• Polygon zkEVM has failed to live up to the hype, and in recent weeks, its daily active addresses, transactions, and total value locked have been dipping progressively.
• Polygon has teamed up with industry players in the Ramp Up campaign over the entire of February to reignite DeFi on zkEVM with a $50,000 prize pool,

Polygon zkEVM launched last year to much hype as the best scaling protocol for the Ethereum network, and while its technology remains unquestionable, its performance has waned in recent months. An event that kicked off on February 1st could change all this and offer the Layer 2 solution a chance at reigniting DeFi interest.

Polygon announced the campaign this week, boldly claiming that “the DeFi projects are coming to Polygon zkEVM.” It has partnered on the initiative with Layer3, a solution for user acquisition and retention in the realm of Web3.

The Ramp Up campaign will have a prize pool of $50,000, which 18 of the leading DeFi platforms will compete for from February 1st to 28th. Users can earn a share of the reward by participating in the campaign through some of the top DeFi platforms that will take part in the campaign.

Some projects that have confirmed their participation include Sushi Swap, the leading decentralized exchange deployed on over 30 blockchains.

Others include REX Protocol, a feeless order book DEX; RoseonX, a gamified derivatives DEX; Thora Finance, a decentralized non-custodial liquidity market protocol; QuickSwap, a Polygon-based DEX; and Gravita Protocol, an Ether-based borrowing protocol for liquidity staking tokens.

Mantis Swap, Aboard Exchange, Dyson Finance, Converge Exchange and Dirac Finance also confirmed their participation. Pancake Swap, the leading DeFi protocol native to the BNB Chain, is also among the participants.

While announcing its participation, perpetual futures exchange D8X stated, “Dive into a world of DeFi Innovation! Be part of this extraordinary journey where DeFi meets opportunity. It’s more than an event; it’s the future of finance—ramping up!”

Can the Ramp Up Campaign Revive Polygon zkEVM?

The next four weeks will be critical to Polygon zkEVM and any aspirations it harbors to become Ethereum’s ultimate scaling solution. Its performance over recent months has dipped, and a concerted effort by leading DEXes could be the Hail Mary that reverses the trend.

Polygon zkEVM has witnessed a dip in daily active addresses over the past month, from a peak of 21,560 in late November to the latest figure of 5,800, which is close to a 75% wipeoff. With the dip in addresses has come a consequent drop in transactions, which, after peaking north of 100,000 in November, have barely hit 30,000 in two months.

Predictably, the total volume locked has also dipped from a height of $23 million to $14 million at press time. The only metric that had some consistency is revenue, which has held at around $10,000 despite some volatility in the first half of December.

MATIC, the network’s native token, has increased 5% in the past day and 10% over the past week to trade at $0.808 at press time.

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