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Polkadot was launched in May 2020 as an overarching blockchain protocol that seeks to improve interoperability between separate blockchains and provide shared security between all of those disparate chains. In simple terms, Polkadot aims to become the blockchain of all blockchains.

Through its innovative technology, the Polkadot network can potentially complete more than 1 million transactions per second. DOT is the token that is distributed as a reward to validators on this network and is the sole cryptocurrency of the Polkadot network.

Despite being a relative latecomer to the scene, Polkadot has attracted some serious attention from investors and is now one of the most popular coins in the world, with a top-10 global market cap to boot.

Polkadot is the brainchild of Dr Gavin Wood, one of the original founders of Ethereum. It shares a lot of similarities with Ethereum and its price history has generally mirrored that of Ethereum quite strongly, albeit from a lower base level. DOT has a fairly large supply of just over 1 billion coins, nearly all of which are in circulation.

It is also one of the few cryptocurrencies that has consistently had a market cap of over $1 billion throughout pretty much the entirety of its history, perhaps owing to its very real potential as a business application. Dot hit its first major high in April 2021, where the price briefly surged past $37 per coin, before falling back to just $16 a couple of months later. Its all-time high came in October 2021, when the price broke past $42. Since then, the Dot price has languished below $20 throughout most of 2022, in keeping with the global crypto slump that characterised the first quarter of the year.

Many Polkadot fans believe that the network's ability to securely connect all blockchains together to perform ultra-fast transactions could prove incredibly useful, especially when Web 3.0 really takes off. As a result, there is no shortage of long-term investors who are holding onto their Dot in the hopes of longer-term price appreciation. Of course, this is not guaranteed. Although less volatile than memecoins, Polkadot is still subject to whiplash-inducing ups and downs. Its price has frequently risen and fallen more than 50% in a single week.

However, it's worth noting here that its general day-to-day volatility is considerably lower than some rival coins. For this reason, as well as its ultra-fast and cheap transaction times, some users might prefer to buy Polkadot rather than trade it in the short term.