Disclaimer: The datasets shared in the following article have been compiled from a set of online resources and do not reflect AMBCrypto’s own research on the subject.
A brainchild of Ethereum Co-founder Gavin Wood, Polkadot is one of the leading blockchains in the world right now. With a Proof-of-Stake consensus mechanism, it is unique in supporting multiple interconnected chains. In fact, one can argue that its interconnected nature has helped the project earn a significant number of users over the last few years.
Shawn Tabrizi, lead developer at Polkadot network, talked about the possibility of “a cohesive, multi-blockchain future” during an interview with in February 2022. Back then, he also stressed on the need for preserving the fundamentals of data privacy in the Polkadot ecosystem.
Before its launch in May 2020, Polkadot had raised over $144.3 million in October 2017 through the Web3 Foundation in its initial coin offering (ICO) itself. In August 2020, its native crypto DOT’s price reached $6.30 and kept moving between $4 and $5 throughout the rest of 2020.
The Polkadot infrastructure supports two kinds of blockchains, relay chain and parachains.
The central blockchain of the Polkadot infrastructure is the Relay Chain where validators provide consensus for a transaction. The Relay Chain is built in a way so as to coordinate the management and operation of the whole Polkadot infrastructure, with minimal functionality in regard to other applications.
A parachain, on the other hand, is an application-specific chain on the Polkadot infrastructure that is validated by the validators of the Relay Chain itself. Since these chains run parallel to the Relay Chain, they are called parachains. It is here that developers can develop both applications and their own blockchains. All of these parachains can communicate with each other on the network. In short, this cross-chain technology facilitates the transfer of both assets and data across blockchains. Users therefore don’t have to depend on a particular system for all of their cryptocurrency transactions.
Polkadot parachains can easily communicate with other blockchains existing on Ethereum and Bitcoin networks. The blockchain also provides better control, flexibility and security, reducing the risk to its miners due to unauthorized validators. Acala, Moonbeam, Clover, Astar and Parallel are some of the oldest projects running on the Polkadot network. The blockchain is growing rapidly and seems to promise a reliable future to its users.
Wood believes that from a Web 3.0 perspective, the inter-chain blockchain protocol of a network like Polkadot will connect different technological threads into a single economy and movement.
The ability to communicate without the need to trust each other is the cornerstone of the Polkadot system. The parachain auctions of Polkadot can truly build a democratic internet space as decentralized or distributed network architectures form the infrastructure of the online world.
In May this year, a Polkadot upgrade enabled parachain-to-parachain messaging over XCM. The XCM format is aimed at helping the Polkadot network become a fully interoperable multichain ecosystem. XCM allows communication not only between the parachains themselves, but also between smart contracts and decentralized applications.
As a blockchain running on the PoS consensus mechanism, Polkadot is one of the most eco-friendly blockchain cryptocurrencies.
The PoS method is more sustainable than the PoW method as there is no race to mint more coins.
As per a new study by the Traders of Crypto, Polkadot, along with Cardano and Algorand, are among the most environment-friendly cryptocurrencies. Polkadot is the fourth most eco-friendly currency in terms of its CO2 emissions (50 tonnes annually).
A Forbes report quoted Bilal Hammoud, CEO and founder of National Digital Asset Exchange, “Polkadot’s mission is to securely allow Bitcoin and Ethereum to interact with each other in a scalable manner… Imagine if you store your wealth in Bitcoin and use that Bitcoin on an Ethereum dApp [decentralized application] to take a loan for a house quickly and securely.”
The interoperability and scalability of the Polkadot infrastructure have helped it endear itself to a lot of enthusiastic developers, thereby significantly raising the value of DOT.
A proof-of-stake (PoS) blockchain, Polkadot recently upgraded to the v9270 version that was reflected in some upward movement in its price. A few days back, its performance was rather resurgent. But with the Merge, Ethereum has emerged as a serious competitor of Polkadot as an alternative PoS blockchain and DOT’s price has been plunging since then.
