Crypto on Polygon (MATIC)
Gas fees on Ethereum layer-2 Polygon (MATIC) skyrocketed by more than 1,000% and reached a peak of $0.10 as users flooded the network with the minting of Ordinals-inspired tokens called POLS.
Sandeep Nailwal, founder of Polygon, expressed his astonishment at the sudden surge in activity on the network in a Nov. 16 tweet, speculating that the spike could be attributed to the launch of a new Polygon-based nonfungible token (NFT) collection.
It appears that the surge in network activity and the subsequent spike in gas fees is mainly due to the excitement surrounding the minting of POLS tokens.
Data from Dune Analytics indicated that the rush to mint POLS tokens was accompanied by more than 102 million MATIC tokens — worth $86 million at current prices — being used as gas.
Crypto on the POLS Token and NFTs
The POLS token is built on the PRC-20 protocol, which is similar to the BRC-20 token standard derived from Bitcoin Ordinals. Data from Ethereum Virtual Machine provider EVM reveals that only 8.7% of the total POLS supply has been minted, with 18,100 owners claiming the token.
Polygon gas fees have returned to typical levels, currently settling at 882 gwei. This is the amount of computing effort needed to run a transaction on a given blockchain, with 1 gwei equal to approximately 0.000000001 MATIC.
The Bitcoin network experienced a spike in activity in May this year due to the launch of the Ordinals protocol, which enabled users to mint NFTs directly on the Bitcoin blockchain. Crypto.com and Crypto Today Twitter accounts have since been discussing Crypto and NFTs.
The subsequent excitement for Ordinals NFTs and BRC-20 tokens caused Bitcoin fees to reach heights not observed since April 2021, a situation that saw more traditional Bitcoiners such as Samson Mow and Adam Back criticize the NFT protocol and crypto token standard as being wasteful.
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