Buy The Graph

The Graph is infrastructure. It indexes blockchain data and makes it queryable, so that applications can ask a blockchain a question and get an answer quickly, rather than reading through the chain themselves. GRT is the token that pays for that service and secures the network providing it.

This is not a consumer product and you will probably never use it directly. It sits underneath other applications, which is worth knowing before buying the token: demand for GRT depends on developers choosing to pay for the service rather than on anything a retail holder does. Our guide to blockchains covers the underlying technology, and our guide to altcoins explains where tokens like this sit.

What problem does The Graph actually solve?

Blockchains are excellent at recording things and poor at answering questions about them.

A node can tell you the current state of a contract and it holds the entire history, but that history is stored as raw blocks and encoded logs. Asking something as ordinary as "list every trade this wallet made on this exchange, newest first, with prices" means downloading a great many blocks, decoding the events inside them, handling reorganizations when the chain reshuffles recent blocks, and maintaining your own database of the result. Every team that needed this used to build and run that machinery themselves.

The Graph turns that work into a shared resource. A developer writes a subgraph, which is an open specification describing which contract events to collect and how to organize them. Independent operators run the indexing, and anyone can then query the resulting data using GraphQL, a standard query language. Because subgraphs are public, one team's work can be reused by everyone else rather than rebuilt.

Who does what on the network?

Indexers run the actual infrastructure. They stake a minimum of 100,000 GRT of their own, index subgraphs, serve queries and earn both query fees and newly issued GRT as indexing rewards. They can be penalized for serving incorrect data.

Delegators contribute GRT to an indexer without running anything themselves, increasing that indexer's capacity, and receive a share of what it earns after its commission.

Curators signal GRT on subgraphs they believe are worth indexing, which is how indexers know where to direct their resources, and earn a share of the query fees those subgraphs generate.

Developers and consumers build subgraphs, publish them and pay query fees in GRT when their applications read the data.

The protocol began on Ethereum and from 2023 moved most of its operations to Arbitrum One, because doing frequent staking and allocation transactions on Ethereum was too expensive to be practical. GRT exists on both networks, with different contract addresses on each.

What changed in 2024?

For its first years, The Graph ran a free hosted service operated centrally by the core team, alongside the decentralized network it was building. Most developers used the hosted service, because it was easier.

That ended. Through an upgrade called Sunrise, subgraphs were migrated across, and the hosted service was shut down in June 2024. Everything now runs on the decentralized network. This was a genuine milestone, and it also means developers now need an API key and a billing arrangement where previously they had something free.

How does the GRT supply work?

The initial supply was 10 billion GRT, and the protocol issues new tokens to pay indexing rewards at a target of 3 percent a year, a figure governance can change.

Against that, several mechanisms burn GRT permanently. Delegating incurs a 0.5 percent tax on the amount delegated. Curating incurs a 1 percent tax on the signal. One percent of all query fees is burned. Indexers penalized for misbehavior have part of the penalty burned as well. The tokenomics documentation sets out the parameters.

The honest summary is that GRT is inflationary by design. The Graph's own documentation puts total burning at roughly 1 percent of supply a year against an issuance target of 3 percent. That is a deliberate choice rather than an oversight, because the issuance pays the people running the infrastructure, but anyone assuming the burns make GRT scarce has the arithmetic backwards.

Where does demand for GRT come from?

This is the question that decides whether the token works, and it deserves a direct answer.

Indexers are paid from two sources: query fees from customers, and indexing rewards from new issuance. Independent research through 2025 found that although the network served an enormous number of queries, the fees actually paid for them were a small fraction of the value of the indexing rewards being issued over the same period. In other words, the network's operators are substantially paid by inflation rather than by customers.

That is normal for infrastructure at this stage and it is not evidence of failure. But it does mean the case for GRT rests on paid demand growing into the subsidy, and it is fair to ask why a developer would pay for a decentralized service when centralized providers offer something similar with less friction.

How is The Graph governed?

By a Graph Council, which operates a six of ten multi signature arrangement and represents indexers, users, researchers, supporters and core developers. Proposals are discussed publicly through a Graph Improvement Proposal process, with community feedback and non binding signaling, and the Council approves them. The governance page describes the process.

It is worth being clear about what this means, because it is often described loosely. GRT is a work and payment token, not a governance token. Holding it does not give you a vote on protocol changes. Final authority sits with ten signers.

What about the move into artificial intelligence?

Since 2025 The Graph has extended beyond subgraphs into streaming data products and packaged APIs, and has positioned itself as a data layer for artificial intelligence agents, including work on letting agents query and pay for data automatically.

Treat this as direction rather than delivery. The products exist, but whether agent driven demand becomes a material source of paid queries is unproven. Our guide to AI and cryptocurrency covers how often that narrative outruns the reality.

What are the risks of holding GRT?

Revenue gap. Paid query fees have been small relative to the rewards issued to indexers. If that does not change, the network is subsidized by dilution. Net inflation. Issuance exceeds burning by design. Holders who do not delegate are diluted over time. Competition. Developers can get blockchain data from centralized providers such as Alchemy, Infura and QuickNode, and from rival indexing services. Convenience frequently wins over decentralization. No governance rights. GRT does not vote. Protocol direction rests with a small council. Delegation mechanics. Delegating costs a tax on entry, locks tokens through a thawing period of roughly 26 days on exit, and depends on the indexer's commission, which the indexer sets and can change. Two networks. GRT exists on both Ethereum and Arbitrum One with different contracts, and moving between them means using a bridge. Our guide to bridges explains the risk. Execution. The move into streaming data and artificial intelligence services is a strategy, not a result. Concentration of development. A small number of teams write the software, and the roadmap depends on them. Regulatory uncertainty. How tokens of this kind are treated varies by jurisdiction and is still developing. Volatility. GRT is not a stablecoin. Its value moves sharply and can fall substantially. No consumer protection. Cryptoassets are not deposits. They are not insured by the FDIC, they are not protected by SIPC, and they are not covered by any government compensation scheme. You should be prepared to lose the money you put in.

Buying GRT with US dollars on CoinJar

CoinJar has operated since 2013 and lists GRT against US dollars, so you can buy, sell and hold it without converting through another cryptocurrency first. Current charges are on our fees page, and live US dollar rates are on our cryptocurrency prices page.

CoinJar, Inc. is registered with FinCEN as a money services business and holds money transmitter licenses in a growing number of states, NMLS ID 2492913. That registration and those licenses cover the operation of the business. They are not an endorsement of any cryptoasset listed on the platform. You can check whether CoinJar operates in your state before signing up.

How is GRT taxed in the United States?

The IRS generally treats GRT as property. A disposal can occur when you sell it for US dollars, exchange it for another cryptoasset, spend it or give it away.

The IRS sets out its approach on its digital assets pages. Our guide to downloading a transaction history report for tax explains how to get the records you need. This is general information, not tax advice. Consider speaking to a qualified tax professional about your circumstances.