On October 25th, PolkaWorld announced on the X platform that the ideal staking rate for DOT has increased from 51% to 59%. It is expected that the staking reward for DOT will decrease by about 7% (from 1 DOT to 0.93 DOT). In addition, PolkaWorld stated that this is to leave enough space for the unlocked DOT for leasing 6-13 crowd loans, ensuring that the reward will not decrease significantly. If the DOT for crowd loans is staked at the previous ideal rate of 51%, the reward will decrease significantly. Setting the ideal rate to 59% provides a buffer for these additional DOT, avoiding a sharp decrease in rewards before the staking rate exceeds 59%.

According to Bloomberg, Parity Technologies, the blockchain infrastructure company behind the Polkadot platform, will cut 30% of its workforce, affecting around 100 employees, as part of its focus on "transitioning" to its technical plans. Parity CEO Björn Wagner said that the decision, as Parity shifts its focus to supporting Polkadot technology, will impact teams including go-to-market, with approximately 30% of the workforce receiving contract termination notices over the coming months in a transition period, out of a total of less than 400 employees. Earlier this month, the company hinted at the layoffs on social media platform X. According to CoinGecko, the market value of DOT tokens is $5.3 billion, down about 40% from the year's high in February.

Polkadot announced the Treasury expenditure report as of October 18th at the governance forum. As of October 18th, the Treasury has allocated a total of 3.9 million DOT, worth about 21 million US dollars, which is a significant increase compared to the same period last year (1.7 million DOT, about 13 million US dollars). In terms of specific expenditures, the proportion of expenditures in the four major areas of development, external publicity, operation, and research is approximately 49.8%, 37.7%, 8.8%, and 2%, respectively.

Web3 Foundation has recently completed its 19th round of grants, investing over 1.1 million US dollars in 33 different projects under the Web3 Foundation Grant Program. This wave saw a total of 100 applications submitted, setting a new record in over two years. The foundation highlighted the handling of the 600th grant and the 1000th milestone during this period. The thriving Polkadot developer community currently ranks second globally, only behind Ethereum.

Web3 Foundation has launched a $20 million fund, along with 5 million DOT tokens, to reward individuals and teams building on Polkadot Network. The initiative, called the DOT Program, aims to drive innovation in the future of Polkadot and will reward projects throughout 2024. <br>

PolkaWorld, a Chinese community with over 50,000 members on the Polkadot network, has suspended operations after its funding proposal was overwhelmingly rejected. The proposal requested 16,842 DOT tokens to cover operational and maintenance costs for the last quarter of 2023, but received 93.3% of votes as "nay". Members of the community have criticized the new open governance structure, OpenGov, implemented on Polkadot in June, which grants every token holder a vote. Some have called for the reinstatement of the previous council system of experts to evaluate proposals.

Diesel has released 300 limited-run NFTs in collaboration with Public Pressure, a dedicated NFT music marketplace, for $60 each. The NFTs, held on the Polkadot and Polygon blockchains, offer exclusive access to Diesel's Spring 2024 collection at Milan Fashion Week, as well as music events and virtual experiences.

Bill Laboon, Head of Education and Grants at the Web3 Foundation, has announced the release of Polkadot Version 1.1.0 with a medium upgrade priority. This version includes significant changes, such as the consolidation of multiple repositories into a single monorepo called "polkadot-sdk," which streamlines the development process and simplifies deployment and maintenance. Additionally, the release is compatible with specific versions of the Rust programming language compiler, ensuring stability and reliability. <br>

Zodia Custody, a subsidiary of Standard Chartered Bank and a cryptocurrency custody institution, will provide custody services for the Polkadot ecosystem through a new partnership with Parity Technologies, providing digital asset storage services for financial institutions. The two companies plan to offer staking for Polkadot's native token DOT to further expand the network's coverage among institutions.

Enjin NFT platform announced that it will integrate Polkadot into its new mainnet, enabling greater interoperability between different blockchains. Enjin also plans to leverage Polkadot's parachain technology to provide enhanced scalability and faster transaction confirmations.