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Polkadot price prediction: What is polkadot (DOT)?

By Iliana Mavrou and Peter Henn

Edited by Vanessa Kintu


Updated

Polkadot DOT cryptocurrency physical coin placed on reflective surface and lit with green and red lights
Despite recent losses, work to develop the Polkadot blockchain continues – Photo: DIAMOND VISUALS / Shutterstock.com

It aims to create a system which allows people to, in effect, build their own blockchains, but what is polkadot (DOT)?

Let’s see what we can find out, and also examine some of the polkadot price predictions that were being made as of 11 January 2023. 

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Polkadot explained

Founded in 2016 by Ethereum co-founder Gavin Wood, the Polkadot network is one among many software competitors aiming to incentivise a global network of computers to operate a blockchain, on top of which users will be able to launch and operate their own blockchains. 

The project is being developed by the Web3 Foundation’s Parity Technologies, which focuses on the development of innovations that break down centralised online services and enable institutional innovation.

Unlike similar projects, such as Ethereum, Cosmos and EEOSIO, the Polkadot protocol connects a whole network of purpose-built blockchains, allowing them to operate seamlessly with one another through what it calls ‘parachains’. 

Polkadot allows for a number of transactions to be conducted at once, and is easy and open for more innovations and collaborations due to its collaboration with other blockchain protocols.

The network also enables blockchains to upgrade without having to fork the chain, which used to take months and at times split the community.

All about the DOT cryptocurrency

The Polkadot network is powered by DOT, which has three leading purposes:

  • Governance: DOT holders have complete control over the Polkadot protocol, deciding for instance which events take place within the protocol (upgrades and fixes) through voting. 

  • Staking: Through storing funds in a digital wallet, users can earn DOT tokens by running operations on the blockchain. There are four ways in which DOT holders can interact with the staking system. 

  • Bonding: DOT holders can block a certain number of tokens for a certain period of time. 

DOT holders can become:

table


Polkadot price history

Source: CoinMarketCap

 

Let’s now take a look at some of the DOT price history. While past performance should never be taken as an indicator of future results, knowing what the coin has done in the past can give us some useful context for either making or interpreting a polkadot price prediction. 

Polkadot launched in late August 2020 with an opening price of $2.79. For the next six months, the DOT token price moved sideways before gaining some momentum in mid-January 2021. It jumped 208% from its launch price to hit a high of $8.62 by 12 January 2021.

The token continued on a bullish trend, skyrocketing to a closing price of $39.70 on 21 February 2021 – a 360% surge in a little over a month. However, positive sentiment did not last long as DOT dropped below the $32 mark in the next four days and continued to fluctuate between $33 and $38 for the entirety of March 2021. 

By 14 May 2021, the DOT cryptocurrency once again surged to a closing price of $47.95, which was then an all-time high, ahead of Polkadot’s launch of parachains – the network’s final launch in a series of multi-phase processes.

BTC/USD

99,673.05 Price
-0.940% 1D Chg, %
Long position overnight fee -0.0616%
Short position overnight fee 0.0137%
Overnight fee time 22:00 (UTC)
Spread 50.00

XRP/USD

2.54 Price
+7.120% 1D Chg, %
Long position overnight fee -0.0616%
Short position overnight fee 0.0137%
Overnight fee time 22:00 (UTC)
Spread 0.01268

ETH/USD

3,996.91 Price
-0.810% 1D Chg, %
Long position overnight fee -0.0616%
Short position overnight fee 0.0137%
Overnight fee time 22:00 (UTC)
Spread 1.75

DOGE/USD

0.46 Price
+5.640% 1D Chg, %
Long position overnight fee -0.0616%
Short position overnight fee 0.0137%
Overnight fee time 22:00 (UTC)
Spread 0.0022987

On 23 May 2021, however, the token dipped by over 60% to $18.03 as Polkadot nodes failed with an ‘out of memory’ error while trying to build a block. While the nodes themselves did not crash, their runtime did. DOT remained on a bearish trend throughout the summer months, falling as low as $10.42 by mid-July. 

The Polkadot coin price started to resurface once again at the start of September 2021, following news that the crypto was planning the launch of its cross-consensus messaging format.

