Polygon (MATIC-USD) is the talk of the crypto world today. The layer-2 network isn’t just shaking off volatility — it’s soaring. Starting the day up more than 20%, the MATIC crypto seems to be turning heads due to a broad effort by developers to improve decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs) on the network. Whales are also moving in on the project with big pockets.
To say the boom in Polygon prices is surprising is an understatement. Currently, investors are trapped in the middle of a hefty market correction. Bitcoin (BTC-USD) prices — a bellwether for the crypto market at large — are struggling to stay over $20,000. BTC hasn’t seen this floor price since late 2020, just as the bout of crypto hype was getting started.
Polygon is luckier than many other cryptos during this downturn. While speculative cryptos relying on “10x potential” are far more likely to crumble, MATIC has a solid use case that will keep users coming to the network. This use case is, of course, its layer-2 network; Ethereum (ETH-USD) users can transact data on this second layer in order to avoid exorbitant fees and long settlement times. Polygon also contains its own robust network of decentralized apps (dapps).
Developers continue to innovate with Polygon, bringing along more and more ways to scale transactions. But a recent pivot toward DAOs is piquing investor curiosity today. And as developers look to improve community governance, their efforts seem to be attracting a lot of money from big spenders.
Polygon Pushes DAO Privacy and Secures Whale Investments
Going against the grain with its 20% gains early today, investors are gravitating toward MATIC crypto. It seems that the network’s DAO efforts — as well as the large volume prompted by whale transactions — are what’s driving prices higher.
DAOs are the avenue by which all decision-making is done on a decentralized network. They operate using governance token structures; users who want to participate in a DAO buy that DAO’s governance token. The amount of tokens one owns translates to how much sway their vote has on a given decision.
The DAO structure is appealing for its directly democratic model — something which many Big Tech companies don’t offer their users. As such, it’s one of the leading use cases for blockchain as the internet shifts toward its next major era.
Polygon operates through a DAO and users can make their own communities on the network as well. And it seems to be embracing this use case further today, with news of a DAO improvement upgrade. Called “Polygon ID,” the upgrade brings a new system to the Polygon DAO structure that makes voting activity entirely private.
This move comes amid an uptick of whale investments in the MATIC crypto. Users with over 10,000 MATIC have increased their holdings by 8.7% in recent weeks. Today, we’re seeing a sizable rise in trading volume, too, with nearly $1 billion in MATIC swapping hands. This makes for a 120% increase over volume yesterday, just before Polygon ID went live.
On the date of publication, Brenden Rearick did not hold (either directly or indirectly) any positions in the securities mentioned in this article. The opinions expressed in this article are those of the writer, subject to the InvestorPlace.com Publishing Guidelines.
