<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">DraftKings, a sports-betting company with a $20 billion market capitalization, <a href="https://www.globenewswire.com/news-release/2021/10/18/2315786/0/en/Polygon-and-DraftKings-Enter-Into-a-Strategic-Blockchain-Agreement.html">announced</a> Monday that it will become a full validator for the Polygon Network, an Ethereum-based scaling platform. </span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">DraftKings Marketplace, an ecosystem that focuses specifically on NFTs, will launch a node on the Polygon Network to authenticate transitions using a proof-of-stake consensus protocol — reducing the carbon and monetary cost of each transaction. This marketplace has previously used Polygon.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“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, co-founder and president of global product and technology at DraftKings, in a statement.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">In late August of this year, DraftKings collaborated with the <a href="https://www.theblockcrypto.com/linked/114064/draftkings-launches-nft-marketplace-with-first-drop-featuring-tom-brady">Tom Brady</a>-backed NFT marketplace Autograph to launch Preseason Access Collection, a marketplace for NFT collectibles from famous athletes such as the Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt</span><span style="font-weight: 400;"> and U.S. gymnast </span><a href="https://www.theblockcrypto.com/linked/116026/simone-biles-to-release-nft-collection-via-tom-bradys-autograph-platform"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Simone Biles</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;">. </span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Ethereum’s fees have been high since September of 2021, The Block’s data shows, adding between $20 and $40 to each transaction. The high fees, coupled with the </span><a href="https://www.theblockcrypto.com/news+/107461/the-carbon-footprint-of-nfts"><span style="font-weight: 400;">environmental impact</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> of every transaction, have urged some users to move away from Ethereum toward different, cheaper blockchains such as </span><a href="https://www.theblockcrypto.com/linked/119354/solana-nft-sells-for-2-1-million-breaking-previous-network-record"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Solana</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> and now </span><a href="https://www.theblockcrypto.com/post/114479/polygon-hermez-merger-matic-hez-tokens-ethereum-projects"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Polygon</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;">. </span></p> <p><iframe frameborder="0" height="420" src="https://embed.theblockcrypto.com/data/on-chain-metrics/ethereum/average-transaction-fee-on-ethereum/embed" title="Average Transaction Fee on Ethereum (7DMA)" width="100%"></iframe></p>