On 4 November 2021, DOT reached its all-time high, surging by over 427% from its July lows to $55, as the network announced the passing of Referendum 42 in a community vote that would enable parachain registration and ‘crowdloans’. 

The following day, Polkadot announced the passing of Referendum 41 in a separate community vote, which saw the registration of its first parachain, keeping the Polkadot token valued above $50 for the next few days. 

Following its November 2021 success, the coin went down to close the year at $26.72. Things went further downhill in 2022, when a series of crashes – most recently, November’s collapse of the FTX (FTT) cryptocurrency exchange – saw DOT plummet to a 52-week low of about $5, before it fell further in December to close the year at $4.31, an annual loss of more than 80%. 

In the new year, there was something of a comeback, with it breaking past $5 on 9 January and settling down to around $4.90 on 11 January 2023. At that time, there were more than 1.15 billion DOT in circulation out of a total supply of 1,270,814,926. This gave the coin a market cap of about $5.66bn, making it the 14th largest crypto by that metric.  

Polkadot price prediction round-up

Let’s now take a look at some of the polkadot crypto price predictions that were being made as of 11 January 2023. Keep in mind that price forecasts, especially when it comes to something as potentially volatile as cryptocurrency, are often wrong. Also, it is worth remembering that many long-term predictions are made using an algorithm, which means they can change at any time. 

Firstly, CoinCodex had a short-term polkadot price prediction for 2023 which suggested that the coin could drop to $4.44 by 16 January before bouncing back to $5.61 by 11 February. The site’s polkadot technical analysis was bearish, with 15 indicators sending downbeat signals against 13 making bullish ones. 

Next, CaptainAltcoin had a polkadot coin price prediction that said the crypto could drop to $3.45 by March 2023 before reaching $7.01 in January 2024. The site then made a polkadot price prediction for 2025 that saw it trade at a potential $37.81 before arguing it could collapse to $10.73 in five years’ time.

The site claimed that DOT could reach $94.51 in 2030 and potentially reach $189.03 by 2040. 

Meanwhile, DigitalCoinPrice had a polkadot crypto price prediction that saw it trade at a potential $10.09 this year before getting to $15.90 in 2025. The site then made a polkadot price prediction for 2030 which said it could reach $50.44 that year. 

Finally, Wallet Investor was far more bearish in its polkadot price prediction for 2023. The site said that the coin was in for a tough 12 months, plunging to around $0.37 by the middle of January 2023.  

When considering a DOT coin price prediction, it’s important to keep in mind that cryptocurrency markets remain extremely volatile, making it difficult to accurately predict what a coin or token’s price will be in a few hours, and even harder to give long-term estimates. As such, analysts and algorithm-based forecasters can and do get their predictions wrong.

If you are considering investing in cryptocurrency tokens, we recommend that you always do your own research. Look at the latest market trends, news, technical and fundamental analysis, and expert opinion before making any investment decision. Keep in mind that past performance is no guarantee of future returns, and never trade with money that you cannot afford to lose.

FAQs

Is polkadot a good investment?

It is hard to say. A lot will depend on how the market performs going forward.

In volatile cryptocurrency markets, it is important to do your own research on a coin or token to determine if it is a good fit for your investment portfolio. Whether DOT is a suitable investment for you depends on your risk tolerance and how much you intend to invest, among other factors.

Keep in mind that past performance is no guarantee of future returns and never invest money that you cannot afford to lose.

Will polkadot go up or down?

No one can really tell right now. While some forecasting sites such as DigitalCoinPrice were optimistic as of 11 January 2023, the likes of WalletInvestor were far more bearish. Keep in mind that price predictions often end up being wrong and that prices can go down as well as up. 

In volatile cryptocurrency markets, it is important to do your own research on a coin or token to determine if it is a good fit for your investment portfolio. Whether DOT is a suitable investment for you depends on your risk tolerance and how much you intend to invest, among other factors.

Keep in mind that past performance is no guarantee of future returns and never invest any money that you cannot afford to lose.

Should I invest in polkadot?

Whether you should invest in DOT is a question only you can answer. Before you do so, however, you will need to conduct your own research, not only on DOT but on other crypto coins.

Never invest more money than you can afford to lose because prices can go down as well as up.

Markets in this article

DOT/USD
Polkadot / USD
10.7319 USD
0.1059 +1.000%

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