Network participants process transactions and receive fees from users (supply-side fees).

Polkadot is a security & interoperability platform for blockchains and applications. Polkadot was founded by Gavin Wood and launched in 2020.

DOT holders own and govern the protocol. They currently take a cut of the total transaction fees paid by users (revenue). Polkadot’s investors include Polychain, IOSG Ventures, Hashkey, etc.

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# Polkadot Staking market cap Methodology

## 1. Overview

The Polkadot staking market cap metric measures the total USD value of all DOT tokens currently staked on the Polkadot relay chain. This metric provides insight into the economic security and participation level in Polkadot's Nominated Proof-of-Stake consensus mechanism. The calculation combines native Polkadot staking data with external price feeds to determine the market value of staked assets on a daily basis.

## 2. Data sources

The metric relies on several key data sources:

- **Polkadot staking module data**: Native blockchain data from Polkadot's staking pallet, specifically the `erasTotalStake` storage item which tracks the total amount of DOT staked across all validators in each era
- **Block timestamp data**: Polkadot relay chain block timestamps used for temporal organization and daily aggregation
- **End-of-day price feeds**: DOT token price data from CoinGecko used for USD conversion
- **Chain availability metadata**: Configuration data used to apply appropriate data availability filters

## 3. Step-by-step calculation

### Component A: Raw staking data processing
- **Purpose**: Extract and normalize total DOT staking amounts from Polkadot's native staking module
- **Logic**: The calculation begins by extracting data from Polkadot's staking pallet, specifically the `erasTotalStake` storage values which represent the total amount of DOT staked across all validators in each staking era. The raw `total_stake` values are converted from Polkadot's native blockchain format to human-readable DOT amounts by dividing by 10^10 (Polkadot uses 10 decimal places for DOT precision). Block timestamps are captured alongside the staking amounts to enable temporal analysis.
- **Key fields**: `block_timestamp` provides the timing information, `total_stake` contains the raw staking amounts in blockchain format, and `staking_market_cap` represents the converted DOT amounts in standard decimal format

### Component B: Daily aggregation and deduplication
- **Purpose**: Aggregate staking data to daily granularity and handle multiple data points per day
- **Logic**: The processed staking data is aggregated to daily boundaries by truncating timestamps to the day level. Since multiple staking records may exist for a single day due to era changes or data collection frequency, the system applies deduplication logic using a row number function partitioned by day and ordered by timestamp descending. This ensures only the latest staking amount for each day is retained, providing an accurate end-of-day snapshot of total staked DOT.
- **Key fields**: `timestamp` represents the daily boundary, `staking_market_cap` contains the final DOT staking amount for each day

### Component C: USD conversion and standardization
- **Purpose**: Convert DOT staking amounts to USD values and apply standard metric formatting
- **Logic**: The daily DOT staking amounts are converted to USD using CoinGecko price feeds through the `convert_to_usd_cg` macro. This process matches each daily staking amount with the corresponding end-of-day DOT price. The conversion maintains the temporal alignment ensuring that staking amounts and prices correspond to the same date. Additional metadata is added including product identifier (`Polkadot Relay Chain`), chain identifier (`polkadot`), and CoinGecko identifier for price lookup.
- **Key fields**: `staking_market_cap` now represents USD values, `product_id` identifies the specific Polkadot product, `chain_id` specifies the blockchain, `coingecko_id` enables price feed matching

### Final aggregation
- **Combining components**: The USD-converted staking data flows through a standardization process that applies consistent metric formatting, data quality checks, and gap-filling strategies
- **Currency conversion**: USD conversion occurs using end-of-day CoinGecko price feeds matched to the corresponding date of each staking measurement
- **Time aggregation**: Data is aggregated to daily boundaries with latest-value-per-day logic to handle multiple measurements within a single day
- **Final calculation**: The final metric represents the total USD market value of all DOT tokens staked on the Polkadot relay chain, calculated as: daily total staked DOT amount multiplied by end-of-day DOT price in USD

*This methodology was automatically generated by Token Terminal's methodology analyzer.*

Value of native tokens currently staked to secure a proof-of-stake network.

PolkadotDOT

Staking market cap

Staking market cap

Competitive landscape

Chain breakdown