How does crypto break into the mainstream?
Well, it's not rocket science.
It's not quantum physics.
All they've got to do is get mainstream partners on board.
And one company and one project has done that better than any other
in the recent years.
And that is MATIC aka Polygon.
Today, we're going to look at why Polygon is such a big deal
and why it's going to lead the charge in the next bull run.
Let's get it!
Welcome to BitBoy Crypto!
My name is Ben.
And today we're talking about Polygon.
That's right, guys.
This project has racked up tons of partnerships over the last year
and has made a lot of mainstream adoption in spite of a massive bear market.
And now because of that,
it's got massive momentum and wind underneath its wings.
Just the last couple years, they've signed partnerships with
Dolce and Gabbana,
Disney,
and, yes, even Stripe, the payment processing merchant.
So, what has this done?
Well, this has set the standard to show that MATIC is the trusted corporate partner
of major corporations in crypto.
And just the appearance of that is leading it to many more massive partnerships.
It's basically okayed as a cool corporate blockchain now.
And, of course, what it is is a layer 2 blockchain,
which means it goes on top of Ethereum and it's able to scale much better,
do much cheaper fees and run transactions at a much higher throughput rate
with much lower fees, of course.
So it's kind of the band aid for Ethereum, if you will.
So here we go. Let's check it out.
What's it good for? Why do people love it?
MATIC primed for explosive growth as Polygon announces date
for the zkEVM mainnet beta launch.
ZK stands for zero-knowledge.
Polygon has settled for March 27 as the launch date for the much anticipated
zero-knowledge Ethereum Virtual Machine (zkEVM) mainnet beta network.
According to the announcement,
although Polygon did not specify what the mainnet beta would entail.
Polygon zkEVM is a groundbreaking technology
that aims to increase the speed of blockchain transactions and reduce their cost,
like its rivals Solana and XRP--
Solana, pft, whatever--
which have faster transaction speeds--
and unparalleled centralization.
Instead, zkEVMs generate cryptographic proofs to process transactions faster
before those transactions are sent back to layer 1 networks,
in this case, Ethereum.
So you see why some of these companies are so bullish on Polygon.
Now, guys, it's hard to argue what they say here on the website.
This is on the Polygon website.
And now you may hear it called Polygon or MATIC
and that may be a little confusing.
Poly I believe is already not only something that Sam Bankman-Fried and Caroline really enjoyed,
but it's also I think another project.
MATIC used to be the name of the project.
They rebranded the name to Polygon, but the ticker has stayed MATIC.
It launched first on the Binance Launchpad back I believe in 2019.
But the website here says "The future of the Web3 built #onPolygon."
"Scaling the goodness of Ethereum"
It is hard to argue that this is where Web3 is being built right now.
We have Instagram with an NFT minting feature.
It's a big deal.
But what are they using?
They're using MATIC!
It jumps 20% in a day after Instagram's Polygon NFT minting reveal.
Meta announced Instagram would be using Polygon network
for its upcoming in-app NFT minting feature earlier this week.
Of course, this was not too long ago.
November 4, 2022
But Instagram's NFT minting feature is a big deal---
last year, CNBC reported that Instagram has over 2 billion monthly users.
That means lots of potential traffic for the Polygon network.
You start understanding, if Meta is considering using it,
or Facebook, as we like to call them,
then you know it's a big deal.
We also have this.
JPMorgan executes first DeFi trade on a public blockchain.
This is also back in November of 2022.
And let me tell you,
Cointelegraph, they love these ants in their graphic.
Ants!
The pilot was another step into examining how traditional financial institutions
can use tokenized assets and DeFi protocols to conduct financial transactions,
among other use cases.
So, we're seeing even traditional finance wanting to use Polygon.
Corporations, tech companies wanting to use Polygon.
What is this communicating to you?
And also the most important question in all of crypto for all mankind has been this.
What defines a cryptocurrency?
Can you buy a cup of coffee with it?
Can you buy a cup of coffee with your cryptocurrency?
All my OGs understand.
But Starbucks Polygon NFTs are already selling for thousands of dollars.
This story just broke not too long ago.
As you guys can see, all of the cheering here for your baristas.
And this story basically goes on to explain how
some of these that have been traded behind scenes,
they're already worth thousands of dollars.
People love Polygon.
Polygon-powered Trump digital cards--
remember the Trump NFTs?
You better.
It was only back January 21.
Polygon-powered Trump digital trading cards enjoy a huge surge as daily sales jump 800%.
People love Trump NFTs.
But people love Polygon too.
Maybe Polygon was the secret to the success.
Those actually did very, very, very well.
Now, we got Nike.
Nike using Polygon!
