‘The Gavin effect’: How Polkadot became profitable for the first time in three years

Polkadot has reported its first quarterly profit in almost three years as the long-running blockchain project commits to a new belt-tightening regimen.

In its 2025 fourth-quarter financial report, the cooperative that governs Polkadot reported spending $7.4 million while adding assets worth around $11.5 million, giving it a profit of some $4.1 million.

“The Polkadot Treasury has grown more conservative and focused on essential operations and development,” Tommi Enenkel, Polkadot’s ecosystem developer and co-author of the report, said.

Enenkel attributed the positive quarter to “the Gavin effect,” referencing Polkadot’s creator Gavin Wood, who returned as CEO of Parity Technologies, the for-profit Polkadot developer, in August 2025.

“It shows the positive effect a voice of reason with the support of big bags has,” Enenkel said.

It’s the first time Polkadot has generated a quarterly profit since it started reporting its finances publicly in 2023.

It’s also a stark turnaround from the first half of 2024, when Polkadot spent a whopping $87 million. At the time, the project laid out $37 million on advertising and paid influencers $5 million to promote the blockchain on social media as part of a large marketing push.

Amid the splurge, Polkadot spent $180,000 to slap its logo on “an entire fleet of Europe-based private jets” for six months in a bid to promote the blockchain to “an elite target group.”

Treasury diversification

Of the $7.4 million Polkadot spent between October and December last year, $2.5 million — the largest outlay — went on development.

After that, outreach accounted for $1.7 million, $870,000 of which Polkadot spent on advertising.

The remainder of the expenditure went towards operations, business development initiatives, economic incentives, research, and talent and education.

At the same time, Polkadot gained 4.1 million of newly-issued DOT tokens.

In addition to cutting down on spending, the report also showed Polkadot diversifying more of its treasury away from the blockchain’s native DOT token.

Stablecoins now account for 18% — or $10.5 million — of Polkadot’s reserves, up from just under $1.7 million in the first half of 2024.

DOT decline

While Polkadot’s cost cutting has helped stabilise the project, it’s not the whole picture.

The blockchain’s balance sheet has declined in US dollar terms because the value of the DOT token has plummeted some 37% over the past three months.

Polkadot holds almost 32 million DOT tokens, accounting for 77% of its reserves.

“The USD equivalent value has diminished significantly in Q4 due to the declining DOTUSD rate. A risk that is more and more being mitigated by diversification into stables,” Enenkel said.

Tim Craig is DL News’ Edinburgh-based DeFi Correspondent. Reach out with tips at tim@dlnews.com.