Polkadot (DOT) is one of the biggest gainers in the crypto market on Thursday, notching up double-digit gains as investors cheer the blockchain network announcing the date for the much awaited parachain auctions. At the time of writing, DOT/USD is trading at around $41.44, up by over 20% in the past 24 hours.

Polkadot’s Parachain Auctions Starting on November 11

After the completion of a successful round on its canary network Kusama recently, the Polkadot Council has confirmed that the first round of parachain auctions on the Polkadot network will begin on November 11. These auctions will allocate slots for projects building on the multi-chain framework and supporting interoperability across different blockchains.

The first five projects winning slots in the auction will be onboarded on the Polkadot ecosystem on December 15, and each parachain slot will be assigned for a period of 96 weeks. The first batch of five auctions will take place starting November 11 with one auction being held each wee. After this, another batch of six auctions will follow at a slower frequency of one auction every two weeks and the winners of the second round will be onboarded on March 9 next year.

Ever since the announcement of the date for the first round of auctions, Polkadot has witnessed a sharp uptick in trading volume, which is also contributing to DOT’s price trending higher. After a sudden spike in trading volume in the previous session, the excitement has waned somewhat but overall volume remains higher in comparison with activity seen over the past few weeks.

In addition to the upcoming parachain auctions, DOT enjoys support from rising adoption of Polkadot’s ecosystem. Wanchain has recently announced an integration of its non-custodial cross-chain infrastructure with Polkadot’s multi-chain network. This development will further boost the blockchain’s efforts towards bringing about interoperability in the sector, a crucial driver of growth for the sector in the future.

DOT/USD Technical Analysis

Crypto influencer and analyst Benjamin Cowen anticipates an upcoming rally to brand new ATHs in Polkadot (DOT) in the near future. In a recent update, Cowen observes that there is a very high likelihood that DOT is experiencing a re-accumulation phase at present, showcasing price action similar to that seen late last year before the price surged from $3 towards almost $50 in a few weeks’ time. He expects the next leg up could see a rally towards the $100 mark and possibly even past the $200 level.

Taking a look at the 4-hour chart of DOT/USD, we find a strong bullish bias among moving averages and the MACD. However, other leading technical indicators momentum and Stochastics RSI are flashing sell as well.

Polkadot’s price has overcome the first resistance at $38.20 and is sitting just under the second resistance at $41.51. Buyers could encounter some difficulty in crossing this level but a break past this opens the door for DOT to cross the $50 mark, just above which buyers could face another test at the $50.27 resistance level.