For over three months now, Polkadot has had a sustained rally with occasional speed breakers, but an all-in-all-good run. However, DOT’s last three attempts to blast above its ATH have gone in vain.
Polkadot traded at $43.30 noting 1.28% daily gains, alongside Bitcoin comfortably sitting above $61K. It almost seemed like the stage was set for DOT to rally provided certain developmental changes aligned with its on-chain activity.
Setting the stage
Polkadot’s price faded before it could make a new all-time high on 26 October but with DOT oscillating close to the $44 mark, all it needs is push to a new ATH. Recently, Gavin Wood noted that a relay-to-relay chain bridge between Polkadot and Kusama (KSM), is expected to be operational before the end of this year. Also, that bridging between the underlying parachains is on the roadmap for the early months of 2022.
These developments seemed to have pumped DOT’s dominance across the market. Additionally, the institutional investment side for DOT looked pretty solid too, as Polkadot was also the most held asset by VCs and hedge funds.
That said, DOT’s circulating market cap was nearing ATH levels of $45.06 billion and stood at a modest $43.54 billion. The circulating market cap, i.e. the price of the asset multiplied by the circulating supply, was noting high values. It meant that the market’s perception of the asset’s future prospects was good.
Another factor that seemed to be driving DOT’s rally was the high retail FOMO the coin has been witnessing of late. Evidently, DOT teasing the market with the hope of an ATH had worked pretty well in the favour of its price.
Notably, in spite of DOT’s price struggling under the $45 resistance its trade volumes have seen impressive upticks. Looks like this retail FOMO was giving DOT’s price a cushion.
Source: TradingView
These speed-breakers still persist
After DOT’s price tumbled back below $45.22 its open interest in the futures market seemed to have dwindled. Even though the OI was relatively higher, it was lower than the October 20 levels and stood at $861.73 million, at the time of writing.
Source: Coinalyze
Moreover, DOT saw some notable long liquidations on October 27 amounting to $17.1 million, as its price dropped to as low as $38.7. However, developments like the Polkadot-based privacy layer project, Manta Network, which is set for a launch in an upcoming token event called “Squad Game,” are still pushing DOT’s narrative.
Further, in a first-of-its-kind initiative, Polkadot has invited users to vote on the blockchain’s future branding. This way, DOT may be setting an example of decentralized social coordination and these healthy activities could push DOT to an ATH sooner.
