Polkadot registered a 4% drop on Nov. 25, 2025, with the price falling from $2.28 to $2.19 after a failed breakout attempt. The rejection at critical technical levels triggered a sharp increase in selling pressure and a notable surge in trading volume, deepening a decline that unfolded in a fragile sentiment environment.
Polkadot faces renewed selling pressure after failed breakout
The retracement occurred after buyers failed to sustain a move above the breakout zone around $2.40, with sell-side pressure intensifying when price confronted higher resistances. These included the Kijun line of the Ichimoku indicator at $2.895 and additional resistance clusters near $3.009, $3.109, $3.234 and $3.46. That rejection sparked outflows of 5.49 million DOT and pushed volume up by 78%, clear signals of dominant selling momentum and institutional participation.
The pullback broke intermediate supports, leaving the $2.87 threshold invalidated. Momentum indicators show deterioration: the 14-period RSI sits around 33.7, near oversold territory, while the MACD remains negative at -0.046. A swing low at $2.36 remains the last meaningful pivot for buyers; its loss could accelerate the decline if selling pressure persists.
The correction unfolds alongside a macro backdrop that has depressed risk appetite for alternative assets, with extreme-fear sentiment gauges reinforcing defensive positioning. Despite this, development activity remains among the strongest in the sector—Polkadot ranks within the top five most active projects on GitHub, reflecting sustained engineering output. However, adoption indicators show strain: daily users have fallen to 5,000 and active developers have dropped from 2,400 to 1,000, widening the gap between development and real usage.
The rollout of Parachains—designed to enhance interoperability and scalability—has not generated the expected capital inflows, keeping DOT below the $4 barrier and limiting fresh liquidity. Polkadot, conceived by Gavin Wood as a Layer-0 network intended to connect chains, retains its architectural vision, though its translation into adoption metrics remains incomplete.
The recent drop reflects the intersection of technical rejections, concentrated selling and adverse market sentiment; a recovery will require renewed buyer engagement and the absorption of excess supply.