At 18:51 on June 15, the Kusama parachain slot auction officially launched at block height 7,924,237—one hour ahead of the originally scheduled 20:00 start time.
This marks the beginning of a critical experimental phase for the Polkadot cross-chain network. Key community projects including Moonriver (the Moonbeam canary network), Bifrost, and Karura promptly staked KSM tokens to participate in the bidding.
According to OKLink data, the Kusama ecosystem currently hosts 31 registered projects. As of 10:00 AM on June 18, 12 projects had registered IDs to take part in the crowdloan auction, collectively locking in 679,000 KSM. Karura leads with 457,000 KSM staked, making it the largest bidder in the current Kusama parachain slot auction.
For KSM holders, the launch of slot auctions opens a new investment avenue. However, long-term staking demands both skill and luck in selecting promising projects.
Over 679,000 KSM Locked Within Two Days of Auction Launch
Kusama serves as Polkadot’s canary network—a testing ground where new features and structures are trialed before deployment on the mainnet. The rollout of parachain slot auctions on Kusama sets the stage for their eventual implementation on Polkadot.
On June 8, Polkadot founder Gavin Wood announced in a community blog post that Statemine, the first fully functional real-world parachain, had begun processing permissionless transactions following an upgrade the previous week. After a stable weekend of operation, the next step was clear: slot auctions.
Statemine acts as a common-good parachain on Kusama, enabling developers to create, issue, and trade standard tokens and NFTs. It also serves as a low-cost platform for holding and transferring KSM. Most importantly, it allows other parachains to connect to the Kusama network, enabling cross-chain interoperability.
To access the Kusama network, parachains must stake KSM to bid for slots. Since many early-stage projects may lack sufficient KSM, Kusama introduced a Crowloan (crowdlending) mechanism. This allows teams to incentivize community members with native tokens to contribute KSM for collective bidding.
This model resembles DeFi liquidity mining in that users provide assets (in this case, KSM) to projects and receive token rewards. However, unlike DeFi mining, where users can withdraw assets at any time, KSM staked in slot auctions remains locked until the slot lease period ends. Under current rules, Kusama slot leases last six months, meaning staked KSM is locked for at least that duration. Project reward tokens may also have varying vesting schedules.
For participants, this means slot auction involvement is a long-term investment—one that requires careful project evaluation and a degree of luck.
As Wang Haifeng, Senior Researcher at OKG Research, notes, “Kusama and Polkadot’s slot auctions truly test an investor’s ability to select projects. When evaluating a project, it’s essential to consider not only its economic model and community size—key indicators of long-term value—but also whether the founding team has the determination and preparation to persist.”
Following the launch of the Kusama auction, leading Polkadot ecosystem projects like Moonriver, Bifrost, and Karura quickly joined the bidding. OKLink data shows that, as of 10:00 AM on June 18, 12 projects had collectively locked 679,000 KSM via crowdloans. At a KSM price of $334 at that time, the total value locked reached approximately $226 million.
Among them, DeFi protocol Karura led with 457,000 KSM staked, followed by Moonriver with 102,000 KSM.
The first Kusama parachain slot auction began at 12:00 GMT on June 15 (8:00 PM Beijing time). The initial plan includes five sequential auctions, each spaced seven days apart. barring major issues, the auction sequence will proceed as scheduled.
To prevent last-minute bidding snipes—where projects bid only at the final moment to win—Kusama uses a modified candle auction format. The rules combine a two-day open bidding period, where higher bids increase the chance of winning, with a five-day “ending period.” During this ending period, a random block height is selected to determine the actual auction closing time. Thus, the highest bidder isn’t guaranteed to win.
Kusama Launches Amid Fierce Public Chain Competition
Polkadot’s technical roadmap and vision aim to enable interoperability between different blockchains while aggregating core transactional data on a central relay chain. This approach seeks to address scalability limitations, high costs, and inefficiencies seen in existing networks—and expectations have long been high.
Since its inception in 2016, Polkadot has continued development through market cycles—from the quiet years of 2018–2019 to the DeFi boom in late 2020 that spurred a new wave of public chain innovation.
The timing of Kusama’s slot auction launch coincides with a resurgence of interest in public chains. Newcomers like Solana (founded by engineers from Intel and Dropbox) and Polygon (dubbed the “Indian Ethereum”) are gaining traction, along with various Layer 2 solutions, all aiming to address Ethereum’s limitations and capture market share.
