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MATIC, the native token of Polygon, an Ethereum sidechain, has experienced a significant surge in value recently, following the overall positive performance of the cryptocurrency market. MATIC has seen a 5% increase in the past 24 hours and is approaching its previous high from July 23. This upward trend can be attributed to rising trading volume and improving sentiment among traders.The recent rally in MATIC can also be attributed to Polygon Village’s announcement of a 110 million MATIC grant. This grant will be distributed to projects that aim to deploy decentralized finance (DeFi), gaming, and social media solutions on the Polygon sidechain. Late-stage projects can receive direct grants of up to 2 million MATIC, while early-stage projects and startups can apply for quadratic funding grants. The popularity of a project among crypto holders will determine the amount of MATIC it receives, although it is unclear how Polygon Labs will address the issue of bots inflating popularity.Polygon has gained prominence as a scaling solution for Ethereum, particularly in the realm of DeFi, as evidenced by its statistics and total value locked (TVL). The platform is compatible with the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM), allowing protocols to easily connect with the Ethereum mainnet without compromising security. By utilizing Polygon, projects can operate in a highly scalable environment with lower fees, making it ideal for intensive dapps such as social media platforms and decentralized exchanges (DEXes).In addition, Polygon is undergoing a transition where it will gradually replace MATIC with POL, a token that will power the broader ecosystem, including supernets and layer-2 networks. This transition will also involve the integration of zero-knowledge (ZK) technology into all of Polygon’s products. Manta Network, for example, has already integrated Polygon’s Chain Development Kit (CDK) to migrate from its initial launch on an optimistic rollup. This integration allows Manta to settle transactions faster and confidentially using zk Rollup technology.Overall, Polygon’s rise in stature as a scaling solution for Ethereum, coupled with the recent MATIC rally and the introduction of the 110 million MATIC grant, highlights the platform’s growing importance in the crypto space.