Polygon (MATIC) Skyrockets 16,263% in Whale Activity Ahead of Major Upgrade
Polygon, a layer-2 scaling solution that runs alongside the Ethereum blockchain allowing for speedy transactions and low fees, has seen a 16,263% surge in large transaction volume, a metric that denotes whale activity.
According to IntoTheBlock data, Polygon's MATIC large transaction volume came in at $58.25 million in the last 24 hours, representing a 16,263.06% surge since the previous day.
IntoTheBlock labels as large transactions those where an amount greater than $100,000 was transferred. Large Transactions Volume offers an estimate of the total amount transacted by whales and institutional players on a specific day.
Increases in Large Transactions Volume often point to high activity among institutional players, either buying or selling.
The surge in whale activity coincides with the anticipation surrounding the transition from MATIC to POL, an impending major upgrade that Polygon is set to roll out on Sept. 4.
At the time of writing, MATIC was up 6% in the last 24 hours to $0.445.
MATIC upgrade looms
The Polygon Network will migrate its gas token from MATIC to POL on Sept. 4, 2024.
As the network upgrades from MATIC, POL will become the native gas token for Polygon PoS, powering transactions and securing the network through validator incentives. All transactions on the Polygon PoS network will automatically use POL as the gas token after the upgrade, with no action required from MATIC holders.
Validators would also be rewarded in POL for securing the network and processing transactions.
This dual role of POL as both a gas and staking token aligns incentives, ensuring the network’s integrity and performance. The technological implementation of POL provides compatibility with the larger Ethereum ecosystem. POL is built on OpenZeppelin's ERC-20 standard and supports EIP-2612. It works seamlessly with existing tools and platforms on the PoS network.
The migration from MATIC to POL is facilitated by a smart contract, migrating MATIC to POL on a 1:1 basis, allowing users to continue transacting on Polygon. The Polygon bridge will also support POL, allowing tokens to flow seamlessly between Polygon PoS and Ethereum.