The Polkadex Crowdloan is back. Help Polkadex renew its parachain lease!

A new crowdloan with even better rewards is here. Contribute now to get 3 PDEX per DOT!

6 min readFeb 15, 2024

Once again, the Polkadex crowdloan is live! And this time, with even better rewards. Contribute your DOT to the Polkadex crowdloan to get 3 PDEX per DOT loaned and help Polkadex continue providing CEX-like DEX services to Polkadot!

Another crowdloan? How come?

The Polkadex parachain lease is expiring soon. After the addition of 7 Polkadot ecosystem token pairs to Polkadex Orderbook — an addition only made possible by the Polkadex parachain — Polkadex’s original parachain lease is set to expire this April.

The idea was to have transitioned to the Polkadot 2.0 coretime sales model by now, as that fits better with Polkadex’s relatively low demand for coretime: only needed for Polkadot ecosystem deposits and withdrawals. However, Polkadot’s agile coretime model will not be ready before the current Polkadex parachain lease expires on April 9th.

Therefore, in order to continue extending non-custodial order-book trading services to the Polkadot ecosystem, prevent potential disruptions to the trader experience, and focus development efforts on growth, Polkadex needs to renew its parachain lease.

What’s the best way to do so? A crowdloan with an even better rewards rate than the previous one: 3 PDEX for every DOT contributed up to 50,000 DOT.

Rewind: What is the Polkadex parachain used for?

In 2022, Polkadex secured a parachain lease with the help of over 2,300 contributors who contributed nearly 1 million DOT, a record within its auction batch. Throughout the latter part of 2023, Polkadex began unlocking the utility of its parachain and began opening XCM channels with other parachains, laying a path for Polkadot token listings on Polkadex Orderbook. As of today, with 12 total bidirectional channels, Polkadex is tied for the third-highest number of XCM connections to other parachains. Out of the 12 channels, 6 are fully operational, with over 1,090 cross-chain deposits and withdrawals in just the last few months enabled by XCM. In other words, thanks to the Polkadex parachain, users can seamlessly deposit, trade, and withdraw assets such as DOT, GLMR, ASTR, IBTC, USDT, and PHA on Polkadex Orderbook.

While the Polkadex parachain is already an important part of the Polkadex architecture, it will soon be integral to the decentralized route from Ethereum to Polkadot which will be opened up by the upcoming THEA connection to Ethereum and a subsequent ETH listing. Thanks to Polkadex Orderbook, traders will soon be able to deposit ETH, trade it for DOT, and jump into Polkadot, all without having to trust a centralized third party at any step of the process.

Ok, so we need to renew our lease with another crowdloan — what’s the plan?

The Polkadex community has indicated it is in favor of a crowdloan plan presented on Polkassembly by PDEXNode which aims to earmark a maximum of 150k PDEX to incentivize DOT holders to participate in the Polkadex crowdloan. The proposed incentive will be capped at 50k total DOT contributions. The rewards rate is a flat 3 PDEX per DOT, which means if the total contributed to Polkadex’s winning bid is lower than 50k DOT, only 3 times the total amount of DOT contributed will be distributed as PDEX rewards. This strikes a balance that propels a competitive crowdloan with lucrative rewards but also prevents unnecessary PDEX spends from the treasury.

Where do I contribute?

Contributing is easy. You just need a Polkadot account and however much DOT you want to contribute.

To get started, visit the Polkadex crowdloan website.

From there you can choose to contribute directly via the Polkadot.js apps interface (Find crowdloan 3363) or through wallets like Nova and Talisman!

