Layer-2 solution Polygon (MATIC) turned some heads as it has surpassed Ethereum (ETH) in the number of transactions, and is now being discussed as a possible competitor to Binance Smart Chain (BSC).
Per BitInfoCharts.com, the number of daily transactions on Ethereum hit nearly 1.64m on May 11 – its all-time high (ATH), dropping to 1.43m by May 18. Per Polygon explorer, yesterday, there were more than 4m transactions facilitated by this protocol and framework for building and connecting Ethereum-compatible blockchain networks.
Also, according to Richard Galvin, co-founder and CEO of Digital Asset Capital Management, citing blockchain analytics platform Nansen, it has flipped Ethereum and its transaction count accelerated since. “It’s achieving this with only ~5% of the daily active users of [Ethereum]. [Polygon] users up around 5 – 10x since April,” he said.
Messari Crypto’s Mira Christanto also noted this rise, adding to it the gas fee difference as “most of the Polygon transactions are due to bots able to function with low gas fees.”
Gas fees comparison @0xPolygon @ethereum
Source: @nansen_ai pic.twitter.com/HzqIvM60Lr
— Mira Christanto (@asiahodl) May 18, 2021
At 12:36 UTC, MATIC, ranked 16th by market capitalization, trades at USD 2.08, after it hit an ATH just today of USD 2.18 (per Coingecko). It’s up 25% in a day and 413% in a month. In a year, it appreciated a whopping 10,194%.
Also, Per Coingecko’s categories, the whole Polygon ecosystem of 155 cryptoassets is up by 9% today.
According to Galvin, it is “reassuring to see fundamental growth where there is strong price growth.”
Always reassuring to see fundamental growth where there is strong price growth – this chart tracks relative active users on #PolygonNetwork against #Ethereum versus relative FDV market caps. Small data sets etc etc but you get the picture pic.twitter.com/MeKXuoqRmI
— Richard Galvin (@richwgalvin) May 18, 2021
And as Ethereum continues to face gas and scaling challenges, some, like Chief Investment Officer of the crypto hedge fund outfit Arcane Assets Eric Wall, wonder if Polygon is “winning” over BSC – another platform that’s been gaining traction among developers, particularly those in the decentralized finance (Defi).
The answer to Wall’s questions for some depends on the metric, arguing that BSC is winning in the number of projects, while Polygon is winning in the quality of projects.
Total value locked (TVL) in Polygon, per DeFi Pulse, is USD 6.5bn, seeing a massive rise from USD 40m recorded on January 1. Per Defistation, TVL on BSC dropped to USD 41.4bn today.
Meanwhile, Wall also discussed the possibility of Polygon being more decentralized than BSC, ultimately stating that Polygon’s connection to Ethereum may be “a bit artificial.”
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