Week #35 – Cryptocurrencies with Recent Developments to Watch This Week

This week’s highlights bring strong momentum across some of the biggest Ethereum scaling ecosystems. From Polygon’s deepening role in payments to Optimism’s technical upgrades and Starknet’s bold shift toward Bitcoin staking, each network is showing how innovation and adoption trends could impact token performance and future growth.

Polygon (MATIC)

Polygon had a strong week, ranking second in net flows across all blockchain networks with $168.3 million, trailing only Ethereum. According to a post from Polygon CEO Sandeep this week, this included $168 million in net inflows, as well as over $1 billion in LATAM trading volume this year, underlining its position as a key player in emerging markets where stablecoin adoption drives demand. Together, these indicators highlight growing institutional and retail confidence in Polygon’s infrastructure, which continues to strengthen its role as a trusted hub for capital movement and payments. MATIC is currently trading at $0.2437, up 4.3% month-on-month.

Optimism (OP)

Optimism announced a major partnership with Flashbots to revamp how transactions are processed across its OP Stack ecosystem. By integrating Flashbots’ infrastructure—which already builds over 90% of Ethereum blocks—Optimism aims to deliver near-instant confirmations, customizable sequencing, and more user-friendly transaction ordering across its Superchain. This upgrade could significantly enhance both speed and reliability for OP Stack networks, potentially making Optimism more attractive for developers and users seeking scalable Ethereum solutions. Following the announcement, OP surged 16% to a high of $0.80, before correcting slightly to around $0.73 at the time of writing.

Starknet (STRK)

Starknet ratified a proposal to include Bitcoin in its staking system, marking a major milestone for Ethereum Layer 2 design. The upgrade, supported by 93.6% of voters, allows tokenized Bitcoin (such as Wrapped Bitcoin, tBTC, and others) to participate in consensus with up to 25% influence alongside STRK. This move not only diversifies Starknet’s staking model but also taps into the broader industry trend of mobilizing Bitcoin liquidity for DeFi. By giving BTC holders a new way to engage with Starknet, the protocol may attract additional capital while reinforcing its reputation as a pioneer in zero-knowledge scaling. STRK is currently trading at $0.1339, very steady and up 1.05% over the past month.