Polkadot targets institutions 💸
Cohort 5 of DVs announced, elastic scaling on Kusama, Polkadot Capital Group launches, and more
🐂 top news
Web3 Foundation announced Cohort 5 of Decentralized Voices.
Parity deployed RFC-103 Elastic Scaling on Kusama following Referendum #569, with Polkadot deployment next.
Polkadot launched Polkadot Capital Group, an institutional arm that aims to connect institutional investors with the Polkadot network.
Polkadot Africa launched a builders challenge with prize pools across three tracks following the ink! bootcamp.
Sharpe AI listed DOT on its Perp DEX with leverage of up to 10x.
BlockDeep Labs completed RFC-0097 (Staking Unbonding Queue implementation) and handed the PR to code owners following review feedback, funded by the OG Rust Bounty.
Polkadot Assurance Legion (PAL) announced funding for SO/DAzone to build a Polkadot ecosystem monitoring tool.
⭕️ ecosystem
Acala announced plans for Acala JAMverse, positioning itself as a JAM-native dApp chain as Polkadot transitions to Join-Accumulate Machine architecture with a focus on JAM-based development and ecosystem growth.
Aventus reported operational progress for Opalite AI with potential Mexico government drone deployment and Atmos funding milestones including Middle Eastern airline discussions.
Bifrost launched Zap In for DeFi Singularity, enabling single-click liquidity additions to vDOT/ETH LP pools with 60%+ APR.
Bifrost joined Astar dApp staking.
Energy Web announced the return of Ed Hesse as CEO of the Foundation.
Energy Web completed a Worker Nodes upgrade featuring SLA-based rewards, on-chain validation, and improved consensus.
Moonbeam launched Who Wants to be a GLMillionaire gaming campaign on N3mus with a 1 million GLMR prize pool starting August 21st.
Nova Wallet distributed the $25,000 Nova Shots prize pool to 688 winners from BLAST Premier Bounty Fall 2025 Season 2, with the next event at BLAST Open Fall 2025 in London.
Hyperbridge announced Polygon integration on testnet.
Phala published Financial Services + AI with Compliance: Transforming Operations Through Phala's Confidential Computing Platform.
StellaSwap updated its USDC auto-strategy with pending rewards and claimable rewards metrics for improved earnings tracking.
Startale Group (stewards of Astar) partnered with SBI Holdings to launch an onchain trading platform for crypto, tokenized stocks, and real-world assets targeting the Asia market.
Turtle enabled AAVE transfers between Ethereum and Hydration.
⚙️ technical
Polkadot SDK has been updated to polkadot-stable2506-1.
Polkadot-JS API has been updated to v16.4.5.
🏛️ governance
For more information on Polkadot governance statistics, check out the Polkadot Dune governance dashboard.
🆕 new
Ref 1712: Funding 4-month development of DotCodeSchool ($22K)
Ref 1715: Funding the hardening of Polkadot to increase its hacking resilience ($495.8K)
Ref 1717: Funding the development of Clarys.AI ($130K)
Ref 1718: Adjusting DOT inflation to the Medium Pressure & Stepped Supply model
Ref 1721: Enabling RFC103 (elastic scaling) on the relay chain runtime
Ref 1722: Funding milestone 3 of Subsquare’s development of a Collectives/Fellowship-focused portal ($160.8K)
Ref 1723: Funding Subscan for Q4 2024 - Q5 2025 ($187.67K)
🕓 confirming
Ref 1686: Retroactively funding PolkaBiz for May-July 2025 ($62K)
Ref 1689: Funding Quadrivium for Polkadot SDK improvements ($288K)
👍🏾 passing
Ref 1692: Funding the development of WAGOI, an EU-compliant, wallet-based data access platform for connected vehicles ($330K)
Ref 1693: Funding the operations of Polkadot Africa for 6 months ($160.8K)
Ref 1695: Funding the continued development and maintenance of Snowbridge for one year (~$2.44M + 116.5K DOT)
Ref 1696: Refunding Snowbridge for a failed Treasury spend ($312.5K)
Ref 1700: Upgrading the remaining system chains (except AssetHub) to 1.6.1 and fixing XCM version subscriptions
Ref 1701: Making adjustments to OpenGov
Ref 1702: Retroactively funding Nova Wallet ($980.37K)
Ref 1708: Retroactively funding JUST Ventures GmbH for work across governance, technical support, and ecosystem coordination ($149.91K)
Ref 1710: Adjusting DOT inflation to the Hard Pressure & Stepped Supply model
👎🏾 failing
Ref 1691: Retroactively funding the development of PlutoFramework, an all-in-one framework for building mobile decentralised applications (~$142.8K)
Ref 1697: Funding Encode Club to cover the costs of the recently finished Scalability Hackathon and fund the final stage–an accelerator (~128K)
Ref 1698: Topping up the Moderation Bounty (~46K DOT)
Ref 1699: Funding Gossamer’s contribution to Polkadot SDK for Q3-Q4 2025 (~$815K) v2
Ref 1703: Funding the development of the Staking Dashboard for Sept 2025 - Mar 2026 ($103K)
Ref 1705: Funding the go-to-market strategy of Pudgy Party on Polkadot ($2M)
Ref 1706: Retroactively funding the development and branding of the Polkadot Cloud website (~$42K)
❌ rejected
Ref 1680: Retroactively funding SubWallet development from August 2024 to March 2025 (~$1.7M)
💰 opportunities
Latent Holdings is hiring remote Polkadot Substrate developers with several years of production-grade Rust experience and competitive compensation.
Web3 Foundation is hiring for several positions, including Technical Educator, Senior Investor Relations Manager, and Senior Software Engineer.
Fill out the OpenJobs form to be added to the directory so potential employers can find you.
Parity is hiring. From Runtime Engineers to Cloud Security to Technical Program Managers, the Parity job board is constantly updated.
📺 what to watch and listen to
Attempts At Governance #260 (a community-driven show that reviews governance on Polkadot).
Interview with Ryan Haczynski (Take me to your Leader 👽 Polkadot’s Sacred Myth & the Web3 Revolution - Space Monkeys 205).
Friday DOT News Pump (TGE Season on Polkadot? 🥵 3 Token Launches to Watch) by The Kus.
📖 what to read
Why Builders Choose Polkadot by Magenta Labs.
What is OpenGov on Polkadot, and why is it so important? by Parity.
Stablecoins: The $30 trillion market building tomorrow’s financial rails by Polkadot.
Your HOA sucks. Maybe it needs a DAO by Polkadot.
Thank you for taking the DOT leap!