Polygon’s native MATIC token has soared 8.3% overnight to $1.08, as per CoinGecko data, while the overall crypto market cap has held steady above the key $1 trillion mark.
This makes Polygon the tenth-most valuable cryptocurrency with an overall market capitalization of $9.6 billion, above Solana with $745 million, but below Dogecoin with $11.8 billion.
Polygon is a collection of scaling technologies built to improve Ethereum’s scalability.
Prior to its rebrand, Matic Network focused primarily on using so-called Plasma chains to increase Ethereum’s throughput. These days, the proof-of-stakeproof-of-stake (PoS) network is tinkering with several different “rollup” solutions, including both Optimistic and Zero-Knowledge varieties.
In terms of user activity, the network has dipped some since a steep rise at the beginning of the year. The number of daily users rose from roughly 404,000 on January 1 to 696,00 users on January 6.
Today, however, that figure has dropped to approximately 399,000, per PolygonScan.
Polygon users from December 31, 2022, to January 26, 2023. Source: PolygonScan.
Though Polygon has already performed tremendously this year, up roughly 42% since the year kicked off, it’s still roughly 63% off its December 2021 high of $2.92.
Polygon updates on the horizon
The latest price action also comes as Polygon looks set for some major updates.
Polygon co-founder Sandeep Nailwal recently tweeted that the anticipated addition of the zkEVM update to the network has an official date and will be happening “soon.”
Just came out of a high level zkEVM Mainnet launch committee
— Sandeep | Polygon 💜 Top 3 by impact (@sandeepnailwal) January 16, 2023
First announced in July 2022, zkEVM is an Ethereum-compatible scaling solution that uses rollups to provide compatibility with all existing smart contracts built on the Ethereum network.
Previous versions of ZK-rollups weren't able to execute some of the more complicated operations necessary for smart contracts. A zkEVM promises to resolve that.
In cryptography, a zero-knowledge proof is a way of proving the truth of a statement without sharing the statement's contents or revealing how this truth was discovered.
The technology has been available for available testing via a public testnet since October 11.
Disclaimer
The views and opinions expressed by the author are for informational purposes only and do not constitute financial, investment, or other advice.
Daily Debrief Newsletter
Start every day with the top news stories right now, plus original features, a podcast, videos and more.
Altcoin Hyperliquid was recently down more than 6% over the past 24 hours, the poorest performer among the 100 leading cryptocurrencies by trading volume in Thursday trading.
HYPE fell below $36 at one point, its lowest level in 10 days, and well off its all-time high of $45.59 set just three days ago, according to crypto data provider CoinGecko. The token of the Hyperliquid decentralized exchange remains up more than 40% over the past 30 days, a result at least partly of its dominant position...
When most healthcare companies discuss digital transformation, they typically mean electronic medical records or telemedicine platforms.
But for Prenetics Global Limited, a publicly-traded health sciences firm, going digital meant something entirely next level: a $20 million Bitcoin treasury strategy that adds its name to a growing list of companies adopting a Bitcoin acquisition strategy.
The Nasdaq-listed genomics and digital health company disclosed Wednesday that it has acquired 187.42 BTC...
A startup has raised $6 million in a seed round to protect Bitcoin from quantum computing.
Project 11, which focuses on quantum computing's hypothetical threat to the leading crypto network, announced the raise Thursday, which was co-led by Variant and Quantonation, and included participation from venture capital firms Castle Island Ventures, Nebular, and Formation.
The firm said that quantum computing is a threat to Bitcoin so "every wallet, every account holder, every smart contract key—all...
