BitPay Adds Support for Polygon Network and MATIC

BitPay has announced that its platform now supports the Polygon network and MATIC token, making it possible for users to buy, store, swap, and spend MATIC straight from the BitPay app, according to a press release on October 26, 2022.

BitPay Integrates Polygon & MATIC 

BitPay, one of the pioneers of Bitcoin (BTC) and crypto payments, has added support for Polygon (MATIC), a leading Ethereum layer-2 scaling network. With the integration, BitPay users from across the globe can now pay with MATIC tokens and spend other ERC-20 assets, including USDC, DAI, ETH, and WBTC via the Polygon Network.

In the same vein, BitPay merchants will be able to seamlessly accept Polygon payments from a vast array of Polygon wallets.

Per the announcement, Panini America, a top publisher of children’s magazines, comics, graphic novels, and digital collectibles marketplace with more than 1,000 collection launches each year, will be the first merchant to accept MATIC through BitPay. 

The Panini NFT marketplace offers collectors access to thousands of NBA, NHL, NFL, and other NFTs and the integration of MATIC will allow users to enjoy cheap transaction fees that come with the Polygon network.

Jason Howarth, VP Marketing, VP Marketing, Panini America  said:

“We’re really excited to be able o support another coin within the Panini Wallet, especially one so connected with the NFT market. The opportunity to partner closely with BitPay, continue to develop the Panini NFT platform, and continue to give our collectors greater payment flexibility and opinions during the NFT market cycle is a key reason we’ve chosen to work so closely with BitPay.”

Polygon (MATIC) Accelerating Web3 Adoption 

While the Ethereum mainnet remains the world’s leading smart contracts blockchain, the scalability issues and often high gas fees on the network have made layer-2 solutions such as Polygon the preferred choice for metaverse and decentralized finance (DeFi) market participants.

Since its launch during the crypto summer of 2017 by Jayanti Kanani, Sandeep Nailwal, and Anurag Arjun,  Polygon has processed over 2.1 billion transactions, boasting 174.9 million unique user addresses and is home to 37,000+ decentralized applications (dApps).

Commenting on the integration of Polygon, BitPay CEO, Stephen Pair reiterated that Polygon’s utility and massive community make it a good fit for the BitPay ecosystem, which already supports a vast array of established crypto assets including Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), Dogecoin (DOGE), Litecoin (LTC) and a host of others.

“When adding a new coin for merchants to accept, we look at many factors, but among the most important is its payment utility and community involvement. The Polygon network encourages mass adoption by enabling blockchain networks to connect and scale to support new and existing users. Adding MATIC to the mix of cryptos that BitPay supports offers businesses a fast, safe and secure alternative to traditional payment methods and paves the way for blockchain payments to disrupt the way consumers and businesses transact.”

In related news, crypto.news reported on October 11, 2022, that Polygon has successfully launched the public testnet of its zkEVM, the first open-source zk-Rollup scaling solution designed to offer unparalleled gas fee reduction and lightning-fast transactions.

At the time of writing, the price of Polygon’s native MATIC is hovering around $0.93, with a market cap of $8.23 billion.