The first batch of Polkadot parachain auctions has concluded, with 5 winning parachains officially launched! A total of 100 million DOT tokens have been staked by the crowdloan participants.

After more than a month, the first batch of Polkadot parachain slot auctions has finally concluded, with the winning 5 parachains officially launched on the Polkadot network and producing blocks. The next batch of slot auctions is expected to take place around December 23rd.

After 5 years of research and development, and a multi-stage launch that began in May of 2020, Polkadot launch is now complete, with all auction-winning parachains currently producing blocks on the network.https://t.co/V40mY3WEwZ

— Polkadot (@Polkadot) December 18, 2021

First Batch of Parachains Launched

This weekend, the 5 parachains that went live are Acala, Astar, Clover, Moonbeam, and Parallel Finance. During the auction, the 5 parachains collectively raised approximately 100 million DOT tokens, equivalent to around 2.45 billion USD. Over the next 96 weeks, they will have the lease rights for the parachain slots.

"Parachains are the final core feature to fully activate the Polkadot ecosystem, and the future development of Polkadot will depend on the DOT holders community. The community will approve any future upgrades through the on-chain governance system," stated the Polkadot team.

Next Batch of Slot Auctions

The next batch of Polkadot slot auctions is scheduled to take place around December 23, 2021, with a total of 6 auctions. The 6 winning parachains will go live around March 11, 2022.

The Polkadot team has also proposed several future upgrade plans, including a new way to join the Polkadot network - parathreads, which will allow parachain teams to join the network by paying per block instead of having to lease a slot through an auction. Additionally, the full rollout of XCM, which is a cross-chain message format for Polkadot.

Note: For more information on Polkadot network parachains and slot auctions, please visit polkadot.js.