Which On-Chain Analytics Platform Should You Use? 7 Platforms Compared

Which On-Chain Analytics Platform Should You Use? 7 Platforms Compared

By David Kim, News & Analysis Editorial Desk · November 2, 2026 · 8 min read

Updated November 2, 2026
Quick Answer

Pick an on-chain analytics platform by the question you need answered, not by a ranking. Use Bubblemaps to see who holds a token and whether the big wallets are linked, and Arkham to identify who controls an address and follow where funds move. Blockworks (previously Messari) covers project research, token unlocks and fundraising. Santiment sets on-chain activity beside social and GitHub data, Dune lets you write your own SQL, Glassnode tracks Bitcoin and Ether market cycles, and Token Terminal compares protocol fees and revenue.

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On-chain analytics platforms all read the same blockchain data, but they answer very different questions. Some trace wallets, some track market cycles, and some compare protocol revenue.

Here are 7 on-chain analytics platforms, grouped by the kind of question each answers. They are not ranked: the right one depends on what you are trying to find out. For pricing, and for two more tools, Nansen and DefiLlama, see our comparison of on-chain analytics tools.

Which question are you asking?

Each on-chain analytics platform below is strongest on one of these questions.

Your questionStart with
------
Who holds this token, and are the largest wallets linked?Bubblemaps
Who controls this address, and where did the funds go?Arkham
What does this project do, and when do its tokens unlock?Blockworks (previously Messari)
Is the online attention matched by real on-chain activity?Santiment
Can I answer a question no ready-made dashboard covers?Dune
Where are Bitcoin and Ether in their market cycle?Glassnode
Does this protocol earn real fees and revenue?Token Terminal

The seven platforms

1. Bubblemaps: visual wallet and holder analysis

Bubblemaps is a visual on-chain analytics platform for understanding token holder distributions and relationships between wallets. Its maps represent holders as bubbles, with connections between them highlighting links between addresses. This makes it easier to spot concentrated supply ownership, investigate suspicious or insider activity and research the behavior of holders without manually going through hundreds of wallets.

Researchers can uncover bundled supply and wallet clusters, which helps when investigating fresh crypto launches as well as evaluating supply control in older projects. While wallet connections aren't guaranteed proof of common ownership, they can provide useful leads for further investigation.

Current Bubblemaps features appear to be free to use, including Magic Nodes, Time Travel and real-time data (as of 2 November 2026).

2. Arkham: entity identification and transaction investigations

Arkham is an on-chain analytics platform focused on identifying the entities behind blockchain addresses and examining their transaction activity.

Its platform combines address attribution, portfolio information, transaction histories and a visual investigation interface. Researchers can follow incoming and outgoing transactions, examine counterparties and build a picture of how funds move between addresses.

Reach for it when tracing funds, investigating exchange activity or looking into suspicious transactions. Our guide to what to do when an exchange freezes withdrawals lists traced exchange-wallet transfers among the warning signs to watch.

Like other entity-labeling platforms, Arkham relies on attribution methods to connect addresses with real-world identities. Those labels are useful research leads, but they should be checked before making claims about who controls a wallet.

3. Blockworks (previously Messari): crypto research and market intelligence

Blockworks is a crypto research and market intelligence platform that brings together asset data, analyst research and market monitoring. Blockworks acquired Messari in June 2026, and messari.io now redirects to Blockworks' research platform.

Users can research individual cryptocurrencies, compare assets, explore different sectors and follow developments across the industry. Its research covers projects and broader market themes, while its data tools provide information on asset performance, fundraising, token unlocks and on-chain activity.

It serves investors, researchers and analysts who want more context around a cryptocurrency or protocol before making decisions. It can help answer questions about a project's market position, token economics and development within its sector. Our guide to evaluating crypto projects through their tokenomics gives you a framework to apply to what you find.

Its focus is broader than individual wallet investigations. It can help research a project's fundamentals and market activity, but it is not a wallet-tracing tool.

4. Santiment: on-chain, social and development analytics

Santiment combines on-chain analytics with social and development metrics to help users study cryptocurrency markets.

Its Sanbase platform provides charts, screeners, watchlists and alerts covering different aspects of crypto activity. On-chain metrics include active addresses, transaction volume, exchange flows, whale activity and holder distribution. Users can also examine social volume, sentiment and GitHub development activity.

One of Santiment's more interesting aspects is the ability to compare these different measurements. For example, a token experiencing a sudden increase in social attention can be examined alongside its on-chain activity and development metrics.

This gives researchers more context when looking at market behavior. A surge in online discussion doesn't necessarily mean that actual network usage is increasing, and Santiment makes it possible to investigate both.

Where it earns its place is in monitoring market trends and behavioral changes. Its metrics do have limitations, though. Santiment's own documentation builds development activity from GitHub events, with bot activity removed in the current version, so it reflects public coding activity. It shouldn't be treated as a complete measurement of a team's work or code quality.

5. Dune: custom blockchain analysis

Dune gives users access to blockchain datasets that can be queried using SQL, through its own dialect, DuneSQL.

