According to Cointelegraph: On the back of a rush to mint a new token dubbed POLS, a wave of high activity sent gas fees on the Ethereum layer-2 Polygon network soaring by over 1000%. During the frenzy, network fees peaked at $0.10, marking an exceptionally high figure for the network.
Polygon founder Sandeep Nailwal brought attention to this unprecedented surge in network activity in a Nov. 16 post on X (formerly Twitter), attributing the spike possibly to a new Polygon-based nonfungible token (NFT) collection launch.
Data from Dune Analytics highlighted a burst of POLS minting activity, seemingly triggering the elevated network activity and spike in gas fees. The data reveal that the POLS frenzy saw over 102 million MATIC tokens, approximately worth $86 million at prevailing rates, being consumed as gas fees.
Built on a protocol known as PRC-20 that resonates with the Bitcoin Ordinals-derived BRC-20 token standard, POLS has gained considerable attention. Only roughly 8.7% of the total supply of POLS has been minted to date, with just above 18,100 owners claiming the token, according to Ethereum Virtual Machine data provider EVM.
An analogous surge in network activity was observed on the Bitcoin network earlier this year in May post the release of the Ordinals protocol. This facilitated users to mint NFTs directly onto the Bitcoin blockchain and ignited an intense frenzy for Ordinals NFTs and BRC-20 tokens.
While the network fees have retreated to regular levels around 882 gwei since the POLS rush, it's a reminder of how emerging tokens can fuel intense network activity and significantly impact transaction costs.