Polkadot Co-Founder Robert Habermeier, however, said that he is super happy to see Ethereum transition from PoW to PoS mechanism and viewed Polkadot as an “ETH collaborator.” He made these remarks during a recent interview.
Launched in May 2020, DOT’s price soon hit $6.30 in August 2020. Broadly loitering around the price levels of $4 and $5 in 2020, its tides quickly turned the next year. With 2021 being very bullish for DOT on the charts, the altcoin’s price hit an ATH of $55 in early November.
However, DOT wasn’t alone in suffering significant losses in Q2 of 2022, with the altcoin’s value depreciating significantly on the charts. In mid-July, it was valued at just a little above $6.
It is only now that DOT is recovering on the charts. Albeit, not by much.
In fact, at press time, DOT was priced at just over $7.01, with DOT still among the market’s top-10 cryptos.
Source: DOT/USD, TradingView
Why these projections matter
Among all the market’s leading cryptocurrencies, what is peculiar to Polkadot is that it offers an opportunity to users to operate and transact across blockchains. With a circulating supply of over 1 billion coins, DOT is expected to remain one of the market’s most popular cryptos.
This also makes DOT one of the most closely observed cryptocurrencies in the market. Ergo, it is critical investors and holders remain aware of what popular analysts have to say about the future of DOT.
In this article, we will briefly summarize the key performance metrics of DOT such as price and market cap. Thereafter, we will observe what the most popular crypto-market analysts have to say about the current and future states of DOT, along with its Fear & Greed Index. We will also present metric charts to complement these observations.
Polkadot’s Price, Market Cap and everything in between
Polkadot performed very well during the crypto-bloom of 2021, crossing the price level of $20 in early February and $30 in mid-February. It breached the $40-mark in early April and kept going up and down for the next few months. After going through a rough patch, it hit an ATH of $55 in early November.
The last month of 2021 was a difficult period of time for the entire cryptocurrency market. Things were no different for Polkadot, with DOT trading at just a little above $26 on 31 December.
Come 2022 and the Russia-Ukraine crisis further pushed the market into chaos. In January-February, DOT was trading at around $18-20. It was thought that the Ukrainian government’s decision in March to accept donations in DOT would improve its prospects. Alas, it hardly made any difference as it was only in early April that it crossed the price mark of $23.
In May 2022, the collapse of both LUNA and TerraUSD sent shockwaves across the entire cryptocurrency industry. In fact, on 12 May, DOT’s price plummeted to $7.32. June and July also remained dismal for the entire cryptocurrency market, with DOT dipping to as low as $6.09 on 13 July. The news of Japanese crypto-exchange Bitbank listing Polkadot on its platform in early August brought some respite though.
Polkadot has also been scoring on other fronts. For instance, look no further than Messari’s latest report on the regenerative finance movements. According to Polkadot,
Pink is the new green🟢
21 parachains [blockchains], 250+ dapps, 2500 nodes including 297 active validator nodes, and Polkadot remains the greenest blockchain. https://t.co/3V4FkMoIoC
— Polkadot (@Polkadot) August 12, 2022
Similarly, developer activity has been positive for Polkadot too. In may and June, for instance, it had the highest dev count. Over the course of 2022, the same for Polkadot has been second only to Solana.
Source: SubWallet
Understandably, the market capitalization of Polkadot also mirrored the sentiment of the market. 2021 remained a blessed year for the cryptocurrency, with its market cap soaring to nearly $45 billion in mid-May. However, the mayhem of the second quarter of 2022 crippled the Polkadot ecosystem. Even so, at press time, Polkadot enjoyed a market cap of a little under $8 billion on the charts.
Polkadot’s 2025 predictions
We must first understand that predictions of different analysts and platforms can widely vary and predictions can more often than not be proven wrong. Different analysts focus on different sets of metrics to arrive at their conclusions and none of them can predict unforeseen political-economic factors impacting the market. Now that we have understood this, let’s look at how different analysts predict the future of Polkadot in 2025.
