The Graph provides blockchain data and receives query fees from demand-side users. Supply-side users also pay fees for delegating to a node, curating subgraphs, disputes and when slashing occurs (revenue). Indexers, delegators and curators perform indexing services for which they are compensated by The Graph (expenses).

The Graph is an indexing protocol built on Ethereum and other blockchains. The Graph was founded by Brandon Ramirez, Jannis Pohlmann, Yaniv Tal and launched in 2018.

GRT tokenholders own and govern the protocol. They currently take all of the total fees (revenue). The Graph’s investors include Multicoin Capital, Coinbase Ventures, Framework ventures, etc.

governance

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Infrastructure

The Graph

# The Graph Token incentives Methodology

## 1. Overview

Token incentives for The Graph protocol measures the daily USD value of GRT tokens distributed as indexing rewards to network participants. This metric quantifies the protocol's spending on incentivizing data providers (indexers) who process and serve blockchain data queries. The calculation aggregates reward distribution events from The Graph's RewardsManager contracts across Ethereum and Arbitrum networks, converting raw token amounts to USD values.

## 2. Data sources

- **Blockchain events**: Parsed `RewardsAssigned` events from The Graph protocol's RewardsManager contracts on Ethereum and Arbitrum networks
- **Token data**: GRT token metadata including contract addresses and decimal configurations for Ethereum (`0xc944e90c64b2c07662a292be6244bdf05cda44a7`) and Arbitrum (`0x9623063377ad1b27544c965ccd7342f7ea7e88c7`)
- **External data**: End-of-day GRT token price feeds for USD conversion
- **Transaction data**: Ethereum and Arbitrum transaction records containing event metadata like block timestamps and transaction hashes

## 3. Step-by-step calculation

### Component A: Raw indexing reward extraction
- **Purpose**: Extract all indexing reward distribution events from The Graph protocol contracts
- **Logic**: Parse `RewardsAssigned` events from RewardsManager contracts on both Ethereum mainnet and Arbitrum. Filter out any events marked as removed to exclude reverted transactions. Extract the recipient address (indexer receiving the reward), the raw token amount, and transaction metadata including block timestamp, transaction hash, and log index.
- **Key fields**: `address` (reward recipient), `amount` (raw GRT token quantity), `block_timestamp`, `transaction_hash`, `log_index`, `removed` status flag

### Component B: Business classification and metadata enrichment
- **Purpose**: Apply consistent business categorization and add protocol version information
- **Logic**: Classify all indexing rewards under "Data Provider" business line and "infrastructure" market sector since indexers provide data infrastructure services. Map each event to its corresponding protocol version (v1) and chain. Add the incentive type classification as "Indexing rewards" to distinguish from other potential reward types.
- **Key fields**: `chain` (ethereum or arbitrum), `business_line`, `market_sector_id`, `business_segment_id`, `version`, `incentive_type`, `token_address`

### Component C: USD conversion and decimal correction
- **Purpose**: Convert raw token amounts to standardized USD values
- **Logic**: Apply decimal correction to raw GRT token amounts based on the token's 18-decimal configuration. Convert the corrected token amounts to USD using end-of-day GRT price feeds, matching prices to the date of each reward event.
- **Key fields**: `amount` (converted to USD), daily price feeds, decimal-corrected token quantities

### Final aggregation
- **Combining components**: Aggregate all USD-converted reward amounts by day using timestamp truncation to daily boundaries
- **Currency conversion**: GRT token amounts are converted to USD using end-of-day price feeds matched to event dates
- **Time aggregation**: Events are grouped by day with timestamp truncated to daily granularity, ensuring consistent daily reporting boundaries
- **Final calculation**: Sum all USD-converted indexing reward amounts within each day to produce the daily token incentives total, applying zero-filling for periods with no reward activity and filtering based on chain data availability

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

Value of native tokens distributed as incentives.

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Token incentives

Token incentives

Competitive landscape

Chain breakdown