Polygon moves to Layer 2: What about zkEVM?

• OKX has announced the testnet launch of its layer 2 network built on Polygon’s Chain Development Kit.
• Polygon zkEVM has witnessed a decline in demand in the past few 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). 

This move aligns with the growing trend among crypto exchanges to explore and develop their own L2 solutions. Coinbase 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 have also been swirling rumors that Kraken is working on its L2 network that could potentially other L2s across the Layer 2 ecosystem. 

According to the announcement, the use of Polygon CDK technology:

“Represents a significant leap forward, enabling developers to design and deploy ZK L2 solutions on Ethereum with ease.”

Polygon’s scaling network has been ailing for a while

Polygon launched its own EVM-equivalent zkEVM in March. While it saw considerable success for a while, the demand for the network has dwindled since August.

According to AMBCrypto’s analysis of Polygonscan’s data, the network has seen a steady decline in daily transactions since August. 

Polygon zkEVM recorded its highest daily transaction count of 122,136 on 4 August, after which it initiated a decline. As of the 14th of November, the network recorded a daily transaction count of 43,744, representing a 64% decline from the August high.

Source: Polygonscan

This decline in the transaction count since August has been due to the drop in the number of unique addresses that have completed transactions daily on Polygon zkEVM since then. 

Data observed by AMBCrypto also showed that since the 31st of July, the count of unique addresses completing transactions on the network on a daily basis plummeted by 99%. 

Further, the average gas fee paid per transaction on the network climbed to an all-time high of 23.65 GWEI on the 6th of May. However, as the demand for the scaling solution fell, the gas fees also declined. 

Read Polygon’s [MATIC] Price Prediction 2023-24

On the 14th of November, a transaction on Polygon zkEVM cost an average fee of 2.6 GWEI. This represented an 89% drop from the all-time high recorded in May. 

Source: Polygonscan

Regarding Polygon’s native token MATIC, the recent market rally has caused its price to record gains. According to CoinMarketCap, the altcoin’s value has increased by 83% in the last month.