Polkadot makes a bid in cross-chain arena as DOT struggles to stay afloat

Posted: September 23, 2023

• Polkadot discloses its plans during the Sub0 developer conference.
• Among those plans include its aim to launch over 1,000 parachains.

Polkadot has been flying under the radar for quite some time but this is not to be mistaken with inactivity. Its developers and executives just revealed what’s cooking during the Sub0 developer conference.

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Bearish market conditions have shifted attention away from speculation and networks such as Polkadot are doubling down on development. The network had multiple presentations which underscores the work that has been taking place under the hood. More importantly, it disclosed what to expect moving forward, especially its push towards 1,000 parachains.

GM diligent #Web3 BUIDLers & #crypto degens!
#Polkadot is aiming for the stars !!
Announced at #sub0, developers are introducing updates to support 1,000 #parachains, a tenfold increase!
“Asynchronous backing” will halve block time & augment block space, paving the… pic.twitter.com/74YZv8pcwS

— Orbiter One (@OrbiterOne) September 22, 2023

Having that many parachains would allow the Polkadot layer a 0 network to achieve its goal of mass adoption. This would also translate to healthy levels of utility not only for the network but also for its native cryptocurrency DOT.

The pursuit of exponential parachain growth also aligns with Polkadot’s cross-chain efforts. Multiple networks have been aggressively pushing toward cross-chain dominance due to the potential opportunities in the segment. Polkadot is among those networks and it reiterated this during the Sub0 developer conference.

Will Polkadot’s development efforts yield some relief for DOT?

Polkadot’s plans and ongoing developments underscore the probability of long-term success, especially in the mid-to-long term. But is this enough to facilitate a sentiment shift? DOT’s price action has been in a downward trajectory since February. It achieved a new 2023 low of $3.91 on 11 September and it exchanged hands at $4.02 at press time.

Source: TradingView

DOT’s recent low range achieved a decent amount of accumulation but it was arguably not enough to sustain a proper bullish recovery. DOT’s current monthly low represented prices previously observed in November 2020. This highlighted the extent of its bearish prevalence.

On-chain data revealed that DOT’s weighted sentiment improved slightly in the last three weeks. This indicated that more traders seemed confident about its potential upside. However, this was yet to be reflected in the cryptocurrency’s price action. Meanwhile, development activity was at its lowest level in the last four weeks.

Source: Santiment

DOT’s latest performance was also in tune with the rest of the crypto market. In other words, its performance reflected the low demand and declining liquidity in the last few months.

Realistic or not, here’s Polkadot’s market cap in BTC’s terms

DOT’s prospects might thus improve if the market switches to a bullish outlook and performance. The recently unveiled plans will further strengthen the bullish case for the DOT cryptocurrency, especially in the long run. This means there is a probability of a strong bullish case for DOT once the market conditions improve.