Polygon (MATIC) Surges Nearly 10% As zkEVM Network Update Draws Near

Amid the ubiquitous rally in the crypto market, multiple crypto assets including MATIC have climbed higher highs, thriving to reach their peak and beyond. While the catalyst behind the rally might be unclear, Polygon’s (MATIC) bullish trend could be a part of its upcoming zkEVM Network update. As the launch draws near, investors have continued to increase in numbers pouring more funds into the asset. 

Polygon is a layer-2 scaling solution built on top of the Ethereum blockchain to improve the network’s scalability. The soon-to-be-launched zkEVM network update is just one of the plans the developers of the Polygon network have announced to enhance the layer-2 scaling solution. 

According to Polygon co-founder Sandeep Nailwal’s recent tweet, the anticipated zkEVM comes soon as the mainnet launch now has an official date which is somewhere around the corner.

Over the past 24 hours, MATIC has spiked in price by 8.6%, mirroring other altcoins’ bullish trend as the global cryptocurrency market capitalization still holds steady above the previously amassed $1 trillion mark. 

The past few weeks have seen a MATIC mark an upward rally movement, especially since the beginning of the year. MATIC has moved from the $0.75 price tag seen late last year to $1.09 at the time of writing. Meanwhile, the 1-day chart still indicates more rallies as there is still liquidity at the higher highs to be taken.

Notably, MATIC is ranked the 10th most valuable cryptocurrency asset by market capitalization, according to data aggregators CoinGecko and Coinmarketcap. Polygon currently has a market cap of $9.7 billion, higher than Solana with $8.8 billion but below Dogecoin, which sits at $11.8 billion.

Though MATIC has been climbing highs since the beginning of the year, it is still far from its all-time high of $2.92, seen in 2021. With the ongoing disbelief in the crypto market among investors, it is still uncertain whether the zkEVM will be a good enough catalyst to drive its value beyond or closer to its peak.

Despite MATIC’s appreciation in value, the network user activity has recorded a decline in the number of interactions. Polygon’s number of daily users started the year positively moving from roughly 404,000 seen on January 1 to 696,00 users on January 6.

However, today, the figure has declined more than 10%, dropping to approximately 399,000, according to data from PolygonScan. The reason behind the plummet is still unclear, as the network activity is expected to increase, given the network’s recent collaborations with multiple top companies. 

Last year, Facebook (Meta) added support for the Polygon network. In addition, the layer-2 scaling solution recently partnered with Mastercard to launch a Web3 accelerator program to bring budding musical artists into the spotlight by leveraging Web3 technology and other blockchain-based innovations.