2025 marks a defining chapter in Polygon’s journey, as the network’s long-awaited migration from MATIC to POL tokens has achieved an impressive 99% completion rate. What began as a humble Ethereum scaling solution has now blossomed into a multi-chain coordination layer, uniting liquidity and security across an expanding modular ecosystem.
Having followed Polygon’s trajectory since its early “Plasma” days, this transition feels like witnessing the rebirth of a blockchain giant. The rebranding to POL isn’t just cosmetic — it represents a technological and economic upgrade built for scalability, interoperability, and sustainable growth.
At present, POL trades at $0.1931, recording a modest 2.4% dip over the last 24 hours. Yet, its trading volume surged to $81.5 million, an 11% increase day-over-day, signaling persistent investor confidence despite short-term volatility.
The POL token introduces an entirely new architecture under Polygon 2.0, serving as both the network’s gas asset and a staking engine for the “Supernets” era. Through its innovative “Super Staking” model, POL enables validators to support multiple chains simultaneously — multiplying both performance and yield opportunities, something traditional single-chain staking could never achieve.
Economically, POL features refined tokenomics: a capped supply of 10.52 billion, circulating value of $2.04 billion, and a 2% annual inflation rate designed to fund the ecosystem treasury. While some critics point to inflationary concerns, this mechanism ensures ongoing funding for developer incentives and governance stability, vital for sustaining a thriving multi-chain framework.
Polygon’s operational excellence has been on full display throughout this migration. Coinbase completed a seamless 1:1 MATIC-to-POL swap on October 17, restoring full trading activity shortly after a brief pause. For most Polygon users — especially those on zkEVM and PoS chains — the transition occurred automatically, while Ethereum holders can still upgrade manually through the Polygon Portal.
Today, POL is listed across 171 active markets, primarily traded against USDT and USDC pairs. Top-tier exchanges like Binance, OKX, and Coinbase have all finalized migration support, guaranteeing healthy liquidity and smooth accessibility for both retail and institutional participants. Despite being 48% below MATIC’s all-time high, many analysts view current valuations as undervalued given the token’s expanded role in Polygon’s future architecture.
Institutional adoption is also gaining momentum. AMINA Bank, regulated by FINMA in Switzerland, recently introduced POL staking with a 15% yield, a testament to the growing institutional confidence in Polygon’s ecosystem. Similarly, Cypher Capital is working to deepen POL liquidity across the Middle East, accelerating cross-border adoption among institutional investors.
From a technological lens, the Rio upgrade — activated on October 8 — has boosted Polygon’s mainnet throughput to 5,000 TPS, with near-instant transaction confirmations. This upgrade strengthens Polygon’s position as a global payments infrastructure, already supporting a stablecoin supply exceeding $2.6 billion, dominant in microtransactions and digital asset tokenization.
Looking ahead, POL will be the beating heart of Polygon’s trillion-dollar roadmap. As the AggLayer interoperability protocol matures, POL holders will not only benefit from one network’s success but from the collective growth of all interconnected Polygon chains — making it one of the most ambitious evolutions in blockchain history.
