- >News
- >Crypto Showdown: Polygon, Cardano Flying High in 2022
Crypto Showdown: Polygon, Cardano Flying High in 2022
After struggling like most sectors in the stock market since November, recent developments in the crypto space have brought about a wave of excitement despite the seemingly bearish outlook.
With reports of Biden’s executive order to address the lack of a regulatory framework in the U.S that would enable the development of cryptocurrencies, Bitcoin rallied on Wednesday 9th last week by 8%.
While a paltry 8% rally is nothing to write home about in regards to crypto, the lack of regulatory clarity has been cited by many as the main reason that has held the U.S back when it comes to crypto innovation. Most onlookers view Biden’s executive order to digital assets as a supportive stance towards the industry that will result in increased institutional adoption.
Two crypto projects that are set for an uptick with high levels of institutional adoption given increased support from regulators are Cardano and Polygon Matic.
After a huge rally throughout 2021 that saw both ADA and MATIC hit all-time highs, it is easy for anyone to feel like the ship has sailed on these two altcoins. However, the fundamentals of both Cardano and Polygon have never been stronger.
Here is a quick analysis of both crypto projects and what the future holds, not to mention their projected price performance.
What’s New With Polygon (MATIC)?
The 2021 bull rally saw the price of MATIC rise meteorically from a paltry price under $1 to an all-time high of nearly $3. Although the price of MATIC has dropped since then in tandem with Bitcoin and the overall crypto market, its platform has grown significantly.
For the uninitiated, Polygon is a layer 2 scaling solution on Ethereum’s blockchain that enables speedy transactions on Ethereum and at lower fees. MATIC is Polygon’s native cryptocurrency and is used to pay for transaction fees, staking, and more.
Given the high rate of adoption of NFTs, Ethereum’s network has become crowded of late leading to skyrocketing gas fees. Polygon offers a much-needed scaling solution that enables Ethereum users to bypass the high fees. However, with the advent of Ethereum Optimism (a low-cost and lightning-fast Ethereum layer 2 scaling solution) fears of Polygon becoming obsolete are on the rise. Many proponents of Polygon say that Ethereum will always need more scaling solutions, however.
Polygon continues to grow with over 7,000 decentralized applications running on its network according to reports. Just last month, Polygon raised over $400,000 from Sequoia Capital in India in a bid to pave the way for mass adoption of decentralized Web3 applications.
What’s New With Cardano (ADA)?
Cardano has also had a good run over the past year, with its ADA token rallying to $3.10 in September 2021 only to decline together with the rest of the market to its currency price below $1.
Cardano’s appeal is that it is a decentralized blockchain platform that is built with a proof-of-stake consensus algorithm. At its core, Cardano picks up on what Ethereum is doing to develop a smart contract and secure blockchain ecosystem that allows for the development of decentralized applications and other Web3 platforms. The difference is that Cardano is built on a foundation of achieving scalability right from the start, while Ethereum is only now working to develop a more scalable solution to its congested network.
Cardano lays claim to one of the most energy-efficient proof-of-stake algorithms called Ouroboros, which offers increased bandwidth and a capacity to process a significant volume of transactions per second.
Thanks to a strong team of developers backing it, Cardano has achieved several milestones recently. In January 2022, Cardano launched the SundaeSwap DEX (decentralized exchange), much to the excitement of the community as ADA rallied to a high of $1.63. Cardano has also partnered with EMURGO in a move to build a community-generated and maintained tool stack for dApp (decentralized application) development.
This partnership will enable developers to easily access tools when building dApps on Cardano. According to Ken Kodama (EMURGO’s CEO) “the new tool stack will provide developers with further useful options to build socially impactful dApps on Cardano.”
Upcoming Price Developments for Both Coins
Going forward, both ADA and MATIC seem primed for an uptick despite the bearish outlook of the overall crypto market.
At their currency prices, both coins seem to have established a decent accumulation phase with ADA and MATIC hovering around the price marks of $1 and $1.5 respectively.
Future projections from market watchers could have ADA go past its previous all-time high and hit a price of $8, with MATIC going as high as $11. It’s important to note this article is not financial advice and there are no guarantees in crypto.
Conclusion: Two Different Approaches to Crypto
Ethereum aside, Cardano (ADA) and Polygon (MATIC) are some of the leading blockchain ecosystems promoting the development of decentralized applications in a move towards a Web3 internet.
With the increased adoption of cryptocurrencies, and the formulation of favorable regulations, these two crypto projects will be able to attract many institutional investors well into the future.
Polygon will forever be linked to Ethereum and much of its success will always be related to ETH. Meanwhile Cardano is attempting to built an entirely new system.
It’s not all roses, however. Polygon’s value may go down if Ethereum scales effortlessly and Cardano has had trouble launching smart contracts (which many other competing projects already have live).