The world's foremost athletic brand!
Nike .SWOOSH Web3 studio kicks off with Polygon NFTs.
Everyone is using Polygon!
Here at Bitboy Crypto,
shocker,
we use Polygon!
DraftKings tees up PGA Tour NFT fantasy golf game!
So now you got the PGA and DraftKings jumping on, guess what?
I wonder what they're using.
"Polygon NFT player cards."
You cannot make this stuff up.
Reddit has given away over a million Super Bowl NFTs on Polygon!
How much more of this do you want me to show you?
Frankly, I'm getting sick of showing you new things using Polygon.
That's how unbelievable it is.
It's almost like it's the default blockchain of champions.
Reddit's Collectible Avatars is a prime example of an effective Web3 on-ramp.
And thanks to a new collaboration with the NFL on free Super Bowl NFTs,
Reddit is about to hit another major milestone.
So there they go getting involved.
But the important part, they're not using Reddit Moons.
They're not using Moons for their NFTs.
They're using Polygon.
Polygon is so much better than Ethereum.
It's unbelievable.
However, Polygon cannot exist without Ethereum.
And, really, Polygon cannot exist without the problems of Ethereum existing.
So the problems, the speed, the congestion of Ethereum,
it helps Polygon.
So Polygon flips Ethereum for daily active addresses as MATIC price surges 10%.
Polygon active addresses is more than 340,000.
According to Token Terminal,
daily active users on Polygon have surpassed those on Ethereum.
BNB Chain is the top blockchain for daily active users,
with almost 800,000, according to the chart.
It was set up for a bunch of rug pulls.
However, Polygon is now second with 340,000,
just eclipsing Ethereum's 320,000.
Polygonscan,
they confirm the uptick in daily active chain addresses reporting closer to 400,000.
They're crushing it in usability.
And everybody's favorite dead NFT platform OpenSea,
well, their Polygon NFT sales top Ethereum for second straight month.
Well, why is that?
Well, it's because everybody is trading Ethereum on Blur.
That's probably a pretty good reason why.
But Polygon in sales on OpenSea have beat Ethereum in each of the past two months.
But they're mostly low-cost assets.
So you can see here,
even Kate Irwin is getting in on the fun making fun of OpenSea.
Open Sea's pretty much dead.
I don't know if you guys know that.
They call it the "Dead Sea" now.
But check this out.
Polygon Labs cuts headcount by 20% despite holding over $2 billion in treasury.
You keep hearing all these people are laying people off because they got no money,
but about 100 Polygon employees had been laid off as the firm consolidates its business units.
The layoffs come despite the firm being financially secure,
$250 million in funding, 1.9 billion MATIC in its treasury.
Now, a blog post says the layoffs are the next consolidation stage
after the firm bought several businesses under Polygon Labs
rather than the result of the crypto winter that saw the downsize in the last few months.
And here's what I'll say about this.
They're laying off 20% to unify the company.
Now, I guess the employees they laid off, they don't get to be unified.
I just want to say that.
Here's the fact.
The fact is, in my opinion, what they're doing here,
what a lot of companies are doing out there as they're laying people off,
is they're not laying people off because they don't have money.
They're laying people off because they're realizing
they've got a lot of bloat.
They've got a lot of employees that are on the fringe
that may not 100% buy into the company's values,
but they're there and they're serving a purpose.
But in reality, sometimes you find, just kind of like a good plant,
just like bonsai trees,
to grow a healthy bonsai tree,
you've got to cut back a little bit on the trimmings.
When you got some things that are going a little haywire,
you've got to trim them back.
And then it grows out big, nice and beautiful,
like Sam Bankman-Fried's hair!
But the point is,
you've got to cut back sometimes.
And when times are good like they are for Polygon
and it's all good all the time,
this is something I kind of wish we'd done at BitBoy Crypto when we were at our peak,
when the bull run was at its height,
sometimes it's okay to pull back even when things are going well.
Because you just start adding positions or you start, you know, going in certain directions
that you probably are not well suited and capable of going into,
and I think over time,
when money's tight, it's easier to see that.
I think Polygon's move here is genius.
Now, I don't like they laid 20% people off.
We don't want to see people lose their jobs.
But their move here,
it's so beloved,
it's doing so well, it's making so much money,
and they still cut back on the bloat.
I think that shows you just how big and powerful Polygon is going to grow to in this next bull run.
I do want to say, as a quick caveat,
do not discount Optimism,
do not discount Arbitrum on becoming competitors
because they see this right niche that corporations are clamoring for.
And I think they're going to be right in on the action in this bull run.
But there is no doubt Polygon is the queen.
That's all I got.
Be blessed.
BitBoy out.