# Polkadot AssetHub Expenses Methodology

## 1. Overview

Expenses for Polkadot AssetHub are measured as the total cost incurred by the network to operate its business and incentivize participants. These costs are represented by token incentives issued to users in the form of staking rewards. Since the Asset Hub Migration (AHM) in November 2025, these rewards are accounted for as expenses for Polkadot AssetHub to reflect the economic expenditure required for network maintenance and security.

## 2. Data sources

- **Blockchain events**: `Rewarded` events from `staking` pallets on Polkadot AssetHub
- **External data**: End-of-day price feeds for the native DOT asset

## 3. Step-by-step calculation

### Component A: Staking reward extraction

- **Purpose**: Reward distributions are identified and quantified from staking activity.
- **Logic**: `Rewarded` events are parsed from `staking` pallets on Polkadot AssetHub. Inclusion is restricted to events occurring on or after the Asset Hub Migration (AHM) date. Reward amounts are extracted from the event data, normalized by decimal precision, and aggregated to determine the total daily volume of incentives issued in native units.
- **Key fields**: `event_pallet` (pallet identification), `event_method` (event type), `amount` (reward quantity).

### Component B: USD conversion and aggregation

- **Purpose**: Incentive values are normalized to USD for cross-asset comparison and reporting.
- **Logic**: Daily reward totals are multiplied by end-of-day price feeds for the DOT asset. The resulting values are aggregated with a daily granularity using UTC day boundaries. Any days with missing data are filled with zeros to ensure a continuous time series.
- **Key fields**: `timestamp` (timing), `price_usd` (valuation), `token_incentives` (calculated expense).

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

Total project operating and incentive expenses.

Expenses

Blockchains (L2)

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.

Polkadot AssetHub

Expenses

Expenses

Chain breakdown