The Graph airdrop: What it is, why it mattered, and what to watch next

When you hear The Graph airdrop, a distribution of free GRT tokens to early contributors who helped build decentralized data indexing for blockchains. Also known as GRT airdrop, it was one of the first major Web3 projects to reward users not for buying in, but for helping the network work better. Unlike most crypto giveaways that vanish after a tweet, The Graph airdrop was tied to real work—running nodes, testing APIs, and helping developers pull data from Ethereum and other chains. It wasn’t just free money; it was an investment in infrastructure.

This matters because blockchain indexing, the process of organizing and making blockchain data searchable for apps. Also known as on-chain data querying, it’s what lets DeFi dashboards show your balances, NFT marketplaces display ownership, and wallets track your transaction history. Without The Graph, every app would have to rebuild this system from scratch. That’s expensive, slow, and inefficient. The airdrop wasn’t a marketing stunt—it was a way to bootstrap a critical piece of Web3’s backbone. People who participated weren’t just getting tokens; they were helping build the search engine for the blockchain.

And it worked. The Graph became one of the most used services in DeFi. Today, over 20,000 subgraphs—custom data indexes built by developers—run on its network. That’s why the GRT token, the native currency used to pay for indexing services and reward node operators. Also known as Graph token, it’s not just a speculative asset—it’s the fuel keeping the whole system running. If you’re into crypto, you’ve probably used a dApp powered by The Graph without even knowing it. From Uniswap to Aave, the data you see comes from there.

Now, the airdrop phase is long over. But the lessons aren’t. The Graph showed that the best crypto projects don’t just hand out tokens—they give people real roles. You don’t need to be a coder to help. You just need to care about making Web3 faster, cheaper, and more open. That’s the same spirit behind the airdrops that still work today: ones tied to actual usage, not hype.

Below, you’ll find posts that dig into what went right (and wrong) with crypto airdrops, how to spot real infrastructure projects from empty tokens, and why some projects succeed while others vanish. Whether you’re chasing the next opportunity or just trying to understand what actually powers the blockchain, these stories will help you cut through the noise.