State of The Graph Q1 2025

Key Insights

• The Graph processed a record 6.14 billion queries in Q1 2025, up 3.2% QoQ. Data service revenue fell 2.3% to $210,200 following a 50% cut in Subgraph pricing as part of a marketing campaign, but was offset by the initiation of Substreams revenue.
• Active Subgraphs grew 9.8% QoQ to 12,402 by quarter-end. Developers deployed 1,143 new Subgraphs, indicating sustained engagement following the Sunrise migration.
• Indexing rewards in GRT terms rose 4.1% QoQ to 77.9 million GRT. However, USD-denominated rewards fell 40.2% to $9.8 million amid a 55.8% decline in the GRT price.
• The quarter saw major enhancements with the Token API Beta launch, rollout of the Indexer Score, and adoption of GIP-0061 to streamline governance.
• Over a dozen networks completed integrations, extending cross-chain data availability. Meanwhile, query-serving Indexers dropped 23% to 71, creating more balance between the supply and demand sides of the query market.

Primer

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:

• Indexers process and store onchain data from Subgraphs. They usually have advanced technical knowledge of node operation. Indexers receive query fees in GRT from data consumers and indexing rewards from new GRT issuance.
• Curators are incentivized to analyze and signal which Subgraphs are valuable to index. Curators earn a 10% portion of the GRT query fees generated by Subgraphs.
• Delegators do not employ resources to index onchain data; instead, they delegate The Graph’s native utility token GRT to Indexers. The amount of GRT query fees and indexing rewards a delegator receives is proportional to the amount of GRT delegated, less an Indexing Reward Cut (commission). There is also a 0.5% delegation tax each time a wallet delegates GRT.

In June 2024, The Graph completed its Sunrise of Decentralized Data initiative to upgrade all Subgraphs to its distributed network of independent Indexers.

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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 6.14 billion queries in Q1, up 3.1% QoQ from 5.9 billion. Ethereum Mainnet remained the largest source of query traffic, handling approximately 1.36 billion queries (22.2% of total volume), up 3.6 percent QoQ. Arbitrum One experienced a modest decline, dipping 4.8% QoQ to 936 million queries (15.3% of total volume), down from 7.3% in terms of share of volume. The most pronounced growth occurred on Base, where query volume surged 89.3% QoQ to 910 million queries (14.8% of total volume), reflecting robust developer adoption. Conversely, Polygon’s query traffic fell 23.9% QoQ to 651 million queries (10.6% of total volume) and BNB Smart Chain declined 34.9% QoQ to 556 million queries (9.1% of total volume).

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 Subgraph launched on the decentralized network in Q1 2021. In October 2023, the project introduced its Sunrise of Decentralized Data (completed in June 2024) 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, improved billing, and 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.

Consequently, the number of deployed Subgraphs on The Graph’s Network has steadily increased in each quarter since the Sunrise completed. As of the end of Q1 2025, there were 12,402 active Subgraphs on The Graph’s decentralized network, representing a 9.8% QoQ increase from 11,294 at the end of Q4 2024.

Throughout Q1 2025, developers deployed 1,143 new Subgraphs, slightly higher than the 1,090 added in the prior period. This trend reversal in Subgraph creation indicates a renewed demand for onchain data and correlates with lower barriers for developers and the integration of new chains on The Graph Network.

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

Indexers and Ecosystem Participation

The Graph’s economic design coordinates participation from both technical and non-technical participants to meet supply and demand for data indexing and consumption:

• Indexers operate Graph Nodes to process and store onchain data. Data consumers can then query this data via GraphQL, an open-source language for The Graph’s APIs. Indexers receive query fees in GRT from data consumers and indexing rewards from new GRT issuance.
• Curators signal to Indexers which Subgraphs are worth indexing. Curators also often act as Subgraph developers. Curators earn a 10% portion of the GRT query fees generated by Subgraphs.
• Delegators delegate their GRT tokens to Indexers in exchange for a portion of an Indexer’s GRT query fees and indexing rewards. The amount of GRT query fees and indexing rewards a delegator receives is proportional to the amount of GRT delegated, less an Indexing Reward Cut and Query Fee Cut (commissions). There is also a 0.5% delegation tax each time a wallet delegates GRT.

Staked GRT is required for indexing Subgraphs and processing queries. As an Indexer stakes and is delegated more GRT, its capacity to process queries increases.

The minimum stake for an Indexer is currently set at 100,000 GRT (approximately $8,800 as of March 31, 2025). In addition to this minimum, Indexers can also receive delegated stake from other ecosystem participants. Collectively, a maximum of 16x an Indexer’s personal stake can be delegated to a given Indexer.

By the end of Q1, 94 Indexers held allocated stake, a 20% QoQ decline from 118. Indexers actively serving queries on The Graph decreased 23% QoQ from 92 to 71 by the end of Q1 2025. This marks the ninth consecutive quarter of contraction in Indexer participation since the conclusion of the Migration Infrastructure Providers incentive program in Q1 2023, which sparked a trend of Indexers unstaking GRT. Despite fewer operators, network resilience remains intact, and Indexers continue to process an expanding set of Subgraphs without degradation in service.

