Polkastarter (POLS) is a decentralized token crowd sale platform for crypto projects looking to raise funds. Although it is based on the Polkadot blockchain, Polkastarter is multi-chain. It supports token sales on the Ethereum, Binance Smart Chain, Solana, Polygon, Avalanche and Celo blockchains.

Polkastarter went live in December 2020 with an initial supply of 17.9 million tokens just three months after it raised $1.1 million from a September 2020 listing on Uniswap.

The price of POLS started trading below $1 shortly after launch but rose sharply in February 2021, reaching a high of $7.51 that month. The token had crashed to about $0.90 by July. A brief spurt in December 2021 brought the price of POLS to about $4.20, but by early 2022, the token had fallen to between $1 and $2.

The supply of POLS is fixed, although some tokens earmarked for development or reserved by early investors were only introduced into public circulation years later. Over 90% of the tokens were added to the circulating supply by January 2022.

Polkastarter is a permissionless decentralized exchange for multi-chain token sales and liquidity pools. It was created to be a cheaper, decentralized alternative to crowdfunding sales on centralized exchanges.

Similar to exchanges like Uniswap, Polkastarter relies on liquidity pools, which are huge pools of tokens that traders rely on to swap in and out of different cryptocurrencies. Polkastarter, however, is optimized for IDOs – initial dex offerings, or crowd sales held on decentralized exchanges rather than centralized token sales that take place on centralized exchanges, like Binance Launchpad.

To prevent decentralized liquidity pools from becoming expensive or volatile during a token sale, Polkastarter uses “fixed swaps,” which means tokens are sold at a fixed price. It is also cross-chain, supporting multi-chain swaps through the Polkadot network.

While the exchange supports crowd sales from multiple blockchains, Polkastarter itself is based on Polkadot, a far faster blockchain than rivals like Ethereum, but less battle-tested.

POLS is used to pay for transaction fees on the Polkastarter platform. Holders can also stake the tokens in liquidity pools to earn a cut of pool rewards or to enter exclusive pools. POLS is also a governance token, meaning that holders can use the token to vote on the future of the project.

Polkastarter has three co-founders, including CEO Daniel Stockhaus, Chief Technology Officer Tiago Martins and entrepreneur Miguel Leite. The project lists Danilo Carlucci, a former Google employee, and Matthew Dibb, founder of Astronaut Capital, a crypto hedge fund, as advisers.

Polkastarter’s council, which helps determine the projects listed on the site and advises the project, includes several leading crypto companies and exchanges, such as KuCoin, Huobi, Polygon, OKEx and Animoca Brands.

Polkadot raised $875,000 in September 2020 from Astronaut Capital, NGC Ventures, Moonrock Capital and Signum Capital. Each is also a member of Polkastarter’s council.

The protocol has undergone two upgrades since its launch. Polkastarter 2.0, which went live on March 2021, introduced multi-chain token pools, staking, voting and know-your-customer checks. Polkastarter 3.0, launched in April 2022, added a bridge to Polkadot, and a portfolio section.