Polygon (MATIC) is now the best-performing major cryptocurrency for the year — yes, even outperforming Dogecoin — as the race for Ethereum scaling solutions heats up.

MATIC tokens were changing hands this afternoon for US$2.11, up 36 per cent for the day, 137 per cent for the week and 10,233 per cent (!) for the year. As recently as January, MATIC tokens were trading under US2c.

It’s now the 16th most valuable crypto with a total value of US$12.9 billion. The token is a 120-bagger for 2021, better than any other crypto other than BakerSwap and Telcoin, the 99th and 63rd most valuable tokens, according to Coinrank.io. (Dogecoin is up 107-fold so far in 2021).

What is Polygon?

For those not familiar, Polygon is a “layer 2 solution” for the congested Ethereum network, which hosts everything from decentralised exchanges to marketplaces for NFTs to platforms for lending and borrowing. But Ethereum has become a victim of its own popularity, with Eth transaction fees yesterday averaging US$20, up from US38c a year ago. Polygon effectively acts as a sidechain to Ethereum, moving transactions to its own chain. They’re later finalised in aggregate on Ethereum.

It’s not the only Ethereum scaling solution, but has become the most popular, handling over 250 decentralised apps, 58 million transactions and 685,000 unique users.

Two more projects yesterday announced they’d integrated with Polygon.

Optimistic, another highly anticipated Ethereum scaling solution, is scheduled to launch its mainnet in July.

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