The beauty of public blockchains is their transparency; anyone can verify data and transactions on the ledger and the fact that these data are immutable. Considering that most, if not all, cryptocurrencies run on a public blockchain, many crypto investors have used this feature to their advantage by accessing these blockchain-based transaction data and turning them into valuable crypto market insights. That is what many refer to as ‘On-chain analysis.’

An on-chain analysis is when crypto traders or investors use the information on a blockchain ledger to determine crypto market sentiment and what traders are actively investing in. It specifically involves looking at different transactions and crypto wallet balances – metrics which are vital when deciding whether it is worth investing in a particular crypto token or not. Usually, if many traders are actively buying it, it may be a good idea to look into the project. 

Dune Analytics: A Tool You Can Use for On-chain Analytics

Several platforms and sources offer insightful charts and dashboards to crypto users and investors, providing a better understanding of blockchain data. However, Dune Analytics, simply known as Dune is one that stands out from the rest. Let’s check out why! 

What is Dune Analytics?

Dune Analytics is a free-to-use data platform that provides crypto users and investors with the tools to discover, research, and gain insights about Web3 projects, including ones in the NFT, DeFi, and Crypto ecosystem. Dune supports data from Ethereum, Binance Smart Chain, Gnosis Chain, Polygon, and Optimism. There is also community-created analytics for DeFi platforms like Curve Finance, Uniswap, Compound, 1Inch, and Aave. As a community-based open-source provider, Dune Analytics prides itself as the Github of Web3, allowing users to write queries and create custom charts and dashboards using SQL.

Dune’s unique selling point is its community and how the platform has succeeded in democratizing data, by making everyone a part of the data provisioning process. Rather than branding itself as a company, Dune is a community of traders, analysts, enthusiasts that share data with everyone. Users are also free to reuse and mix data to suit their needs. 

How To Use Dune Analytics

Dune Analytics is free to use, but you need to create an account. Upon opening the site, the below window is what you see first. This window has a view changer at the top that lets you glance through dashboards, queries, and wizards.

The easiest way to find and view dashboards is to type the name of the project that you want to analyze in the search bar. The search result will present you with a list of dashboards published on Dune. 

Click on the dashboard you want to view. Below is an Ethereum dashboard by @blockworks_research. These dashboards typically give the user more information about specific areas relating to that project. For example, the graph and charts below provides information about gas costs on the Ethereum network. Every dashboard in Dune is public. As such, users can view and fork (copy) other users’ dashboards. 

These dashboards are a collection of queries. So, you can see any of the chart’s SQL query if you click on any of the dashboard elements. In simple terms, you can see how a user created a block or chart by clicking on it. That’s what makes the next part – forking, easy.

There is a ‘Fork’ icon at the top right of the page when you click on a dashboard element. You can save an entire dashboard or just the chart’s query to your account by clicking it. Once you click on ‘Fork,’ it will duplicate the query on the screen to a new window, which you can edit before saving it to your account. 

You Can Also Use Dune Analytics for NFTs

Dune Analytics is also a powerful tool for NFT traders and enthusiasts. You can use Dune to pull up data needed to analyze NFT projects. There are dashboards for different NFT marketplaces on the platform. By being more specific with their search, you can also see what the holders of the most expensive NFT collections are trading. 

Dune Analytics Paid Subscription

Dune Analytics provides you access to almost every feature on the platform with the free version. However, you can also decide to subscribe for Dune Pro to enjoy certain perks.

The subscription plan is $390 monthly, per user. Dune Pro users can bypass the query queue to run parallel lines. They can also keep their dashboards and queries private and export their data to CSV files.

Whatever plan you choose, Dune Analytics undoubtedly gives you a clearer view of the crypto market while providing you with the arsenal to uncover macro trends that are helpful to you as a crypto trader or investor. It also gives you a better understanding of how these networks and protocols operate and how they have evolved. You can also make the most of Dune Analytics by creating your dashboard!

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