Polygon (MATIC) Surged 24% Today as Crypto Market Dips

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The parallel, yet complementary blockchain to Ethereum, is up 32% over the past seven days.

Key points

• The Polygon network is an Ethereum-compatible blockchain that enables higher transaction volume and faster settlements at cheaper prices, by enabling seamless movement of transactions on and off the ETH platform to speed throughput.
• MATIC is the token used to pay network fees and governance rewards for Polygon’s proof-of-stake (PoS) network. According to CoinMarketCap, MATIC jumped as high as $0.5115 per coin, which is a 24% increase during the past 24 hours.
• By comparison, the broader crypto market slipped half a percent to $905 billion at press time.

Ethereum-compatible blockchain Polygon has been on a run over the past 24 hours, seeing its native coin MATIC drive up 24% to a peak price of $0.5115 across cryptocurrency exchanges, adding to its seven-day surge of 32% according to CoinMarketCap. Trading volume for MATIC is also up more than 120% for the day. At the time of writing, the overall cryptocurrency market was trending down by a half a percent.

The Polygon network operates on a modified proof-of-stake (PoS) process to approve transactions. PoS is believed to be more energy efficient than the proof-of-work (PoW) model currently used by both Ethereum and Bitcoin. PoW transaction approvals rely on energy-hungry, raw computing power and cooling requirements.

Polygon boasts that it can handle 65,000 ETH-based transactions per second with the ability to settle smart contracts in less than two seconds for less than a penny. It’s like a series of dedicated, high-speed traffic lanes that run next to the Ethereum super highway with on and off ramps all along it and lower toll fees. Those features not only expedite transactions via Polygon, but they reduce slowdowns and volume congestion on the Ethereum network as well.

Is Polygon a buy?

The MATIC coin reached its top trading price of $2.92 on Nov. 27, 2021. Despite today’s intraday surge, the digital asset is 82% lower than its peak price.

This is not financial guidance, merely observational-based opinions. Every investor should conduct their own research and determine their own threshold for investment risk. As decentralized finance and NFT transactions continue to drive traffic on the Ethereum blockchain, compatible alternatives that have a proven track record will likely do well in the future, especially projects such as Polygon which are currently trading at deep discounts.