Crowdloan details

Rewards

DOT incentivized cap: 50k DOT
Hard cap: 300k DOT PDEX/DOT
Reward Rate: 3 PDEX per DOT contributed
Total PDEX treasury request dedicated to crowdloan rewards: 150k PDEX

A few things to keep in mind:

Every contribution up to the 50k incentivized DOT cap will receive 3 PDEX per DOT, regardless of the total amount of DOT contributed. This means that the 150k PDEX requested from the treasury for crowdloan rewards may not be used in their totality. If this is the case, any remaining PDEX will be returned to the treasury. So, for example, if we were to win with a 25k DOT total contribution, only 75k PDEX would be distributed in rewards, and the rest would be returned to the treasury. This approach, a departure from our original crowdloan’s reward structure, aims to prevent unnecessary PDEX spending
The DOT incentive cap of 50k is the maximum amount of contributed DOT rewardable by PDEX. Contributions after 50k DOT will not earn PDEX rewards.

Polkadex must secure an auction win before April 4th

Timeline

Having established the need to pursue a renewal of the parachain lease, it is important to also note the timeframe in which Polkadex must secure the new lease. There are 5 parachain slot auctions remaining until the current lease expires:

Auction #62: Feb 9 — Feb 16 (currently ongoing)
Auction #63: Feb 21 — Feb 28
Auction #64: Mar 4 — Mar 11
Auction #65: Mar 16 — Mar 23
Auction #66: Mar 28 — Apr 4

We hope you unstaked your DOT already in anticipation to participate in the crowdloan during one of the auctions above, as Polkadex must secure an auction win before April 4th in order to prevent any potential disruptions ! If you haven’t unstaked your DOT yet and want to contribute to the Polkadex crowdloan, unstake them now if you want to help Polkadex by the time the last few auctions come around. The field has gotten more competitive in recent days so it’s better to be safe than sorry!

Polkadex needs your help to remain a parachain.

Contribute to the Polkadex crowdloan if you want to:

See more Polkadot trading pairs on Polkadex Orderbook
Connect Polkadex to more parachains
Keep Polkadex and Polkadot together
Get 3 PDEX for every DOT you loan
Help create a new decentralized channel from Ethereum to Polkadot

First crowdloan rewards and DOT unlock

Important reminder, if you contributed to the original crowdloan, your DOT will be unlocked on April 9th, so you won’t be able to use the same DOT to contribute to the current crowdloan!

The PDEX rewards from the original crowdloan were released back in July after a referendum-approved distribution plan. If you still haven’t claimed them, claim them now!

PDEX Crowdloan Rewards are now Ready to Claim!

Polkadex Crowdloan contributors can now claim their PDEX rewards.

polkadex.medium.com

Some centralized exchanges may not have gotten around to distributing the original PDEX rewards due to additional technical needs. We are working with those exchanges to ensure they have everything they need to claim the rewards on behalf of their users as soon as possible.

Good news: any contributor who contributed 50 DOT or above to the original crowdloan is set to receive the top contributor NFT!

Top contributor NFT from Crowdloan 1.0

The original crowdloan from 2022 also included a top contributor NFT reward for the top 1,000 contributors which would grant holders a discount on Polkadex Orderbook trading fees. Since trading fees are still being tested internally and the Orderbook is currently not charging trading fees, the NFT’s utility has not yet materialized. Once trading fees are live on Orderbook, the NFT’s will be migrated from Kusama to Polkadot, and after that to Polkadex (after the NFT pallet is installed on the Polkadex network). Once distributed, the NFT will grant its holder discounts on trading fees, provided the holder is registered on Polkadex Orderbook.

The 1,000th contributor to the previous crowdloan contributed 50 DOT. However, so did over 150 other contributors who were also tied for 50 DOT contributions between the 938th and 1,087th spots. Good news: any contributor who contributed 50 DOT or above to the original crowdloan will receive the top contributor NFT!* Therefore, a total of 1,087 top contributor NFTs will be distributed: that’s an extra 87 lucky top contributors!

* Please note, contributions made through centralized exchange (CEX) partners like KuCoin, Gate.io, AscendEx, and Kraken are not eligible for top contributor NFT’s as the CEX partners do not share individual user contribution data.

💹 Website | Polkadex Orderbook | Crowdloan page | Rewards Page