Buy The Graph (GRT): value and price trends

What is The Graph (GRT)

The Graph is a network that makes blockchain data readable. A blockchain records everything, but in the order things happen, not the order they are needed: to answer a simple question such as “how many tokens has this address traded in the last month”, an application would have to read millions of blocks. The Graph does that work once for everyone, organises the data into queryable indexes, called subgraphs, and serves them to the applications that need them. It is often described as the search engine of blockchains.

The network has been live since December 2020 and today indexes dozens of blockchains, with decentralised finance applications as its first users. GRT is the crypto-asset used to pay for queries and to coordinate participants. On Young Platform you can buy and sell the crypto-asset GRT on a spot basis.

Who develops The Graph and who governs it

The project was born in 2018 in San Francisco from Yaniv Tal, Brandon Ramirez and Jannis Pohlmann, who first built a centralised service and then, in 2020, turned it into an open network with its own token. Protocol development is spread across several independent teams, the first of which is Edge & Node, founded by the same founders; the Graph Foundation coordinates funding and grants. Governance goes through the Graph Council, a council that approves protocol changes proposed by the community.

Since 2023 the network has lived on Arbitrum, Ethereum’s layer-2 network: all new subgraphs are published there and rewards are distributed there, because fees are much lower than on the main network.

How the network works

The Graph has four roles. Indexers run the nodes that index data and answer queries: they stake GRT as collateral and receive in return the fees paid by those who query plus a share of new GRT issued by the protocol. Delegators do not run a node but entrust their GRT to an indexer and share its revenue. Curators signal, by putting GRT on a subgraph, which indexes deserve to be served. Developers write the subgraphs and applications query them, paying in GRT.

The system works like a market: if an indexer serves wrong data, it loses part of its stake; if it serves a sought-after subgraph well, it earns more. Queries go through gateways that route requests among indexers, so that anyone building an application does not have to choose by hand who to be served by.

Horizon: what changed in 2025 and 2026

In December 2025 the network activated Graph Horizon, the deepest revision of the protocol since launch. Until then The Graph did one thing only, serve subgraphs; Horizon turns it into a modular platform on which several data services can run, each with its own staking and payment rules, with GRT as the collateral common to all. The subgraph service was the first to move onto the new base, in the first quarter of 2026.

The new services, according to the plan published for 2026, are a ready-to-use interface for token data, real-time streams called Substreams and tools designed for artificial intelligence agents, which need verifiable data about blockchains and pay for it query by query. These are goals stated by the project: the part already live is Horizon with subgraphs, the rest arrives in stages.

What the GRT token is for

GRT is both the means of payment and the collateral of the network. Those who query pay in GRT; those who index put GRT into staking and risk losing part of it if they serve wrong data; those who delegate earn a share of the rewards of the indexer they chose, with a 28-day lock-up on deactivation. The initial supply was 10 billion GRT, and the protocol issues around 3% more each year to pay indexing rewards: an inflation that the community can change and that is only partly offset by the share of fees the protocol burns.

What to consider before buying GRT

Beyond the volatility common to all crypto-assets, there are three specific elements. The first is real demand: the value of the service depends on how many applications actually pay for queries on the decentralised network, and for years most traffic went through the free centralised service. The second is competition: centralised blockchain data providers and new indexing networks offer the same service, often easier to integrate. The third is issuance: the 3% of new GRT each year dilutes those who do not take part as indexers or delegators. On the price side, GRT reached its all-time high in February 2021.

If you want to transfer GRT to an external wallet, always check the supported destination network in the app: GRT exists on both Ethereum and Arbitrum, and sending on the wrong blockchain can result in the permanent loss of funds.

In summary

The Graph is the infrastructure that makes blockchains queryable, used by most decentralised finance applications, and with Horizon in 2025 it turned into a platform for several data services. The GRT token pays for queries and secures those who serve them. Understanding where demand for this service comes from, and how much the protocol issues each year, is the best way to decide whether and how to add GRT to your crypto-asset portfolio. For the network The Graph lives on, see the Arbitrum page; for the other major data infrastructure for blockchains, oracles, the Chainlink page; for the parent network, the Ethereum page.