finbold.com
In the last 15 months, cryptocurrencies have gained massive traction primarily driven by institutional investments and widespread adoption. While Bitcoin touched a record high of $64,863 last month, several other digital currencies have outpaced the former since March 2020.
One such cryptocurrency rising in popularity is Polygon (MATIC), the 15th largest digital currency with a market cap of $13.39 billion at the time of writing. The price of one Polygon token has been trading at a low of $0.01176 and a high of $2.68 in the last 52-weeks.
In the last 12-months, Polygon has returned a staggering 7,600% which means a $1,000 investment in this token last May would be worth close to $77,000 today. Additionally, a week ago, MATIC was the only non-stablecoin among the top 100 cryptos to sustain 7-day gains during a sharp crypto market volatility.
An overview of Polygon
Polygon is a protocol and framework to build and connect blockchain networks compatible with Ethereum. Using Polygon, any project can create a blockchain network that combines the best features of stand-alone blockchains and Ethereum.
Several decentralized applications are making significant progress, but the underlying blockchain ecosystem cannot scale as per the demand. There are also issues relating to slow block confirmations and high gas fees that Polygon aims to resolve by providing easy access for users to interact with the decentralized ecosystem.
While the price of a Polygon token fell to less than $0.90 last week due to the broader market sell-off, it has roared back to life, more than doubling in the last few days. Noted billionaire investor Mark Cuban has also invested an undisclosed amount in Polygon, sparking tremendous interest in the process.
MATIC already processes close to 6 million transactions per day, and the network has processed approximately 122 million transactions. Another reason why Polygon is fast gaining traction is its low transaction costs. The transaction costs on the Ethereum blockchain were around $64, while it just costs a few cents on the Polygon network.
The verdict
Looking at Polygon’s multiple use cases, it’s pretty evident why crypto enthusiasts are optimistic about its long-term prospects. Polygon’s developers have focused on creating a utility token that has certain advantages including scalability, which should attract more investors in the long-term.
Furthermore, Polygon’s recent network development will likely trigger further growth for the ethereum layer two scaling projects. Polygon announced a new developer SDK meant for streamlined app creation. The new feature will help developers create their ethereum linked blockchains.
In a bid to increase accessibility to the booming DeFi ecosystem, Polygon also unveiled a $100 million fund with a focus on low entry barriers for yield farming and lending. The initiative will potentially lead to more interest in Polygon as the go-to DeFi platform.
Based on fundamental factors, latest developments, and community support, Polygon is well poised to record more interest and capital that might elevate it to the top five cryptocurrencies group by market cap