BlocksInform
Amidst the biggest drop in crypto prices in history one blockchain platform and its token is continuing to march forward. Polygon, the Ethereum sidechain that rebranded from Matic at the start of 2021. Has seen a record number of active wallets use its applications within the last 7 days. Where we observe 310,862 unique active wallets interacting with Polygon dapps.
From the start of May to date, Polygon dapps have seen 834,563 unique active wallets interact with their smart contracts. More importantly, in the last 14 days and since the price of BTC started to fall around the 10th of May. Polygon has seen 567,100 unique active wallets. That means almost 68% of the users came post-BTC decline. When we consider that in the first week of February the network saw just 8,112 unique active wallets. The achievement becomes far clearer.
The Polygon dapp ecosystem has also been growing at lightning-fast speeds. Recently we reported that the total number of dapps now tracked on Polygon had risen from 61 to 93. With 46 of those dapps being in the DeFi and Exchange categories. One week on and that number has risen to 101 as the breadth of dapps and services being offered to users starts to resonate with the audience. Arguably, speed and cost are at the heart of this.
What’s happening?
One explanation for the increase in activity is that prior to the dip new and old users had been transitioning away from the leading DeFi dapps on Ethereum such as Uniswap. Instead, dipping their toes in the cheaper and faster transactions on Polygon through dapps such as QuickSwap. In recent weeks the Polygon blockchain has also seen the arrival of ported applications like Aave and 1inch. As a result, more people held positions in DeFi platforms on Polygon.
An increase in activity would be expected at a time when token prices are crashing due to several reasons. Firstly, a rush by users to close out positions and sell their tokens before losing profits they potentially made or limiting what could be to come. Secondly, yield farming and staking activities are at their highest right now and users could have been flooding in to exit the farms. Conversely, activity can also be generated through users rushing in to do the opposite actions. They could for example buy the dip and yield farm during times of uncertainty.
Bucking the trend
Even more interesting is the peaks and troughs of the Polygon token. Whilst almost every other token in existence started to nose-dive around the 10th of May. Polygon has shown the biggest percentage increases and is up almost 300% in the last 30 days.
As the entire industry dipped to what many thought might be the lowest point on Wednesday 19th, Polygon hit its second-highest price ever at $2.40. Again, today we see a marked recovery from its low of $0.80 over the weekend to $1.55 now, and it appears to be rising. Considering the token never rose above $0.05 until February, the fact it’s now fallen to $1.55 should still feel like a huge win for the platform and investors.
Like other altcoins gaining in popularity, Polygon was not completely immune to the volatility. But it seems to have weathered the storm more robustly than most. It’s too early to tell whether the crash is a one-time event or the bear market is here to stay. One thing is clear after the dust settles, Polygon has a bright future ahead should it keep progressing at its current trajectory.
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