By
Godfrey Benjamin
April 26th, 2024
Ethereum co-founder’s Polkadot blockchain interoperability project has closed its private sale to fund its development claiming a $1.2 billion valuation. Analysts think that it might not have raised the targeted $60 million from that sale.
Gavin Wood, Ethereum’s co-founder, started an ambitious blockchain interoperability project dubbed Polkadot. The Web3 Foundation announced that it had closed its private sale of tokens to fund the development of that project.
According to the Swiss non-profit, the 500,000 DOT tokens were put on sale at the targeted valuation of $1.2 billion. The tokens on sale represent 5% of the total supply but investors wanted more than were available. But, the Foundation did not reveal the amount acquired from the sale. It is still unclear whether the targeted $60 million was achieved.
We published earlier that despite Polkadot $1.2 billion valuation, it might have been facing troubles. But, three Chinese funds agreed to invest $15 million in the project’s DOT tokens. In the short term, other investors interested in the project were willing to pay prices that would value the project under $1 billion.
None of these funds were among the investors that Web3 identified in its June 27 announcement. Those investors include Longhash Incubator, Innogy Corporate Ventures, ChainX, and Placeholder. It is not clarified how many of the 500k DOT tokens the Chinese funds bought but no allocation was increased. Thus, even if all investors paid full price in the sale, the proceeds would fall shy of the target.
Reliable sources state that the prices paid by the three Chinese funds do not represent the market valuation. That fact stands on the logic that investors can get discounts for bulk purchases or otherwise being valuable partners. These investors can record tokens at full value on their balance sheet even if they paid less for them.
Everything is Alright with Polkadot
Polkadot strives to create a blockchain network that can connect other blockchains to work together successfully. The foundation stated that it aims to launch the Polkadot network by the end of 2019. Most of the steps necessary for the launch of this network will start in Q3 according to an official statement. Moreover, Wood showed that he was happy with the token sale outcome saying:
“I have been struck by how much interest there is in Polkadot – many of us have sensed an immense hunger for something new to explore. With this success, I look forward to seeing the W3F team put these resources to good use, supporting both Polkadot and the broader Web 3.0 ecosystem.”
A partner at Placeholder, Chris Burniske, said in Thursday’s statement that:
“Polkadot represents a new frontier for experimentation and creation in cryptoland. … We expect Polkadot to not only develop a robust internal ecosystem, but also to become a bedrock network for the entirety of crypto.”
Earlier, Web3 Foundation raised around $145 million via a public sale of almost 5 million DOT tokens in October 2017. At that time the sale valued the tokens at $30 each.
