Polygon Defies Crypto Decline, Token Up 40% After Instagram Integration

Polygon’s MATIC is up 40% since the chain announced Thursday that it would partner with Instagram to create and sell NFTs through its platform, reaching $1.27. MATIC extended its gains on Monday, even as the overall crypto market was pressured by an apparent feud between the CEOs of the Binance and FTX crypto exchanges.

PolygonMATIC
which is used to create EthereumETH
blockchain more efficient, has spent the past month working with various large companies seeking to explore decentralized internet capabilities. Last week, Meta Platforms said it would allow users of its Instagram service to create and sell Polygon-powered non-fungible tokens (NFTs) on its platform, effectively creating a marketplace for the crypto products.

On the same day, crypto-skeptics JPMorgan used Polygon to conduct its first cross-border transaction via decentralized finance on a public blockchain. Less than two months ago, the investment bank’s CEO, Jamie Dimon, called cryptocurrencies “decentralized Ponzi schemes,” and the use of a blockchain tool could be seen as a softening of this position.

Crypto behavior analysis firm Santiment credited the rise in MATIC to the two news developments.

Polygon’s string of corporate partnerships has led the chain to become “the Web3 ramp for millions of users,” according to a report by Bernstein analysts, referring to a decentralized view of the Internet. Deals with StarbucksSBUX
and Robinhood earlier this year lists chain-winning companies in various industries for the Polygon chain.

Network growth has skyrocketed, with Polygon’s third quarter report showing a 60% increase in decentralized apps built on the chain. Unique wallet addresses, a measure of how many individual users have registered wallet addresses on a single chain, have reached 188 million, just behind Ethereum’s 210 million.

Despite rising prices, trading volume for MATIC tokens has continued to fall, falling to $1.3 billion from a peak of $2.3 billion last week, according to data from CoinMarketCap.

Other layer 2 chains, those used to make Ethereum more efficient for larger transactions, and Polygon’s competitors have not fared as well. While MATIC’s price has risen over 50% in the past month, Immutable X and Loopring haveLRC
have increased by 12% and decreased by 23% respectively. Other Ethereum competitors with market capitalizations similar to Polygon’s, including cardano and solana, are down around 5%.

The cryptocurrency market is currently at $1.03 trillion, down 2.7% in the last day, while MATIC’s market went up to $11 billion from $8.56 billion on Thursday.