Financial Overview

The GRT token follows the Stake-for-Access model, also known as a utility token model. Participants in The Graph’s ecosystem earn revenue in GRT by performing indexing and querying services on the decentralized network. Both services require GRT to be staked. An Indexer’s stake comprises their own GRT tokens (i.e., self-stake) and GRT delegated toward them (i.e., delegated stake).

Both indexing rewards and query fees are funneled through Indexers, who then distribute them to Delegators and Curators. Each Indexer sets a cut (commission) on both GRT query fees and indexing rewards generated from delegated GRT, and the remainder is distributed proportionally according to the amount of GRT delegated. These cuts do not apply to Curators, who earn a fixed 10% portion of the query fees generated by particular Subgraphs.

Source: The Graph: Choosing Indexers

As per the above example, if an Indexer sets the query fee cut to 13.96%, its Delegators would receive the remaining 86.04% of the fee revenue proportional to their stake. While Delegator stake cannot be slashed, Delegators should still consider several factors when staking GRT with Indexers. These include:

• Indexer choice, i.e., choosing effective Indexers with the most optimal balance between reward payouts and “skin-in-the-game” from allocation of self-stake.
• Unbonding period, i.e., no GRT transfers or rewards are possible within a 28-day window after un-delegation.
• Delegation tax of 0.5%, i.e., calculating how long it takes to earn back the 0.5% tax on delegation.

Indexing Rewards

Indexing rewards come from new GRT issuance set by technical protocol governance. In Q1 2025, annualized inflation from new GRT issuance averaged 2.84%, up 2.9% QoQ from 2.76% in Q4 2024. GRT rewards are distributed to Indexers staking GRT in return for providing indexing and querying services on The Graph’s open marketplace.

Indexing rewards saw steady growth in GRT terms, increasing 4.1% QoQ from 77.5 million to 77.9 million in Q1 2025. However, indexing rewards fell sharply in USD terms, down 40.2% QoQ from $16.5 million to $9.8 million in Q1 2025. This is in part due to a drop in the price of the GRT token, which fell 55.8% over the same period.

Network Usage Fees

Query fee revenue for The Graph protocol encompasses two primary sources: Subgraph query fees and Substreams fees. Subgraph query fees are determined by the volume of queries multiplied by the query indexing fee, while Substreams fees accrue from the execution and transformation of streaming‑first data pipelines.

In Q1 2025, revenue generated across the Subgraph and Substreams services amounted to $210,237, down 2.3% QoQ, with $121,000 coming from Subgraph query fees and approximately $89,237 coming from Substreams fees. Subgraph query fees in USD declined 43.7% QoQ from $215,000 to $121,000 in Q1 2025. Subgraph query fees in GRT fell 14.6% QoQ from 1.1 million GRT to 911,000 GRT. This dip in revenue can be attributed to a 50% drop in Subgraph pricing, which was lowered from $40 per million monthly queries to $20 per million monthly queries. Additionally, the rollout of micropayment and batch settlement solutions, such as GraphTally, enabled more efficient, lower-cost payments for queries.

When looking at Subgraph query fees by chain, Ethereum Mainnet led the way with $26,700 (22% of total query fees in Q1 2025), followed by Arbitrum with $18,300 (15.1%), Base with $18,000 (14.9%), Polygon with $13,400 (11%), and BNB Smart Chain with $10,900 (9%). Notably, Subgraph query fees decreased QoQ on Ethereum (-42.9%), Arbitrum (-48.7%), Polygon (-58%), and BNB Smart Chain (-66.4%), and increased QoQ on Base (+9.6%).

In contrast, Substreams, which launched in Q1 2025, and deliver high-performance indexing and composability for Subgraphs, generated 927,700 GRT by the end of Q1 2025. The growth in GRT denominated Substream revenue underscores increasing adoption of streaming data pipelines, even as the USD value declined 24.3% QoQ amid broader token-price headwinds.

Even with Substreams revenues included, total Q1 2025 query fees accounted for just over 1.2% of the $9.8 million in total indexing rewards, indicating that network participants continue to rely primarily on indexing rewards to underpin day-to-day operations.

Qualitative Analysis

Key Developments

In Q1 2025, The Graph’s Substreams data service became available on the decentralized network after several years of development by StreamingFast. Substreams operates as a streaming‑first indexing layer, ingesting blockchain data via a gRPC interface and processing it in parallel through WebAssembly‑compiled Rust modules. Unlike traditional Subgraphs, Substreams bypass the Indexer Selection Algorithm and deliver transformed data directly to one or more “sinks” (for example, Direct Streaming, SQL databases, or MongoDB). Engineered to support high‑throughput environments, including EVM‑compatible chains and non‑EVM networks such as Solana, Substreams enables real‑time data pipelines and scalable indexing. As of Q1 2025, StreamingFast and Pinax are the two core providers of Substreams services on The Graph Network.

