Get a better idea of what to HODL and what to let go
The MATIC token is the native digital currency of the Polygon Network. Formally the Matic network. Polygon is a Layer-1, EVM compatible scaling solution for Ethereum that found significant traction in the DeFi and Gaming categories throughout 2021.
Ultimately, dapps on the Polygon Network are powered by MATIC, where it’s used to fund transactions and offer the same services as Ethereum dapps for a fraction of the cost. At the height of the bull run in 2021, MATIC and The Polygon Network were buoyed by overly high gas fees on Ethereum forcing users to look elsewhere, further helped by a sudden spotlight on NFTs and play-to-earn games.
Put bluntly, Polygon is essentially a poor man’s Ethereum. This is certainly not a bad thing to be when the mainstream crowd looks for fast and cheap transaction fees, and devs are looking for scalability, speed, and security for their dapps. This blockchain fills a gap for the Ethereum network, which suffers from slow transactions and high fees, without sacrificing security.
MATIC was trending
On February 1, 2021, the token price of MATIC was $0.03. By December 27, 2021, it had hit $2.92. A whopping increase of more than 9600% in a year. Most importantly, the cause of the surge in price was sustained and increasing network activity on Polygon and not just speculation or empty hype.
Can MATIC get back to its high of $2.92 and beyond? Given everything happening now and planned for the future, it looks like a strong possibility.
N.B. The network is renamed Polygon and the token ticker remained MATIC.
Meet the team
The founding team is fully doxxed and provides their Twitter and LinkedIn profiles for people to easily dig deeper into their history. Sandeep Nailwal is perhaps the most active amongst the core founders and has racked up almost 175,000 Twitter followers. Moreover, the core team played a role at Ethereum in the early days, is well experienced, well networked, and anchored to India and its huge pool of Web3 and blockchain developers.
Notable partners
Polygon counts Coinbase, Binance, and Dallas Mavericks owner and crypto advocate Mark Cuban as core partners. Although a potentially game-changing partnership was announced very recently between Instagram (owned by Meta) and Polygon, whereby Polygon was chosen to test drive NFTs on Instagram. This is a massive move for Polygon and NFTs in general and should it succeed in scaling is sure to put Polygon on the map.
The network also has integrations in place with leading Ethereum dapps like Uniswap, Sushi, The Sandbox, Aave, Opensea, and many more who have launched on Polygon to give users lower fees. Which in turn, made many Ethereum users switch to using Polygon dapps.
The Matic/Polygon timeline
MATIC Price Statistics
Raises
Polygon has raised a total of $450.5M in funding over five rounds since 2019. Their latest funding was raised on Feb 7, 2022, from a Venture – Series Unknown round. In total, Polygon is funded by 45 investors. Crowd Venture Capital and Steadview Capital are the most recent investors.
Latest developments
Browse through more than 100 articles covering news and happenings from The Polygon Network on the DappRadar blog. The latest developments are below:
- January 2022 – Adidas Originals & Prada announce an NFT project on Polygon
- March 2022 – Polygon ID launch – a zero-knowledge identity for web3
- April 2022 – Stripe launches global payouts with crypto using Polygon
- May 2022 – Polygon Nightfall Mainnet launch: Decentralized Private Transactions for Enterprise
- May 2022 – Polygon goes carbon-neutral
- June 2022 – Instagram launches NFTs with Polygon
What can I do with my MATIC now?
MATIC is required to make transactions and pay fees when using dapps on the Polygon Network. It can also be swapped for tokens useable in other Polygon dapps using an exchange like Uniswap or Quickswap. Here you can swap MATIC to another token useable in a game for example and start interacting with more dapps on Polygon to find more opportunities.
Aside from that, holders of MATIC can continue to HODL, or alternatively, place their MATIC into a staking or liquidity pool position and use MATIC to make more MATIC, while waiting for the price to potentially increase again. Staking options are plenty and rewards vary between 4% and 6% on average. You can find more exorbitant percentages but these have much higher risks attached to them. Another option is to lend MATIC to others at a rate of about 7%.
Summary
The Polygon Network and its MATIC token made huge strides in 2021 as more and more people entered the space looking for good value trading and play-to-earn dapps. Its position as an EVM compatible Layer-1 that fundamentally helps scale Ethereum is a strong value position for both end-users and dapp developers. While MATIC saw big gains in value last year, the increases may not be over. That’s because The Polygon Network is still in the early stages of its story despite such significant achievements already.
Arguably the strength of a network can be gauged by the performance of its dapps, and this is where the Polygon Network really shines. At the peak of the bull run, the network processed around 2 million transactions a day while Ethereum’s highest ever number of transactions in a single day stands at around 1.7 million, back in 2021.
The Polygon Network also lends itself perfectly to high transaction blockchain games where users simply won’t pay Ethereum fees to play. Overall, if the network continues to attract attention, build partnerships and launch dapps, we can see a bright future ahead for Polygon and its MATIC token.
The above does not constitute investment advice. The information given here is purely for informational purposes only. Please exercise due diligence and do your research. The writer holds positions in various cryptocurrencies, including BTC, ETH, and RADAR.
