Activity on the Tezos ($XTZ) network has exploded over the last few months as non-fungible tokens (NFTs) on it gain adoption and after the number of smart contracts within it tripled last year from about 200 to over 600.

According to Coin Metrics’ latest “State of the Network” report, daily transactions on Tezos jumped in August of last year after it launched an upgrade that cut average block times in half. Transactions involving smart contracts similarly jumped, as NFT platforms like FX Hash started to see increased interest.

Tezos has notably been chosen by French video game developer Ubisoft to launch gaming NFTs within its network, as well as by McLaren Racing, which launched an NFT collection called the “McLaren Racing Collective,” in a move made to engage with Formula 1’s over 87 million fans.

Source: Coin Metrics

The number of addresses holding at least 1 XTZ recently surpassed 300,000, up from around 120,000 at the same time last year. Active addresses on the network, Coin Metrics details, also moved up significantly.

Tezos, it’s worth noting, also recently launched an upgrade to its network that reduced smart contract fees by a whopping 75%, which allowed it to reach a record six million contract calls this month, according to Tezos.

Tezos’ growing adoption suggests it may compete with other smart contract platforms like Ethereum and the Binance Smart Chain when it comes to decentralized finance (DeFi). Tezos, according to DeFiLlama, currently has close to $90 million in total value locked within its DeFi ecosystem.

As CryptoGlobe reported investors have recently gained a new way to gain exposure to the cryptocurrency, after digital asset investment firm CoinShares has announced the launch of two new physically-backed exchange-traded products (ETPs), one for Tezos ($XTZ) and one for Polkadot ($DOT). Both ETPs are designed to share the rewards of staking their underlying assets with investors.

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