So, what is onchain data? And how can it help you make better business, product, and marketing decisions? Let’s get into it.

What Is Onchain Data?

Onchain data is everything that gets recorded directly on a blockchain. That includes:

• Transaction data: token transfers, swaps, mints, burns, and more

• Wallet activity: how often a wallet interacts, what protocols it touches, what assets it holds

• Smart contract interactions: staking, lending, voting, claiming rewards, and using dApps

It’s the opposite of Web2 data, which depends on third-party platforms, centralized dashboards, and cookie-based tracking. Onchain data is public and immutable. Every action, whether it’s a million-dollar swap or a new wallet minting an NFT, gets logged transparently for anyone to see.

This creates a new kind of business intelligence. You’re not working with sampled data or incomplete funnels. You’re looking directly at how users behave onchain and with your product.

It’s especially useful for product, growth, and marketing teams who need hard signals, not abstract KPIs.

Where Onchain Data Lives

You don’t need to be a data scientist to explore onchain data. Plenty of tools are available to help teams parse blockchain analytics and wallet tracking without building from scratch.

Block Explorers

Block explorers are public interfaces that enable anyone to track blockchain activity in real-time. They provide a searchable view of all on-chain data, including transactions, wallet balances, contract interactions, token movements, and more.

For founders and analysts, block explorers provide the most direct window into how your protocol or dApp is being utilized. You can monitor new deployments, trace user interactions, debug smart contract activity, or verify whether transactions were completed successfully. They’re especially useful post-launch for product teams wanting to inspect how contracts behave in production.

While most chains have their native explorers, a few platforms, such as Etherscan, have become the standard. You can check a more comprehensive and up-to-date list of top block explorers across ecosystems here.

Dashboards and Analytics Platforms

Dashboards sit between raw onchain data and actionable insight. They collect, enrich, and visualize blockchain activity, allowing teams to analyze patterns without manually querying every transaction. These tools are especially useful for identifying user segments, tracking protocol performance, and benchmarking against competitors.

Some of the most widely used platforms include:

• Nansen focuses on wallet labeling and segmentation. It highlights behaviors like token accumulation, early adopter activity, or protocol-specific engagement. Helpful for marketing and user growth teams looking to identify “smart money” or repeat users.

• Dune is a SQL-based platform that allows anyone to create and share dashboards. It’s used to track anything from daily active users to liquidity flows. Strong community support makes it ideal for custom metrics tied to your specific protocol or use case.

• Arkham specializes in wallet identity attribution. If you need to know which funds, exchanges, or founders are behind high-volume wallets, Arkham provides that context.

• DeFiLlama aggregates protocol-level metrics like TVL, stablecoin flows, and chain-specific trends. It’s the go-to resource for DeFi benchmarking and macro-level monitoring.

• Token Terminal provides financial-style dashboards that focus on revenue, fees, and user growth. It’s well-suited for investor updates and comparing protocol performance over time.

• Messari combines structured data with curated research, providing dashboards that incorporate both qualitative context and quantitative metrics.

These platforms support a wide range of decisions:

• Identifying user cohorts and behavioral patterns

• Tracking protocol adoption and usage over time

• Comparing key metrics across chains or verticals (DeFi, NFTs, etc.)

• Building reports for internal reviews, marketing strategy, or investor comms

If you're looking for a platform to fit your team’s needs, try a few in parallel and see which one surfaces the most relevant insights for your use case.

APIs and Indexing Services

APIs and indexing services allow teams to access structured blockchain data without running their nodes or parsing raw logs. They’re key for developers who want to integrate onchain data into internal dashboards, products, or analytics pipelines.

Two widely used services stand out:

• Covalent offers a unified API that pulls token balances, transaction histories, contract logs, and more across multiple blockchains. It's useful for cross-chain apps, analytics tools, and backend systems that rely on up-to-date onchain data.

• The Graph indexes smart contract data using subgraphs, custom data schemas that let developers pull exactly what they need from specific contracts or protocols. It’s particularly useful for building dApps with real-time frontends or dashboards that rely on granular data.

These tools enable teams to go beyond surface-level insights by automating the collection and querying of blockchain data. Whether you’re tracking product usage, building real-time alerts, or powering a portfolio tracker, these services give you structured access without having to reinvent the wheel.

Why Founders Should Pay Attention

Onchain data isn’t just for traders or analysts. It’s practical for every team inside a crypto project.

Product Decisions

Track how users interact with smart contracts after launch. Are they staking? Are they looping transactions? Are they using key features or ignoring them completely? Onchain behavior shows what’s working and what needs improvement.

Marketing and Segmentation

With wallet tracking, you can go beyond pageviews or ad clicks. Segment users based on wallet actions: first-time stakers, returning users, or those who also use competing protocols. It’s the difference between shouting at everyone and speaking to the right group.

Growth and Retention

Identify your most valuable users by how often they interact, what features they return to, and what they hold. Spot patterns in wallet activity that correlate with long-term engagement.

Investor Reporting

VCs and token holders care about traction. Use onchain metrics to show proof: total wallet growth, retention over time, TVL patterns, or protocol activity trends. These numbers are verifiable and transparent.

Tips for Making Onchain Data Useful

The raw numbers are only useful if you know what to look for. Not every spike in transactions means something is working. Not every new wallet is a new user.

Here’s what helps:

• Behavior over counts: Repeated interaction says more than raw numbers.

• Wallet quality over volume: One user deeply engaged with your protocol is better than ten who bounce.

• Narrative timing: Look for wallet accumulation or usage patterns before narrative momentum kicks in. That’s often where early signals live.

For example, a low-cap protocol might see steady growth in unique stakers before influencers mention it. That data is available if you're watching.

Final Thoughts

So, what is onchain data? It’s the complete, verifiable record of what actually happens on a blockchain. Not assumptions. Not projections. Real behavior, in real time.

For Web3 teams, it’s one of the most underused but high-leverage resources available. Whether you're building products, shaping growth strategy, or reporting to investors, onchain data lets you ground every decision in what users are doing, not what you hope they’re doing.

The teams that treat blockchain analytics as a core intelligence layer gain sharper visibility into user behavior, ecosystem shifts, and emerging narratives, before they become obvious to the rest of the market.

If you haven’t already, start with a simple step:
Log in to Dune or Nansen, and explore wallet activity tied to your protocol. Look for usage patterns. Spot drop-offs. Ask questions. The insights are already onchain, you just need to look.

Want help making sense of it all? RZLT works with Web3 teams to translate onchain data into real-world growth decisions. Get in touch to learn how we can support your product and marketing strategy with sharper insights.