From a market capitalization perspective, these new chains are rising rapidly. As of 10:00 AM on June 18, Solana’s circulating market cap stood at $10.3 billion (ranked 12th), while Polygon’s was $9 billion (ranked 15th).
This vibrant competitive landscape contrasts with Polkadot’s still-in-development status. Even Ethereum 2.0, also not yet fully launched, looms large. According to OKLink data, as of 10:00 AM on June 17, the Ethereum 2.0 deposit contract had received an additional 67,000 ETH, bringing the total staked to 5.625 million ETH—4.84% of Ethereum’s current supply. This steady accumulation of staked ETH reflects strong confidence in Ethereum’s future.
Despite its well-documented congestion and high gas fees, Ethereum’s ecosystem remains the most mature and extensive by far. OKLink data from June 18 shows the total value locked (TVL) in Ethereum DeFi protocols at $77.1 billion, with Curve leading at $8.8 billion in TVL.
Among Ethereum-based projects, Uniswap—a decentralized exchange—boasts the highest circulating market cap at $11.2 billion (ranked 9th). By comparison, Polkadot’s DOT token was trading at $22.2 with a market cap of $20.7 billion (ranked 8th). The market cap of Uniswap alone exceeds half that of Polkadot.
The Polkadot ecosystem currently includes nearly 300 deployed projects, 54 of which are listed on exchanges. The highest-valued among these is the data storage platform ANKR, with a circulating market cap of $550 million at the time of writing.
Should Ethereum 2.0 successfully launch with scalable, low-cost transaction capabilities, its established ecosystem and developer community will be difficult to challenge. Some in the industry even suggest that the window of opportunity for new public chains will close once Ethereum 2.0 is fully operational.
Fortunately for Polkadot, Ethereum 2.0 remains a work in progress. In early June, Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin indicated that the network might not achieve the scalability required by large enterprise applications until the end of 2022. He noted, “We thought it would take one year to implement PoS, but it actually took six. When tackling complex challenges, it often takes longer than expected. One of the biggest issues in project development isn’t technical—it’s human.”
If Vitalik’s timeline holds, Ethereum 2.0 is still about 18 months away from full deployment, giving Polkadot valuable time to grow. With Kusama auctions now underway, Polkadot has entered the final phase before mainnet launch. Once all audits are completed and parachains run smoothly on Kusama, the Polkadot community can enable parachain functionality, deploy common-good parachains, and begin slot auctions on Polkadot via on-chain governance.
As parachains go live on Polkadot, the network will officially realize its original vision. Future upgrades and iterations will be community-governed, marking the beginning of a new phase of decentralized evolution.
Although Polkadot functions as a cross-chain network rather than a single blockchain like Ethereum, the eventual arrival of a scalable Ethereum 2.0—backed by a robust ecosystem—will set a high competitive bar. For Polkadot, building a strong foundational network before Ethereum 2.0’s full release is crucial for its long-term growth.
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Frequently Asked Questions
What is a Kusama parachain slot auction?
A parachain slot auction is a mechanism through which projects bid to secure a slot on the Kusama relay chain. By staking KSM tokens—either directly or through crowdloans—projects can lease a slot for a predetermined period, enabling them to operate their blockchain within the Kusama network.
How does the candle auction format work?
Kusama uses a modified candle auction format to discourage last-minute bidding. After two days of open bidding, the auction enters a five-day “ending period” during which a random block is selected to determine the closing time. This means the highest bidder when the auction randomly ends wins, not necessarily the highest bidder when the clock runs out.
What are the risks for crowdloan participants?
Participants who lend their KSM to projects via crowdloans lock their tokens for the entire duration of the slot lease (at least six months on Kusama). Additionally, project reward tokens may have vesting periods. There is also the risk that the project may not win the auction or could underperform post-launch.
How does Polkadot differ from Ethereum?
While Ethereum is a single blockchain platform, Polkadot is a heterogeneous multi-chain network. It uses a central relay chain to connect and secure multiple parallel chains (parachains), enabling cross-chain communication and shared security.
What happens if a project doesn’t win a slot?
If a project fails to win a slot auction, the staked KSM or DOT tokens are returned to the crowdloan participants after the auction concludes. Some projects may also offer alternative incentives or wait for future auction rounds.
When will Polkadot mainnet slot auctions begin?
Polkadot mainnet slot auctions will begin once parachains are proven to run reliably on Kusama and all necessary audits are completed. The exact timeline is determined by on-chain governance, but it is expected to follow the Kusama auction sequence.