The Graph (GRT) Network Achieves New Highs in Q4 2024 as Developer Demand for On-Chain Data Soars

The Graph (GRT) is an indexing protocol that provides onchain data — such as DeFi transactions and liquidity pool data — from various sources.

Key Insights

The Graph (GRT) is an indexing protocol that provides onchain data — such as DeFi transactions and liquidity pool data — from various sources. The Graph removes the need for data consumers (e.g., app developers) to build complicated infrastructure to get onchain data. Instead, data consumers pay to query custom APIs — called “Subgraphs” — of onchain data via the GraphQL API. Subgraphs define a data schema to be indexed, making that data queryable. Subgraphs can be developed and queried by anyone.

The Graph Network uses its native utility token GRT to incentivize data indexing and consumption:

In June 2024, The Graph completed its Sunrise of Decentralized Data initiative to upgrade all Subgraphs to its distributed network of approximately 100 independent Indexers. At the end of Q4'24, over 11,000 Subgraphs have either launched on the decentralized network or successfully transitioned from the hosted service. Following this milestone, The Graph has had consecutive quarters of all-time high query fees due to the increasing demand for data indexing.

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Key Metrics

Performance Analysis

The Graph Network is used by developers and data consumers who pay to query data. The network's performance can be measured by the growth of the volume of queries serviced, the active Subgraphs serving queries, and the accrual of query fees.

Network Overview

Query Volume

Demand for data on The Graph reached an all-time high of over 5.9 billion queries in Q4, up 13% QoQ from 5.3 billion. The Ethereum Mainnet led the way with 1.3 billion successful queries (22% of the total of 5.9 billion queries) in Q4, followed by Arbitrum One 983.5 million (16.5%), Polygon 1.0 billion (14.4%), BNB Smart Chain 854.6 million (14.4%), and Base 480.7 million (8.1%). Notably, query volume decreased by 23% QoQ on Ethereum, increased by approximately 15% QoQ on each of Arbitrum One, Polygon, and BNB Smart Chain, and increased by 203% QoQ on Base.

In terms of Subgraphs with the largest query volume, Graph Network Arbitrum (5% of total queries) led the way, followed by QuickSwap V3 (4%), and UNCX Lockers V3 and V2 on BNB Chain, both of which had 3% of query volume respectively. Notably, query volumes have seen an upward trend over the past six quarters. While the initial growth in query volumes was likely driven by a recovery of crypto activity throughout 2023, there were other recent contributing factors to the increase in query volume, including:

Subgraphs

To bootstrap The Graph, a hosted service was initially created. This service hosted Subgraphs as the protocol gradually transitioned to its decentralized network. The hosted service was free (subsidized by The Graph ecosystem) and offered indexing infrastructure run by Edge & Node, the initial team behind The Graph.

The first decentralized Subgraph launched on the decentralized network in Q1'21. In October 2023, the project introduced its Sunrise of Decentralized Data to upgrade all Subgraphs to its distributed network of independent Indexers in three phases: Sunray, Sunbeam, and Sunrise.

The first phase of the upgrade — Sunray — was completed in March 2024. Sunray brought more chains, free queries, and improved billing, including a free query plan of 100,000 queries per month. This helped developers get started on the network and scale their development.

The second phase — Sunbeam — was concluded in June 2024. Sunbeam focused on upgrading hosted service Subgraphs to The Graph Network. The third phase of the upgrade — Sunrise — retired hosted service endpoints and was completed in June 2024.

As a consequence, the number of deployed Subgraphs on The Graph’s Network has steadily increased. As of the end of Q4’24, 11,294 active Subgraphs have either launched on The Graph’s distributed network of independent data indexers or successfully transitioned from hosting services to it (+8% QoQ).

To improve performance and reduce costs, The Graph completed its migration from Ethereum Mainnet to Arbitrum, a Layer-2 scaling solution, on June 28, 2024, with 100% of indexing rewards on Arbitrum One from that day forward. This date also marked the beginning of the deprecation of The Graph’s deployment on Ethereum Mainnet, which was completed in December. In line with this transition, all new Subgraphs have been created on Arbitrum since Q3 2024.

Ecosystem