POL (ex-MATIC) is the native gas and staking token of Polygon Chain, the proof-of-stake network formerly called Polygon PoS. It is also the utility token for Agglayer and for chains built with the Polygon Chain Development Kit (CDK). The migration from MATIC opened on 4 September 2024 at a 1:1 ratio, and by September 2025 about 99% of MATIC on the Polygon network had migrated.
At capture, POL traded at $0.09261, down 2.06% over 24 hours, with a market cap of $985.84M (rank #99) and 24h volume of $38.39M. The all-time high is $1.29, and the current price is 92.82% below it.
Core technology and architecture
Polygon Chain has two layers. Heimdall-v2 is the consensus layer. It manages validators, selects block producers, syncs state with Ethereum, and submits checkpoints to Ethereum. Bor is the execution layer, based on Go Ethereum, and produces the EVM blocks. POL pays gas on this chain.
Agglayer is CDK's interoperability layer. Assets keep their identity across chains without wrapped tokens, and cross-chain operations can be atomic. Agglayer v0.3.5 went live on 29 October 2025. In May 2026, Polygon announced that Agglayer is chain-agnostic, with the private ZK chain Miden joining on testnet.
Polygon zkEVM sunset
The zkEVM network stopped producing blocks after its sequencer was sunset in July 2026. Self-custodied funds can still be recovered on Ethereum through the Claims interface until 31 December 2027. Funds locked in DeFi protocols could not be migrated automatically.
Consensus and network security
Polygon uses proof of stake. Validators stake POL in staking contracts deployed on Ethereum mainnet, and the active set is limited to 105 validators. Sources give different minimums: 10,000 POL in the network overview, and a 100,000 POL self-stake for new validators in the validator guide.
Heimdall-v2 provides deterministic finality in 2 to 5 seconds through a milestone mechanism. The Rio upgrade, deployed in October 2025, introduced Validator-Elected Block Producer (VEBloP) architecture.
Tokenomics
- Supply: The initial supply was 10 billion POL, matching the MATIC supply at migration. Market data lists both circulating and total supply at 10,642,041,685 POL.
- Emissions: Polygon's 2024 announcement described a 2% annual emission split between validator rewards and a community treasury. Third-party trackers describe the current rate differently.
- Staking rewards: Polygon's rewards documentation allocates 12% of the 10 billion total supply to staking rewards.
- Burn: LeveX states that part of each transaction fee is burned under EIP-1559. Polygon's documentation reviewed here does not confirm this.
Primary use cases
What is POL (ex-MATIC) used for in payments and tokenization
Polygon's blog says the chain supports 5,000 payments per second after an upgrade and serves as the settlement layer for the Open Money Stack, which entered technical preview in June 2026. Polygon reports $2.6 trillion in stablecoin value moved through the network and $3.8 billion in stablecoins currently on it. These figures are self-reported.
Polygon's tokenization page reports $824M in represented asset value across 307 real-world assets. TokenSonar lists $510M in real-world asset value on Polygon.
Partnerships and ecosystem integrations
- Stripe: Enabled global USDC payments on Polygon in December 2025.
- Mastercard: In June 2026, expanded stablecoin settlement on Polygon to nights, weekends and holidays. Polygon also joined the Mastercard Crypto Partner Program in March 2026.
- Revolut: Users had processed more than $690 million in volume over Polygon by November 2025.
- Franklin Templeton: The BENJI tokenized money market fund lists Polygon among its networks and reported $1.98 billion AUM as of 29 April 2026.
- Agglayer Breakout Program: Graduating projects airdrop 5–15% of their native token supply to POL stakers.
Competitive position
Polygon positions POL as the token of a payments-focused chain, combining low fees, fast finality, stablecoin and real-world asset integrations, and shared interoperability through Agglayer. Polygon's blog cites a transaction cost of $0.002 after the February 2026 upgrade. A BCG report puts native stablecoin transfers at $0.0004 on Polygon, against a $0.01 minimum on Ethereum.
Development activity and roadmap
The Gigagas roadmap, announced in June 2025, targets 100,000 TPS with near-instant finality by 2026. Polygon reports 5,000 payments per second as of June 2026, roughly 5% of that target. Recent upgrades include:
- Bhilai (July 2025): Gas limit raised from 30M to 45M, with gasless transactions via EIP-7702.
- Heimdall v2 (July 2025): Finality cut to about 5 seconds.
- Rio (October 2025): VEBloP block production.
- February 2026: About 2,600 TPS at roughly $0.002 per transaction.
Who is behind POL (ex-MATIC) and where is it based?
Matic Network was founded in 2017 by Jaynti Kanani, Sandeep Nailwal and Anurag Arjun, and the project was renamed Polygon Technology in February 2021. Mihailo Bjelic joined as a co-founder later. Bjelic stepped down in May 2025, leaving Nailwal as the last remaining original founder, according to CoinDesk. Nailwal became CEO of the Polygon Foundation in June 2025. Marc Boiron is CEO of Polygon Labs. Polygon's About page also lists Jake Werrett as Chief Legal Officer and Joe Hamade as Chief Financial Officer.
The Polygon Foundation is a Cayman Islands foundation company, according to POLTRACK's review of a January 2023 Polygon announcement. The parent, Polygon Labs Holdings (Cayman) Ltd, is registered in the Cayman Islands. POLTRACK's review of the POL MiCA white paper names Matic Network (BVI) Ltd as the POL issuer. Polygon's terms of use are governed by Cayman Islands law.
Sources differ on location. CoinDesk describes Polygon Labs as Cayman Islands-based, PitchBook lists Cayman Islands and New York addresses, and Preqin lists Bangalore. Livemint reports that the founders formed the project in Mumbai.
Ultimate ownership is not publicly resolved. Polygon's January 2023 announcement said Polygon Labs was owned entirely by the Foundation. A 2023 US lobbying disclosure, cited by POLTRACK, reported an indirect split of 77.24% Foundation and 22.76% Bjelic.
In January 2026, Polygon Labs agreed to acquire Coinme and Sequence for more than $250 million. It completed the Coinme acquisition in October 2026. In July 2026, Polygon Labs announced a second round of layoffs, and Boiron said the company aims to be profitable in 2027.