In late March 2025, The Graph launched its Token API beta to fill the void left by SimpleHash’s shutdown. The new product offers token and price data for Ethereum, Arbitrum, BSC, Polygon, Optimism, Base, and Unichain via Substreams. This service enables developers to retrieve real-time token balances, transaction histories, top-holder leaderboards, and rich metadata through UX-optimized endpoints, while offering AI assistants seamless schema access via MCP servers.

On March 31, Graphtronauts unveiled the Indexer Score, a composite metric blending Allocation Efficiency Ratio (70% weight) and Query Fee Ratio (30% weight) on a uniform 1–10 scale, with penalties for underserving Subgraphs, to help Delegators objectively evaluate Indexer performance.

Governance Updates

On February 3, the community ratified GIP-0061 to streamline the Graph Improvement Proposal process. GIP-0061 merges Strawperson and Proposal into a single Draft stage, removes the unused Graph Request for Proposal (GRP) step, updates foundational documents, and introduces a smart intake form for support requests. These amendments accelerate proposal throughput, improve transparency, and better align governance workflows with contributor needs.

Ecosystem Developments

On March 31, Wonderland joined the ecosystem as a multi-protocol core developer team, bringing expertise in zero-knowledge systems, decentralized network optimization, and tokenomics to accelerate protocol research and resilience.

Strategic integrations and partnerships also advanced in Q1:

• January 7 – EXPchain announced collaborative work on verifiable AI and data indexing.
• January 9 – Geo Genesis opened early access for its decentralized knowledge-graph browser.
• January 30 – LetsExchange introduced bridge mode for GRT swaps across Ethereum, Arbitrum, and Polygon to boost token liquidity and cross-chain utility.
• March 5 – Pinax enhanced The Graph CLI with onchain contract lookups via Sourcify.

Chain Integrations

During Q1 2025, The Graph’s decentralized network welcomed a broad spectrum of protocols. On January 3, Sonic completed its Technical Integration and moved into Mainnet Integration, followed by Lumia on January 8 and Japan Open Chain on January 14. Mint joined the network on January 21, and Abstract followed on January 27, each gaining live support and indexing rewards after swift GIP approval. Moonbeam and Soneium successfully finalized integrations on January 24 and January 28, respectively, marking continued collaboration with Layer-1 and emerging Layer-2 ecosystems.

Integration momentum accelerated in February: Berachain achieved Mainnet Integration on February 6, Mode Network and Unichain both launched on February 11, and Vana entered the network on February 13. Later in the month, Monad Testnet and Ink Layer-2 cleared all three integration milestones on February 19 and February 21, respectively.

The final weeks of the quarter saw key Layer-2 expansions: ZKsync Era went live on March 17, Polygon zkEVM on March 20, Fraxtal on March 24, Celo on March 25, and ZetaChain on March 27. These integrations extend The Graph’s reach across Ethereum rollups, an array of specialized Layer-1 chains, and testnet environments, underscoring the protocol’s commitment to cross-chain data availability and developer flexibility.

The Graph Foundation continued to nurture ecosystem growth through financial support and hackathons. On March 6, it published the 2024 Annual Grants Report, detailing how grants underwrote migration infrastructure, research initiatives, and critical tooling improvements that facilitated the Sunrise upgrade and beyond.

On March 26, the GRC-20 hackathon, which awarded 150,000 GRT in prizes, concluded with winners demonstrating how knowledge-graph primitives can transform fragmented data into interoperable, machine-readable information and galvanize community-driven innovation.

Closing Summary

In Q1 2025, demand for data on The Graph reached an all-time high of 6.14 billion queries, a 3.2% QoQ increase from 5.95 billion. Despite this growth in usage, total query fees in USD fell 43.7% QoQ to $121,000, while query fees in GRT terms declined 14.6% to 911,000 GRT as average per-query costs decreased and micropayment solutions like GraphTally gained traction. Substreams further strengthened The Graph’s value proposition, generating 927,800 GRT in Q1, an increase of 87.5% QoQ, while delivering orders-of-magnitude sync-time improvements and enabling streaming-first data pipelines for high-performance, composable indexing. On the supply side, the network sustained 12,402 active Subgraphs, up 9.8% QoQ from 11,294, reflecting ongoing developer engagement following the full decentralized migration.

Beyond these metrics, the quarter saw several strategic advances: the Token API beta launch empowered developers and AI assistants with token data; Graphtronauts introduced the Indexer Score for objective performance benchmarking; and GIP-0061 streamlined protocol governance. The Graph also completed Mainnet integrations for over a dozen chains, ranging from Sonic and Luumia to ZetaChain and Polygon zkEVM, furthering cross-chain data availability. As The Graph enters Q2, it will build on this momentum by expanding its Token API, refining ecosystem incentives, and deepening support for emerging Layer-1 and Layer-2 networks to drive sustained growth in onchain data indexing and consumption.

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