Polkadot

DOT is used to stake, vote and buy computing time on Polkadot, a network of connected blockchains.

Polkadot is a public network that links many specialised blockchains, called parachains, and secures them together. Gavin Wood, an Ethereum co-founder, started it in 2016, and the Web3 Foundation launched its mainnet on 26 May 2020. DOT is the network's coin: holders stake it to secure the network, vote with it in on-chain governance (OpenGov), and spend it on coretime, the compute time that parachains buy.

In September 2025 DOT holders voted to cap supply at 2.1 billion DOT. New issuance now falls in steps every two years; the first step, on 14 March 2026, cut yearly issuance by about half. Total supply was about 1.70 billion DOT in September 2026. Part of issuance and 80% of transaction fees go to a treasury that DOT holders control by vote, and money paid for coretime is burned.

In November 2025 balances, staking and governance moved from the main relay chain to Polkadot Asset Hub. In mid-2026 governance changed staking again: validators must now put up at least 10,000 DOT of their own, nominators no longer risk losing stake to penalties, and unstaking takes about two days instead of 28.

No single company runs Polkadot. Parity Technologies and other teams build the software, the Polkadot Fellowship releases network upgrades, and spending and rule changes pass through public referenda. A planned successor design called JAM is not live yet. In the US, a spot Polkadot ETF began trading in March 2026.