexity so we can focus on product."
DeFiLabs now processes 15M API requests daily through Tokra, with plans to add 4 more chains in Q1 2025.
Article written by
Marcus Rivera
