Achievements of 2025
Aurora Labs Limited continued to lead the development and evolution of the Aurora Protocol throughout 2025, focusing on scalability, cross-chain infrastructure, and productisation of its technology stack.
Progress in 2025 aligned with the initial funding goals:
- Advanced R&D across Aurora Cloud and supporting ecosystem products
- Expanded infrastructure readiness for large-scale Virtual Chain operations
- Strengthened internal capabilities across engineering and product
- Increased ecosystem adoption through partnerships and product integrations
Core Tech
- Maintained and upgraded Aurora Engine to remain fully compatible with Ethereum updates
- Prague hardfork support added, and Fusaka hardfork preparations were rolled out for Aurora Engine, ensuring alignment with Ethereum upgrades.
- Improved Borealis RPC infrastructure
- Continued contributions to NEAR Protocol
- Supported ongoing improvements tied to scalability and protocol evolution
Infrastructure
- Launched 200+ virtual chains.
- Progressed gas abstraction capabilities
- Extended flexibility in fee management for Virtual Chains
- Enabled more customizable chain-level economics
- Developed and launched Aurora Cloud Console.
- Defined product scope and architecture
- Focused on simplifying launching production-ready virtual chain for non-technical users
- Auto-deployment enabled, making chain launches faster, simpler, and fully self-serve.
- Developed and launched the Aurora Cloud Marketplace (Add-ons model)
- Defined framework for third-party infrastructure providers
- Early partner alignment for vertical-specific integrations (DeFi, AI, gaming, RWA)
- Provided modular blockchain services for developers
- 35+ partnerships signed, including Privy, Billions (ex-PrivadoID), Coca.xyz, Cluster.xyz, DIA, and others.
- Developed and launched the Calyx launchpad, a multichain token launchpad powered by NEAR Intents.
- 2 multichain token sales executed
- $148,884 total raised
- 148% average oversubscription rate
- 600+ participants
- Developed and released NEAR Intents Widget, offering a simple embeddable component for any dApp.
DevX (Developer Experience)
- Launched and ran the Fork That Chain Bootcamp:
- 12 Web3 & Web2 participants completed the bootcamp
- 5 projects submitted for Mainnet
- 10 partner integrations
- Intents widget improved developer experience:
- Robust product quality with rapid response to issues.
- Good feedback reported from early clients like Hako, Yodl.fi.
Ecosystem & Adoption
- Final vested tokens released, officially completing Aurora’s token distribution schedule.
- Aurora Token Economy 3.0 proposed, outlining the next phase of value alignment and ecosystem incentives.
- Launched Aurora Incubator Program: Aurora Blocks
- Onboarded 5 projects into the program: Optima, Omega, EasyChain, Sproutly, Tradable.
- 5 new virtual chains in development
- Cohort verticals: RWA, DeFi, DeFAI, Consumer/Education
- Revolut added $AURORA, increasing global accessibility and retail reach.
- Attended 10+ global conferences with networking, booth and speaking engagements.
2026 Grant Proposal
Objective
To enable Aurora Labs Limited to continue its essential role as the development entity for the Aurora Protocol, we propose a grant allocation of 25,000,000 $AURORA. This funding will be used to:
- Establish Aurora as a cross-chain service provider for businesses, not just infrastructure.
- Reach break-even by aligning cost structure with revenue generation.
- Rebuild the AURORA token utility and give a real role inside the product ecosystem.
Roadmap
Core Tech
Continue strengthening Aurora’s technical foundation to ensure long-term compatibility, execution reliability, and support for future product and infrastructure expansion.
Key priorities:
- Maintain hardfork compatibility to stay aligned with Ethereum
- Progress Block Execution for Aurora EVM as a step toward participation in the zkVM project by Ethereum Foundation.
- Upgrade the Borealis Engine to support block processing across historical versions and enable safer rollout of breaking changes, e.g. mempool updates
- Improve transaction queue handling for higher-nonce transactions and reduce nonce-related failures
- Migrate the XCC Router to global contracts and improve the user experience of Aurora <> NEAR cross-contract calls
- Finalize BetaNet Self-Service Platfrom which enables easier easier testing and deployments and improvs developer experience
Product Development
Focus on improving and expanding the core product suite. Upgrade the Swap Widget to support better UX, broader chain coverage, and other features. Build Intents Connect as the core cross-chain execution layer, including API, widget, and deposit address infrastructure, as well as all the required supporting materials. Introduce payment links to simplify on-chain transactions and enable liquidity provision flows that support partners directly.
All products must be ready to integrate, simple to use, and built to solve real user problems. The goal is to deliver usable, revenue-generating solutions powered by NEAR Intents.
Distribution & Adoption
Drive aggressive integration growth. Target at least 12+ clients per quarter, focusing on high-quality partners. Each integration should aim for a minimum of $3M monthly volume to ensure meaningful usage.
Prioritize teams that benefit from cross-chain execution, including DeFi, trading platforms, RWAs, and consumer apps. Use integrations as the main growth channel.
Monetization & $AURORA Utility
Shift toward a usage-driven model, with $AURORA progressively integrated into the execution layer.
- Fees
- Protocol-level fees on cross-chain execution
- Revenue shared with integrators (widget/API)
- Solver layer
- Solvers provide liquidity and execution for cross-chain intents
- Exploring mechanisms for $AURORA to participate at the solver level (e.g. access, alignment, or economic participation)
- Liquidity & ecosystem alignment
- Explore opportunities for $AURORA to support liquidity, routing efficiency, and ecosystem growth
- Any $AURORA holder will be able to use their tokens to support cross chain settlement and execution
- Ensure alignment between network participants, integrators, and end users
- Alignment
- Increasing product usage drives volume
- Volume drives fees and solver activity
- Solver activity creates demand and utility for $AURORA
The objective is to align the token with real product usage and revenue generation, creating a direct connection between ecosystem growth and token utility.
Strategic Focus
Pause the Calyx stream and redirect all efforts toward the Intents Connect product suite. Narrow priorities to what drives revenue and adoption.
Restrict new Virtual Chain sign-ups and reduce resources allocated to non-core initiatives.
Product Migration
Start migrating Aurora+ toward widget-based and Intents-based flows. Ensure existing users transition smoothly into the new product ecosystem.
Platform & Brand Consolidation
Consolidate all web properties into a unified platform. Merge aurora.dev, aurora.labs, and aurora.cloud into a single experience.
Simplify messaging, improve clarity, and align the brand with the new product direction focused on cross-chain execution.