Polkadot Under Fire for Heavy Marketing Spend Amid Sustainability Concerns

Updated: 03 July 2024

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Polkadot is facing scrutiny after its treasury report revealed it spent $87 million during the first half of 2024, with $36 million of that going towards marketing and outreach.

At the current spending rate, Polkadot has around $245 million worth of DOT tokens left that could last two years, said head ambassador Tommi Enenke. The treasury will continue to grow as it gets 7% of staking rewards.

DOT has plunged nearly 4% in the last 24 hours to trade at $6.15 as of 07:11 a.m. EST.

Polkadot Under Fire

Over $36 million of the first half’s spending this year was used for activities including advertisements, meetups, events, and conferences. That triggered criticism on X, with X user @DefiIgnas arguing that Polkadot’s heavy marketing spend was futile as it remained “invisible” across social platforms.

Polkadot spent $37m USD in outreach during the first half of 2024, targeting new users, developers, and businesses

• $10m on ads/sponsorships
• $4.4m on influencers
• $4m on digital ads

Yet Polkadot still seems invisible on X and elsewhere. pic.twitter.com/pk0haLvuNm

— Ignas | DeFi (@DefiIgnas) July 1, 2024

X user @seunlanlege said that the treasury was wasting money on “misplaced marketing” instead of investing in development as other blockchains like Optimism and Arbitrum have done.

Manta co-founder Victor Ji echoed this sentiment, and accused Polkadot of discrimination, a toxic environment, and disregard for users.

“We do not want to engage with the Polkadot ecosystem and team at all,” he said. “It is a highly toxic ecosystem that lacks any real value for web3, and it does not focus on users or adoption at all.”

As the founder of the previous largest (non-DOT) TVL and market cap/FDV project in the Polkadot ecosystem, I have to say that we do not want to engage with the Polkadot ecosystem and team at all. It is a highly toxic ecosystem that lacks any real value for web3, and it does not… https://t.co/YxAPF1CYC9

— victorji.eth ✨🌊✈️EthCC (@victorJi15) July 2, 2024

While defending Polkadot, Jeeper, the pseudonymous author of the treasury report, said that the spending was not unusual as all networks have similar expenditures.