Polygon (MATIC) Gas Fee Spikes 13,250% to 4,005 gwei as Daily Txns Hit Yearly Peak Above 6M

Polygon (MATIC) recently recorded a massive spike in fees, as standard gas spikes 13,250% to 4,005 gwei amid a remarkable increase in daily transactions to a yearly high above 6 million.

Data from Polygonscan, the official block explorer for the Polygon network, confirms these metrics. Gas on the Polygon network now stands at 4,005 gwei for standard transactions, representing a 13,250% increase from the average gas of 30 gwei.

In addition, gas fee on the network now sits at 4,220.5 gwei for fast transactions and 4,389 gwei for rapid transactions.

A “gwei” refers to a unit of measurement for gas prices on the Polygon blockchain. The network demands gas for when users aim to carry out operations or transactions on the chain. Gwei stands for gigawei, and it is a denomination of MATIC.

Despite the recent massive spike in gas fees, the Polygon network, designed as a layer-2 chain atop Ethereum, retains its appeal of relatively lower gas fees than Ethereum. Notably, the 4,005 gwei fee translates to gas prices worth $0.08, data from Polygonscan confirms.

For context, Ethereum’s gas fee still maintains a median value of 30 gwei. Despite being perceived as less than Polygon’s due to the recent surge in Polygon gas fees, Ethereum still has a much higher fee. The 30 gwei translates to $1.30 in gas price, Etherscan data confirms.

Possible Cause

Traditionally, a spike in gas fees on a blockchain network is typically a product of network congestion. Increased transactions, driven by factors like DApp usage, token events, and external influences, contribute to rising gas fees on a network.

The primary catalyst of the surge in Polygon‘s gas fees is the inscription event of PRC-20 POLs on the Polygon blockchain and the ensuing massive increase in daily transactions, especially as recorded yesterday. 

Polygon generally boasts an average daily transaction figure of 2.25 million. However, this figure surged to 6,171,964 (6.17 million) yesterday, marking the highest number of daily transactions on Polygon this year. The last time Polygon saw this many transactions a day was in October 2021.

Amid the surging transactions, as more participants vie for inclusion in limited block space, a competitive environment ensued, prompting users to offer higher gas prices to prioritize their transactions.

Primarily, as market participants mint PRC-20 POLs on Polygon, they aim for higher gas fees for priority treatment on the network.

Meanwhile, MATIC is observing a discouraging decline in value, down 4% over the past 24 hours to $0.9047. Moreover, 24-hour trade volume has plummeted by 9.87% to $1,090,148,586.