The crypto market has been soaring lately, but Polkadot (DOT -3.44%) didn't get the memo.
As I'm writing this on Aug. 18, industry leader Bitcoin (BTC -2.73%) gained 13.9% over the last three months, while Ethereum (ETH -4.26%) soared 81.3%. Despite the bullish market mood and several helpful developments in Polkadot's corner, the official cryptocurrency of the Web3 Foundation dropped 11.8% lower instead.
All that could change in a hurry. I would argue that Polkadot is deeply undervalued these days, and poised for strong returns in the long run. At the same time, leading crypto-trading platform Coinbase Global just released a market analysis that suggests traders will be swinging away from Bitcoin and into altcoins in the next quarter -- which would be good news for smaller names like Polkadot.
So there's some urgency to my Polkadot recommendation, but Coinbase's analysis is not the core of my thesis. I'm looking at why people use Polkadot, not chart squiggles and economic trends. Read on to see the three biggest reasons why I'm a Polkadot buyer in 2025.
1. Web3 infrastructure
The Web3 idea has been around since 2014, when Polkadot co-founder Gavin Wood coined the term. Web3 always had some dedicated fans, but the world at large never seemed ready to trade in centrally owned social networks for community-driven blockchain solutions.
Things are different in 2026.
The U.S. government is throwing heavy support behind the cryptocurrency industry, and people are getting more comfortable with decentralized blockchain networks. Popular examples include the Brave web browser, the Uniswap digital assets trading system, and the soccer game FIFA Rivals. All three apps rely on Polkadot in various ways.
I can't promise that Web3 applications will go mainstream very soon, but all the ingredients of that recipe are ready for a bake-off. Decentralized content and financial tools could gain mainstream traction any day now, and Polkadot will absolutely benefit when it happens. Owning a few Polkadot coins in 2025 sets you up to take advantage of the Web3 revolution in 2026 and beyond.
2. Boy, this thing is fast!
Polkadot connects to a plethora of other blockchain ledgers, transferring data between them in secure and easy-to-use channels. It stands to reason that this ledger must be fast in order to keep up with this multitude of connections.
And it is indeed very fast. A speed test in December 2024 reached 140,000 transactions per second (TPS). This event used only a portion of Polkadot's testing network, Kusama. Putting the entire production-grade Polkadot system to work could yield more than 620,000 TPS.
How fast is that? Well, Bitcoin handles less than 10 transactions per second, and Ethereum's maximum TPS is roughly 120. These large networks are widely rebuked for their slow performance, though. Avalanche is known for its snappy transaction performance, but its theoretical TPS ceiling stops just short of 1,200.
What about Solana, the speed king of modern blockchain networks? With a theoretical TPS of 65,000, this coin puts up a fight. Its max performance is comparable to credit card processor Visa, which sported a capacity of 65,000 TPS in 2017 and actually runs 10,000 transactions per second on a global scale. Polkadot is still about twice as fast as Solana, though.
This blistering top speed isn't terribly important right now, given the modest reach of Web3 applications and much lower real-world traffic on the Polkadot network. But what happens if and when Web3 concepts go mainstream, making potential Polkadot users out of every smartphone owner in the world?
Visa's transaction volume could look tiny next to that avalanche of decentralized data, and Polkadot must be ready to handle that sea change. And I think it's ready to hit the global limelight on short notice.
Image source: Polkadot.
3. Polkadot 2.0
And here's the best part: Polkadot's performance may look impressive right now, but it's just the start of a far more ambitious long-term plan.
I won't bore you with technical jargon like elastic scaling, agile coretime, or the Join-Accumulate Machine (JAM). What you need to know is that Polkadot's technical platform is getting a bunch of important upgrades right now. Some components are already up and running, and the rest are scheduled to go live before the end of the year.
They add up to a more powerful ecosystem known as Polkadot 2.0, with much higher TPS, a more flexible development environment, and simpler ways to pay for computing capacity on the Polkadot platform. If you were on the fence about owning Polkadot, this confident step forward might be the clincher.
By the end of 2025, Polkadot will be even better prepared to make an impact on the global stage with wider Web3 adoption. I think you'll be a happier investor with some Polkadot exposure under your belt in 2026.
