The Graph Foundation Expands Mandate to Take Direct Role in Protocol Development

The Graph Foundation is changing how it operates, shifting from a primarily coordinating and funding role toward directly building, maintaining and scaling The Graph Network.

The new mandate represents a significant organizational change for The Graph, the blockchain data infrastructure protocol that has served more than 1.27 trillion queries to over 75,000 projects as of early 2026. The Foundation says the shift is designed to improve execution, accelerate product development and respond more effectively to an increasingly competitive blockchain data market.

Since The Graph’s beginnings in 2018, its underlying philosophy has centered on making blockchain data open and permissionless. The Foundation has historically supported that objective by managing treasury resources, funding independent development teams and coordinating contributors across the ecosystem.

That model was particularly suited to The Graph’s earlier development, when attracting contributors and establishing decentralized indexing standards were key priorities. But according to the Foundation, changing market conditions mean the existing approach is no longer sufficient.

From Ecosystem Coordinator to Active Operator

Under its expanded mandate, The Graph Foundation intends to become an operator, maintainer and developer of the protocol itself.

Previously, much of the protocol’s development was undertaken by independent teams supported through long-term grants. While this multi-team structure helped develop and expand The Graph, the Foundation argues that relying on external roadmaps can now create coordination bottlenecks and slow execution.

The organization is consequently restructuring to develop greater technical capacity internally and reduce its dependence on external teams for essential protocol operations. A governance proposal also seeks to redirect 20% of protocol issuance toward funding these expanded responsibilities, subject to oversight from The Graph Council.

The change does not mean former core development teams will disappear from the ecosystem. Instead, the Foundation expects collaboration to continue around areas such as chain integrations, specialized data services and targeted product development. What changes is the funding structure, with broad operational grants giving way to more strategically directed resource allocation.

Expanding The Graph Beyond Subgraphs

Product development will form a major part of the Foundation’s expanded responsibilities.

Subgraphs, which provide developers with a way to organize and query blockchain data, remain central to The Graph. However, the protocol is broadening its focus toward a wider collection of data services covering real-time streaming, token analytics, institutional infrastructure and AI applications.

Subgraph Studio is expected to evolve into a unified interface where developers can publish, discover and consume multiple types of blockchain data products. The Foundation plans to support services including Subgraphs, Substreams, token analytics and RPC endpoints within this broader experience.

The Foundation is also prioritizing an end-to-end decentralized Studio architecture in which queries are routed through The Graph Network and its Indexers. Planned development includes native Substreams integration and additional ways to consume data beyond GraphQL, including SQL and direct database delivery.

Another part of the strategy involves attracting specialized data service providers. Rather than requiring the Foundation to develop every product or reach every customer itself, external companies will be able to build businesses using The Graph as their underlying infrastructure, potentially generating additional demand for the network and its Indexers.

The Foundation will also assume direct responsibility for The Graph’s chain integration process. The aim is to more closely connect expansion into new blockchains with revenue generated by the protocol while prioritizing integrations that demonstrate developer demand and long-term network value.

DeFi, Institutions and AI Become Key Priorities

The Foundation has identified three verticals as particular areas of focus: decentralized finance, institutional and enterprise applications, and AI-powered applications.

Within DeFi, expanding adoption of Substreams will be a priority. The technology is designed to process high-throughput blockchain data and support applications requiring lower-latency access. Planned services include a Token API offering standardized token metrics, while Tycho is intended to provide real-time access to decentralized exchange liquidity.

For institutional users, The Graph sees Substreams as an alternative to conventional RPC polling. Its deterministic data processing model is intended to support use cases including compliance, custody, forensics and regulatory reporting by providing reproducible blockchain data.

The Foundation also sees opportunities emerging as financial institutions begin experimenting with privacy-oriented applications on public blockchains. In this environment, The Graph could act as a verification layer that enables authorized parties to validate information against underlying blockchain data.

AI represents another major area of expansion. The Graph ecosystem is developing tools including Model Context Protocol and Agent-to-Agent interfaces for natural-language blockchain queries, alongside infrastructure designed to enable AI agents to autonomously pay for data.

The Foundation is also preparing an agent-focused product centered on portable digital memory. The proposed system would allow users to retain encrypted memory, preferences and interaction history across different AI models and agents rather than leaving that information locked within individual centralized services. Further details are expected in future announcements.

Rethinking Network Incentives

Changes are also coming to The Graph’s economic structure.

One initiative, the Rewards Eligibility Oracle, is intended to connect Indexer rewards more closely to actual service delivery. Rather than rewarding participants simply for maintaining allocations, eligibility will increasingly reflect whether Indexers are actively providing useful network services.

The Foundation is separately developing a liquid staking initiative that would convert staked GRT into stGRT, providing participants with additional flexibility while retaining staking exposure. Direct Indexer Payments are also intended to allow consumers and Gateway Operators to compensate Indexers for providing specific subgraphs at agreed service levels.

Together, these initiatives reflect a broader effort to align protocol incentives with measurable participation and demand.

A More Hands-On Future for The Graph

The Graph Foundation says its new mandate does not represent a retreat from decentralization. Instead, it distinguishes between decentralized network infrastructure and the organizational structure required to develop and maintain that infrastructure effectively.

Independent Indexers and Gateway Operators will continue to underpin the network’s permissionless architecture, while the Foundation assumes greater responsibility for strategic execution, product development and resource allocation.

The result is a more hands-on model for an organization that previously sought to coordinate development from a greater distance. The Foundation expects to provide additional details in the coming months, including specific deliverables and timelines.

For The Graph, the change reflects an effort to adapt its original vision of open blockchain data to a market that has evolved substantially since 2018. The principle remains the same: blockchain data should function as an open public resource. What is changing is the Foundation’s role in making that principle commercially and technically sustainable.