LongForecast predicts that DOT will open 2025 with a price of $10.76 and will fall down to $9.38 by the end of March. In fact, the predictions platform also projected a 2025-high of over $13.5 on the charts.
The likes of Changelly, however, have been a little more optimistic in their projections. In fact, it argued that DOT will go as high as $39.85 on the charts, with the altcoin accruing a potential ROI of over 370%.
Similarly, South Africa’s Capex observed that as DOT attracts more attention and generates optimism in the market, its price will rise in the long-term. Experts predict that DOT’s price will hit $10 by the end of 2022. It is also predicted that a new bull market could arrive and push DOT’s price to $15. The average DOT price in 2025, it argued, will sit at $15.82.
A Bloomberg news story published earlier this year revealed that according to a Crypto Carbon Ratings Institute study, Polkadot has the lowest total electricity consumption and total carbon emissions per year of the six so-called proof-of-stake blockchains. In fact, it only consumes 6.6 times the annual electricity consumption of an average American household.
Given the high-decibel conversations around the energy usage of cryptocurrencies, Polkadot’s energy efficiency is likely to attract the attention of customers.
Polkadot’s 2030 predictions
The aforementioned Changelly blogpost argued that as per experts, Polkadot will be traded for at least $210.45 in 2030, with its maximum possible price being $247.46. Its average price in 2030 will be $218.02, it added.
According to Telegaon, on the other hand, DOT’s price in 2030 can go as high as $140.15 and as low as $121.79.
Capex also observed that as per fintech experts, DOT’s price is likely to increase steadily in 2030. It can easily climb as high as $35, it predicted.
Here, it is worth highlighting that predicting a market 8 years down the line is difficult. Ergo, investors should conduct their own research before investing and be wary of caveats attached to popular projections. Especially since right now, despite DOT’s recent rallies, the technicals for the altcoin aren’t all bullish. In fact, safety first might be the best option right now.
Source: TradingView
On the contrary, the Fear and Greed Index for Polkadot was almost flashing a ‘Greed’ signal.
Source: CFGI.io
Conclusion
In comparison to other blockchains, Polkadot offers more power to its token holders, such as the roles of nominators, collators and fishermen, besides that of validators. In short, DOT holders can not only mine the currency, but be an active participant in the blockchain in other capacities as well. This feature puts Polkadot above other PoS blockchains in the race.
Over the years, Polkadot has attracted investments from a number of venture organizations such as Arrington ARP Capital, BlockAsset Ventures, Blockchain Capital and CoinFund. At one point of time, even the Three Arrows Capital had also invested a significant amount in the venture.
An ambitious venture, Polkadot intends to compete with Ethereum. Though its interoperability has the potential to attract a lot of projects, only a small number of them have come aboard the network. Notwithstanding the reputation of Ethereum, Polkadot is a relatively new venture and can perform better in upcoming years given it is able to attract larger projects. Its efficiency and scalability should come handy in this endeavour.
Polkadot limits the number of parachains it can support to around 100. Since the supply is limited, parachains are allocated through auction, governance system or parachains.
Only recently, the Kylin network became the winner of the 25th parachain auction on the Polkadot network, making a huge stride in the direction of Web 3.0 and DeFi development. Kylin won the offer with a bid of around 150,000 DOT.
The Web3 Foundation even today uses the proceeds from the sale of DOT tokens to support initiatives and projects being built on the Polkadot network. This foundation is governed by the Foundation Council, consisting of Dr. Gavin Wood, Founder-President, Vice President Dr. Aeron Buchanan and Reto Trinkler. The support provided to the network by such a reputed organization speaks volumes about the trust put in the future of the Polkadot blockchain network.
“If you are new to the [cryptocurrency] space, you have to invest your time reading and investigating the projects you are interested in,” Hammoud advised. “Remember that the space is young, and there are many opportunities to learn and make the right investment decisions.”
It must be reiterated, however, that predictions aren’t set in stone and due caution should be taken by investors before investing in the market.
This news is republished from another source. You can check the original article here