Polkadot Held Flat This Week as Ethereum Fell 8% and Solana 10%. Is It Finally Bottoming?
While Ethereum and Solana cratered last week, Polkadot barely moved, raising a question that has haunted this coin for years: is the bleeding finally stopping, or is something else entirely going on?
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In the week leading up to October 15, 2026, Polkadot (CRYPTO:DOT) was the only coin among the 26 we track to finish higher, while most of the market fell sharply. The Polkadot price is currently $1.09, reflecting a 0.02% increase for the week.
Over the same period, Ethereum (CRYPTO:ETH) dropped 7.7%, and Solana (CRYPTO:SOL) fell 10.3%. These two are some of the most recognized names in the crypto world, and both suffered much larger losses compared to Polkadot.
Polkadot is also experiencing the largest decline from its peak in our analysis, trading 98% below its all-time high in November 2021. With a steady week for Polkadot amid the downturn in bigger coins, could it mean Polkadot is finally bottoming out?
Polkadot’s Flat Week Shows It Held Its Ground, Not That Buyers Returned
A 0.02% increase is essentially flat. Although Polkadot held its ground, this slight uptick does not suggest a strong rally or a surge of new buyers coming in. On the contrary, it dropped 3.6% on the last day, suggesting it still aligns with short-term market trends.
Evaluating just one week’s performance isn’t enough to show whether a bottom has truly been reached. A reliable bottom requires a consistent pattern over multiple sell-offs, and one steady week isn’t enough evidence to draw that conclusion.
Polkadot Avoided the Forced Selling Because Few Leveraged Buyers Were Left
Despite this, Polkadot’s flat performance suggests it successfully avoided the forced selling that affected many other coins. Forced selling typically occurs when traders who borrowed money to invest must close their positions as prices fall. When prices drop sharply, exchanges may automatically close these positions, triggering a wave of liquidations that puts further downward pressure on prices.
Polkadot likely avoided much of this selling. A coin down 98% has very few leveraged holders left to force out of the market. Most traders who borrowed to invest in it probably faced liquidation long ago, and many long-term holders have already sold their positions. Thus, Polkadot remained stable because its sellers have largely exited, but there is no evidence of new buyers stepping in to replace them.
Polkadot Needs a Roughly 50-Fold Rise to Reach Its 2021 High Again
Currently, Polkadot has the deepest drawdown of any coin we track, significantly larger than those seen in major cryptocurrencies. Its all-time high was around $55, meaning the coin would need to rise about 50x, or roughly 4,900%, from $1.09 to return to that level. Even a large percentage increase from such a low starting point still positions Polkadot far below its previous peak.
Furthermore, institutional interest has largely waned, with significant players showing little enthusiasm for investing in Polkadot. For example, in August 2026, Grayscale withdrew its application to create a Polkadot trust. Such a fund would have let investors hold Polkadot without dealing with the coin directly. Grayscale’s withdrawal suggests demand isn’t strong enough to justify creating the trust, eliminating a potential source of consistent institutional buying.
On a more positive note, Polkadot’s monthly performance shows an 11.6% increase over the past 30 days, indicating growth even as the past week remained flat. However, one month of gains is merely a small improvement in the shadow of a 98% decline.
Is the Polkadot Price Finally Hitting Bottom?
Based on our assessment, it seems Polkadot may not have reached its bottom yet. A true bottom requires new buyers to step in during market dips, and the recent 3.6% drop indicates that sellers are still guiding the prices in the short run. It also requires a return of institutional investors, and Grayscale’s withdrawal points the other way.
For now, Polkadot appears to be in a position without forced sellers, rather than experiencing a resurgence in demand. This type of condition can lead to a prolonged flat market.
However, the risk of missing an early recovery remains, especially since the 11.6% monthly gain is the first sign of a potential shift. We would reconsider our stance if Polkadot maintains a price above $1.09 next week, especially if Ethereum and Solana continue to decline and the 30-day change remains positive. Conversely, if the 30-day figure turns negative, the recent flat week was likely just a brief pause in a longer decline.
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Sam Daodu is a crypto analyst who's spent nearly a decade making blockchain understandable—no easy task when most whitepapers read like fever dreams. He writes for 24/7 Wall St., covering Bitcoin, altcoins, and crypto market analysis for investors. Before crypto, he was a tech writer (back when explaining "the cloud" was peak innovation). Since 2018, he's written for CoinTelegraph, Yahoo Finance, The Block, Cryptonews, Zypto, Rain, and more—basically anywhere people want crypto news without the headache. Sam runs MacLabs Marketing, a content agency for crypto brands tired of sounding like AI wrote their website. He also publishes free crypto education on his site for Web3 enthusiasts who think "gas fees" is a typo. When he's not writing or staring at charts, Sam's either: - Watching anime (currently convinced One Piece has better tokenomics than most altcoins) - At the gym sculpting himself into a Greek god - Listening to the music your mum warned you only bad boys listen to Connect: LinkedIn | Email | MacLabs Marketing
