Posted:
- OKX has announced the testnet launch of its layer 2 network, built on Polygon’s Chain Development Kit.
- Polygon zkEVM has witnessed a drop in demand in recent months.
Global cryptocurrency exchange OKX has announced its foray into the Layer 2 (L2) space with the testnet launch of X1, a network built on Polygon’s [MATIC] Chain development kit (CDK).
📣 Hot off the press 📣
We are happy to introduce #X1our new Ethereum L2 network built on Polygon’s CDK.
Our historic collaboration. of @0xPolygonLabs makes the next generation possible. developers. with increased security, scalability and low transaction costs to BUILD the future of Web3.
— OKX (@okx) November 14, 2023
This move is in line with the growing trend among crypto exchanges to explore and develop their own L2 solutions. Coin base completed the phased launch of its own L2 network Base Network in August, which has since grown its user base to over 2 million.
There are also rumors that Kraken is working on its L2 network, which could potentially include other L2s in the Layer 2 ecosystem.
According to the announcement, the use of Polygon CDK technology is:
“It represents a significant leap forward, allowing developers to easily design and deploy ZK L2 solutions on Ethereum.”
Polygon’s scaling network has been sick for a while
Polygon launched its own EVM equivalent zkEVM in March. While it enjoyed significant success for a while, demand for the network has declined since August.
According to AMBCrypto’s analysis of Polygon scans data, the network has seen a steady decline in daily transactions since August.
Polygon zkEVM recorded its highest number of daily transactions of 122,136 on August 4, after which it started a decline. As of November 14, the network recorded a daily number of transactions of 43,744, which represents a 64% decline from its high in August.
This decline in transactions since August is due to the decline in the number of unique addresses that have completed transactions on Polygon zkEVM daily since then.
Data from AMBCrypto also shows that since July 31, the number of unique addresses completing transactions on the network every day has dropped by 99%.
In addition, the average gas fee paid per transaction on the network rose to a record high of 23.65 GWEI on May 6. However, as demand for the scale-up solution fell, gas rates also fell.
Read Polygon [MATIC] Price prediction 2023-24
On November 14, a transaction on Polygon zkEVM cost an average fee of 2.6 GWEI. This represented an 89% decline from the all-time high in May.
As for Polygon’s native token MATIC, the recent market rally has seen its price post record gains. According to CoinMarketCapthe value of the altcoin has increased by 83% in the past month.