Gas fees on Ethereum’s Layer-2 network, Polygon, experienced an astonishing surge, skyrocketing by over 1,000% to peak at $0.10.
This sudden escalation in fees was triggered by an influx of users flooding the network while minting tokens inspired by Ordinals, known as POLS tokens.
Polygon founder, Sandeep Nailwal, expressed his astonishment on Nov. 16, through a post on X (formerly Twitter), as he observed this unprecedented transactional activity.
Speculation circulated that this surge might have been linked to the launch of a new nonfungible token (NFT) collection built on the Polygon network.
The primary driver behind the surge in network activity and the subsequent spike in gas fees was the fervor surrounding the minting of POLS tokens.
Data from Dune Analytics revealed a rush of minting activity coinciding with the use of over 102 million MATIC tokens, valued at $86 million at current market prices, for gas.
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The POLS token is based on the PRC-20 protocol, which functions similarly to the Bitcoin Ordinals-derived BRC-20 token standard.
As per data from Ethereum Virtual Machine data provider EVM, only 8.7% of the total POLS supply has been minted, with slightly over 18,100 individuals claiming ownership of the token.
As of the time of this publication, Polygon’s gas fees have reverted to their typical levels, settling at around 882 gwei.
Gas fees measure the computational effort required to execute transactions on a blockchain, with 1 gwei being approximately equivalent to 0.000000001 MATIC.
This surge in gas fees on Polygon resembles a similar occurrence on the Bitcoin network earlier in the year.
In May, the Bitcoin network experienced a prolonged surge in activity following the release of the Ordinals protocol, allowing users to mint NFTs directly on the Bitcoin blockchain.
The ensuing frenzy for Ordinals NFTs and BRC-20 tokens led to Bitcoin fees reaching levels not seen since April 2021.
Some more traditional Bitcoin enthusiasts, like Samson Mow and Adam Back, criticized the NFT protocol and token standard as wasteful due to this development.
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