RARI Chain Review 2026: An Arbitrum L3 That Enforces NFT Royalties

RARI Chain is an Ethereum layer 3 network built on Arbitrum and run by the RARI Foundation. Its stated purpose is to support NFT creators by making royalty payments hard to avoid. The project launched a testnet on Arbitrum in late 2023 and announced mainnet availability in early 2024.

The chain is EVM-equivalent, which the project says lets developers use Ethereum tooling and smart contracts. It also offers an NFT-focused experience, with a Rarible marketplace integration and a homepage that promotes minting and trading without gas concerns.

The ecosystem is still early. Data aggregators record no total value locked and no listed audits at the time of review, and the project's own news page points to DeFi Days incentives, quests and an integration with Espresso Systems announced in January 2025. Use of the chain is therefore best read as an early-stage bet on creator royalties rather than an established DeFi venue.

RARI Chain is a network that sits above Arbitrum, which is itself a scaling network built on Ethereum. Transactions on RARI Chain are batched and posted back to Arbitrum, and Arbitrum posts its data to Ethereum, so security is inherited from those layers. This structure is what the project means by an Ethereum layer 3.

What sets RARI Chain apart is where royalties are enforced. On most networks, a royalty is a contract-level setting that a marketplace can choose to honour or skip. The project says it moved the check into the node software, so that each NFT transfer on ERC-721 and ERC-1155 contracts is tested for a royalty payment before it executes. A transfer that fails the test is reverted and does not complete.

For a newcomer, the practical effect is that a sale on the chain should carry the creator's preset royalty as long as it runs through the chain's rules. The project says payments in ETH and ERC-20 tokens are covered. Whether this works as described in every situation is something the project's own documentation would need to show in detail.

RARI Chain's homepage describes transaction costs as low and says gas is not a consideration for creating, minting or trading NFTs on the chain. It does not publish a fee table, gas price figures or any fee discounts in the material available.

For current costs, users would need to check the chain details and block explorer linked from the official site, since fees on an Arbitrum-based network can change with demand and with the costs of posting data to Ethereum.

RARI Chain's materials describe inherited Ethereum security through Arbitrum, but the project does not publish a security audit report in the material reviewed, and data aggregators show no audits listed. Users should ask for audit reports before depositing significant funds.

Counterparty and bridge risk are the main concerns for any user moving funds onto the chain. Funds that cross a bridge depend on the bridge's code and on the chain's own rules for handling deposits. Smart contracts on the chain carry the usual risk of bugs and exploits, and a new network has less history of incidents to judge.

The chain is a blockchain rather than a gambling or custody service, so no licensing regime applies to it as described. Anyone using crypto-based services should be 18 or over and treat any holdings as at risk of loss.

RARI Chain is aimed at NFT creators who want royalties enforced on the network itself, at collectors who trade NFTs and want to avoid royalty-skipping, and at developers who want an EVM-equivalent layer 3 for NFT or creator applications. It is less suited to users looking for a mature DeFi venue, since its on-chain activity is still limited.