Network participants process transactions and receive fees from users (supply-side fees).

Polkadot is a security & interoperability platform for blockchains and applications. Polkadot was founded by Gavin Wood and launched in 2020.

DOT holders own and govern the protocol. They currently take a cut of the total transaction fees paid by users (revenue). Polkadot’s investors include Polychain, IOSG Ventures, Hashkey, etc.

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# Polkadot Median transaction fee Methodology

## 1. Overview

The Polkadot median transaction fee metric measures the middle value of all transaction fees paid daily on the Polkadot network, expressed in USD. This metric accounts for Polkadot's Asset Hub Migration (AHM) that occurred on 2025-11-03, when transaction activity shifted from the Relay Chain to the Asset Hub parachain. The calculation combines historical Relay Chain data with current Asset Hub data, handling both native DOT fees and multi-token asset fees.

## 2. Data sources

The calculation relies on several key data sources:

- **Polkadot Relay Chain event logs**: Parsed `TransactionFeePaid` events containing fee amounts and tip values from the main Polkadot chain
- **Polkadot Asset Hub event logs**: Both `TransactionFeePaid` events for native DOT fees and `AssetTxFeePaid` events for asset-based fees from the Asset Hub parachain
- **End-of-day price feeds**: Daily DOT/USD price data for converting native token fees to USD values
- **HydraDX token price feeds**: End-of-day price data for various tokens used to pay fees on Asset Hub, sourced from HydraDX DEX
- **Fee asset metadata**: Mapping table containing token symbols, decimal places, and HydraDX asset IDs for tokens that can be used to pay fees on Asset Hub

## 3. Step-by-step calculation

### Component A: Pre-migration Relay Chain fees

- **Purpose**: Calculates median transaction fees for the period before Asset Hub Migration (before 2025-11-03)
- **Logic**: Processes `TransactionFeePaid` events from Polkadot Relay Chain event logs. Extracts fee amounts and tip values from the event data arrays (positions 1 and 2), converts from raw units by dividing by DOT's decimal factor (1e10), sums the base fee and tip for each transaction, aggregates to daily level using `timestamp_trunc`, calculates median using `approx_quantiles` function at the 50th percentile, and converts the native DOT median to USD using end-of-day DOT price feeds
- **Key fields**: `block_timestamp` for daily aggregation, `amount` (base transaction fee), `tip` (additional fee paid), `chain` identifier for price feed matching

### Component B: Post-migration Asset Hub fees

- **Purpose**: Calculates median transaction fees for the period after Asset Hub Migration (from 2025-11-03 onwards)
- **Logic**: Combines two types of fees from Asset Hub event logs. For native DOT fees, processes `TransactionFeePaid` events similar to Relay Chain but sources from Asset Hub, converts using DOT decimals, and prices using DOT/USD feeds. For asset fees, processes `AssetTxFeePaid` events which contain multilocation identifiers in the event data array (position 3), maps these multilocation IDs to specific tokens using a predefined mapping table, extracts fee amounts from position 1, converts using token-specific decimal places, and prices using HydraDX token price feeds. Both native and asset fees are combined into a single dataset for median calculation
- **Key fields**: `block_timestamp` for daily aggregation, `amount` and `tip` from fee events, `token_address` for asset fee pricing, `chain` identifier for price feed routing

### Final aggregation

- **Combining components**: Uses a union operation to combine pre-migration Relay Chain medians with post-migration Asset Hub medians, with strict time boundaries ensuring no overlap between the two data sources
- **Currency conversion**: Pre-migration data is converted from native DOT to USD using daily DOT price feeds, while post-migration data includes both DOT conversions and direct USD conversions for asset fees via HydraDX pricing
- **Time aggregation**: All fees are aggregated to daily boundaries using `timestamp_trunc` function, with medians calculated using `approx_quantiles` at the 50th percentile
- **Final calculation**: The result combines historical Relay Chain medians (in USD) for dates before 2025-11-03 with Asset Hub medians (in USD) for dates from 2025-11-03 onwards, creating a continuous time series that accounts for Polkadot's architectural evolution

*This methodology was automatically generated by Token Terminal's methodology analyzer.*

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Median transaction fee

Median transaction fee

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