Why is Polkadot up today?

Polkadot is up 5.6% over 24 hours to $1.16, but there's no DOT-specific catalyst behind the move. Bitcoin was flat on the day at $84,441 while gaining 10.3% over the week, and DOT's 9.1% weekly rise tracks that broader recovery — with a smaller $1.97B market cap and $185.2M in daily turnover, moves in altcoins like DOT tend to be amplified in both directions.

The market-wide backdrop is mixed. The Federal Reserve opened two proposals for comment under the GENIUS Act, requiring supervised stablecoin issuers to fully back tokens with safe assets and setting up an application process for banks — a step toward regulatory clarity. Offsetting that, a newly created wallet drained roughly $350 million from wallets labeled as Bitget's hot and cold reserves across multiple chains in under an hour, and New York sued Polymarket over allegedly operating an unlicensed gambling business.

Macro pressure also lingers: the US 30-year Treasury yield hit 5.44%, its highest since 2004, tightening conditions for risk assets generally.