Polygon (MATIC) emerged as one of the best performers among high-ranking cryptocurrencies on Jan. 26 as the price rose nearly 17% to reach an intraday high at $1.825.
The gains surfaced amid a synchronous rebound across the crypto market that started on Jan. 24. In detail, investors and traders poured in over $250 billion across digital assets, benefiting Bitcoin (BTC), Ether (ETH) and many others in the process.
Performance of the top-fifteen cryptocurrencies in the last 15 days. Source: TradingView
Polygon, a secondary scaling solution for the Ethereum blockchain, also cashed in on the crypto market rebound. The valuation of its native token, MATIC, rose from as low as $9.77 billion on Jan.24 to as high as $13.58 billion two days later.
Meanwhile, its price jumped from $1.312 to $1.825 in the same period — that’s nearly a 40% gain in just three days.
Fed meeting and high-profile hiring
The latest bout of buying in the Polygon market appeared ahead of a Federal Reserve announcement about its interest rate increase scheduled to come on the afternoon of Jan. 26.
In detail, cryptocurrencies have also been through several whipsaws in recent months over expectations that the U.S. central bank would embark on a series of interest rate hikes to fight inflation. Similarly, stock markets have suffered because of the prospect of the Fed’s shrinking balance sheet and higher rates.
According to Luca Paolini, the chief strategist at Pictet Asset Management, people may have expectations that the recent turmoil in the stock market and a rising rift between Ukraine and Russia that has drawn in NATO allies’ focus may have the Fed tone down its rate hike rhetorics.
Waiting for the FED to speak today.
— David Gokhshtein (@davidgokhshtein) January 26, 2022
Nonetheless, Polygon managed to outperform top rivals like Bitcoin and Ethereum in terms of intraday gains, and it appears a high-profile hiring was the core reason behind it.
As Cointelegraph reported on Jan. 25, YouTube’s head of gaming, Ryan Watts, left the streaming giant to join Polygon Studios, a gaming and nonfungible token (NFT), backed by the namesake layer-2…
..
