Could DraftKings Expanding Its NFT Partnership Give Another Boost To Ethereum Layer 2 Solution Polygon?

Polygon MATIC/USD seems to be gaining some strength, trading 1.8% higher at $1.5 at press time late Monday.  The coin has soared 22% over a seven-day trailing period. On a year-to-date basis, MATIC has shot up 8269%.

What Happened: This follows DraftKings Inc DKNG announcing on Monday that it plans to use the Polygon network for custom non fungible token drops and secondary market transactions for the DraftKings Marketplace.

DraftKings Marketplace is a nascent digital collectibles “ecosystem” from the fantasy sports contest and sports betting operator.

“Scalability and sustainability remain among the critical challenges of blockchain technology, so as we lay the groundwork today for the vision of DraftKings Marketplace tomorrow, the vast insights and proven products from Polygon around scalable solutions are invaluable,” said Paul Liberman, president of global product and technology at DraftKings.

The company said it has the option of becoming a validator for Polygon and thus would be able to participate in the proof-of-stake consensus protocol for Polygon’s network.

See Also: How To Buy Polygon (MATIC)

Why It Matters: This isn't the first partnership between DraftKings and Polygon.

Since its launch in August, DraftKings Marketplace has hosted Autograph's Preseason Access Collection NFT drops, which featured collectibles involving Tom Brady, Wayne Gretzky, Naomi Osaka, Simone Biles, and Derek Jeter.

DraftKings also relied on Polygon for its NFT foray in August, as part of its partnership with Brady's Autograph platform, CoinDesk first noted.

MATIC has been on a tear this year, buoyed by the increased popularity of non fungible tokens, meme coins and decentralized applications — and the consequential congestion and escalating transaction fee on the Ethereum ETH/USD network.

The Layer 2 solution benefitted as it offers faster and cheaper transactions, which address the woes plaguing Ethereum.

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Photo: Courtesy of World Poker Tour on Flickr