This allows researchers to investigate contract activity, examine token transfers, monitor protocols or build dashboards around specific research questions. There is also a large collection of community-created dashboards that users can explore and adapt.

The main drawback is the learning curve. Getting the most out of Dune requires some understanding of SQL and blockchain data structures.

It is built for analysts and developers who want more control over their research and need to answer questions that standard on-chain analytics dashboards might not cover.

6. Glassnode: historical market and on-chain metrics

Glassnode focuses on historical cryptocurrency market data and on-chain metrics.

The platform provides indicators covering supply distribution, market valuation, investor behavior and realized profits or losses. Some of its better-known metrics include Market Value to Realized Value (MVRV), Realized Cap and various supply and holding-age breakdowns.

Glassnode is useful for studying market cycles and understanding how Bitcoin and Ethereum holders behave over time, the same cycle questions our Bitcoin halving 2028 guide works through.

Its focus is broader market analysis rather than investigating connections between individual wallets or examining the holder structure of newly launched tokens.

7. Token Terminal: protocol performance and financial metrics

Token Terminal approaches on-chain analytics from a financial perspective.

The platform organizes on-chain activity into metrics that make protocols easier to compare. These include active users, fees, revenue and other financial indicators.

This is useful when researching whether a protocol has meaningful economic activity. For example, a project might generate substantial trading volume while collecting relatively little revenue. Looking at both figures provides a different picture of its performance.

It suits analysts comparing protocols and evaluating their financial performance, rather than investigating individual wallet relationships.

Which on-chain analytics platform should you use?

The right platform depends on the kind of research you carry out most often, so start from the question table at the top of this guide and pick the on-chain analytics platform that matches it.

Bubblemaps fits visual token analysis, wallet clustering and investigating holder distribution. Arkham focuses on entity identification and tracing fund movements. Blockworks (previously Messari) provides broader crypto research and market intelligence, while Santiment combines on-chain metrics with social and development data.

Dune offers flexibility for custom blockchain queries, Glassnode is suited to historical market analysis, and Token Terminal focuses on protocol financial performance.

Sources

Pages checked on 1-2 November 2026:

Key Takeaways

  • The seven platforms read the same blockchains but answer different questions: holder structure, wallet ownership, project fundamentals, social attention, custom queries, market cycles and protocol revenue.
  • Links between wallets on a Bubblemaps map are leads, not proof of common ownership. Treat a cluster as something to investigate further.
  • Arkham's entity labels come from attribution methods. Check a label before you claim publicly who controls a wallet.
  • Blockworks (previously Messari): Blockworks acquired Messari in June 2026, and messari.io now redirects to Blockworks' research platform.
  • Santiment's development metrics are built from public GitHub events, so they show visible coding activity, not the whole of a team's work or its code quality.
  • Dune can answer questions no ready-made dashboard covers, but you need some SQL and an understanding of how blockchain data is structured.

Frequently Asked Questions

Are any of these on-chain analytics platforms free?

Some are. Bubblemaps' current features, including Magic Nodes and Time Travel, appear to be free to use. Arkham's core platform is free, and Dune keeps viewing dashboards free. Santiment offers a 14-day Sanbase trial instead. Free limits change often, so check each current plan before relying on one.

Does a wallet label or a wallet cluster prove who owns the funds?

No. Arkham's labels and Bubblemaps' clusters are both inferences from transaction patterns and attribution methods. They are strong leads for an investigation, but they are not proof. Confirm a label against other evidence, such as exchange disclosures or a project's own statements, before you name an owner publicly.

Do I need to know SQL to use on-chain analytics tools?

Only for Dune, and only if you want to write your own queries. You can still browse and adapt the community dashboards other users have published there. Bubblemaps, Arkham, Blockworks (previously Messari), Santiment, Glassnode and Token Terminal all present their data through charts and interfaces that need no code at all.

Which platform should I check before buying a newly launched token?

Start with Bubblemaps to see how concentrated the supply is and whether the largest holders appear linked. Then use Arkham to look up who controls those wallets and where their funds came from. Neither tells you whether a token is a good investment, but together they reveal concentrated or insider-held supply.

How is this different from a crypto portfolio tracker?

A portfolio tracker reports on your own holdings and their value. These on-chain analytics platforms study the wider market: other people's wallets, token holder structures, protocol revenue and market cycles. Some, like Arkham, include a portfolio view, but their purpose is research into activity on the chain rather than bookkeeping.

About the Author

David Kim avatar

David Kim

News & Analysis Editorial Desk

News & Analysis Editorial Desk · Web3AIBlog

David Kim is a pen name for our news and analysis editorial desk. Posts under this byline are written and reviewed by contributors covering emerging-technology policy, regulatory action, market events, and incident reporting across crypto and AI. The desk emphasizes primary-source reporting (court filings, regulatory text, on-chain data, official postmortems) over reaction-cycle commentary. Every news post links to the underlying source documents so readers can verify the facts.