The Polkadot (DOT 0.94%) cryptocurrency had a great weekend. The official blockchain tool of the Web3 Foundation gained 22.6% from Friday's closing bell to Monday's, briefly rising as much as 24%. At $5.33 per token, Polkadot is trading at prices not seen since the end of July.
Why is Polkadot sparkling?
Most of Polkadot's weekend gains can be attributed to Bitcoin (BTC 2.72%) driving a general surge across the entire crypto sector. The only crypto names not posting remarkable price gains over this period are stablecoins, which are designed to hold steady against the dollar under every conceivable market weather.
But Polkadot added more fuel to Bitcoin's fire. The Web3 token posted a Bitcoin-beating jump on Saturday, as the Polkadot Sub0 conference shone a spotlight on the cryptocurrency's technology updates, popular user-facing apps, and other topics.
The importance of building user-friendly apps
Sub0's list of speakers included Polkadot creator and Ethereum (ETH 0.57%) co-founder Gavin Wood, former Gmail engineer Will Scott, many executives from the mobile video gaming sector, and several decentralized finance experts. It's no wonder to see Polkadot's investors perk up about their drooping price prospects when this vital speaker list happened to take the stage amid a roaring crypto-market jump.
At the same time, Polkadot continues to look undervalued. Popular names like Bitcoin and Ethereum have been crushing the stock market over the last four years, but Polkadot has underperformed with a gain of just 23%:
Polkadot Price data by YCharts
The Sub0 conference wasn't the start of an unstoppable Web3 revolution, and it may take some time before Polkadot even regains its 52-week peak price of $11.46 per token. But I do expect this cryptocurrency to experience a steady drumbeat of headline-inspiring events and robust price gains. Polkadot earned its $8.1 billion market cap the hard way, and I like the Web3 ideas of increased personalization and data security.
User-friendly apps should start popping up fairly soon, starting in the fields of blockchain-driven gaming and personal finance. Once Polkadot starts connecting with users around the world, the real value climb can start. And that's why I hold more Polkadot than Bitcoin in my own crypto portfolio.
