trace_filter

trace_filter searches an Arbitrum One node for traces matching criteria you supply — a from/to address set, a block range, plus pagination via after and count — and returns a flat array of matching trace objects across all those blocks. It is the cross-block counterpart to trace_block: instead of every trace in one block, you get only the traces touching the addresses you care about over a span of history. Arbitrum One is a Nitro Optimistic Rollup (chain ID 42161) whose gas is paid in ETH, and this is how you mine its internal-transaction history for one account. Send requests to https://arbitrum.therpc.io/YOUR_API_KEY.

Use cases

• Find every internal ETH transfer sent to a contract across a range of Arbitrum One blocks, including transfers that emit no log.
• Detect MEV bot activity by filtering traces fromAddress a set of known bot addresses operating on Arbitrum DEXs.
• Build an indexer for all calls to a specific Arbitrum DeFi protocol (GMX, Aave, Uniswap) by filtering on its contract addresses.
• Run forensic analysis of every interaction with a contract before and after an exploit, cross-checked against Arbiscan.

Parameters

Response

Example request

1curl https://arbitrum.therpc.io/YOUR_API_KEY \
2  -X POST \
3  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
4  -d '{
5    "jsonrpc": "2.0",
6    "method": "trace_filter",
7    "params": [{}],
8    "id": 1
9  }'

Try it live in the Arbitrum One playground.

Errors & troubleshooting

Common pitfalls

• Wide block ranges are very slow and may be rejected outright — given Arbitrum One's fast block production, even a short calendar window spans many blocks, so narrow the range and paginate with after/count.
• Requires a trace-enabled archive node; most public Arbitrum One endpoints do not expose the trace namespace.
• Unlike eth_getLogs, traces are not indexed by topic — only by address and block number — so you cannot filter by event signature here.

Supported networks

• Mainnet — Chain ID: 42161
• Sepolia — Chain ID: 421614

See also

• trace_transaction
• trace_block
• trace_call
• trace_replayTransaction

1curl https://arbitrum.therpc.io/YOUR_API_KEY \
2  -X POST \
3  -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
4  -d '{"jsonrpc":"2.0","id":1,"method":"trace_filter","params":[null]}'