PolygonOriginally launched in 2017 as a general-purpose Ethereum scaling solution, it repositioned itself as a private payment blockchain in 2026. CoinGeckoIts new report details how the network is strengthening its infrastructure, forging strategic partnerships, and delivering impressive on-chain activity metrics despite a broader industry shift than traditional DeFi.
Over the past 18 months, Polygon It has completed six major network upgrades, the last of which will arrive on March 4, 2026.
These improvements increased the gas limit from 65 million to 110 million, increasing the theoretical throughput to over 2,600 transactions per second.
In parallel, the founding partner Sandeep Nail Wall He assumed the role of CEO of the Polygon Foundation in June 2025.
The leadership change coincided with two major acquisitions (payment rails Coinme and Sequence) that together valued it at $250 million, underscoring the chain’s move into real-world finance infrastructure.
The centerpiece of this strategy is the “Open Coin Pile” announced on January 8, 2026.
This modular, vertically integrated platform allows businesses, fintechs, and payment applications to be built directly on-chain without incorporating separate wallet, compliance, or liquidity layers.
The announcement triggered an immediate 38% rise in the price of POL, pushing the price from roughly $0.13 to $0.18.
High-profile partnerships followed: rebel Global payments provider Flutterwave and US processor Shift4 (transacting over $200 billion annually) are integrating the network, while Polygon is now reaching $1.2 billion in volume across the board. On-chain data reflects this momentum.
Monthly transactions rose from 116 million to an all-time high of 204 million in February 2026.
Monthly active users, which stabilized at around 6-8 million in early 2025, increased in late Q4 and continued to grow.
Polygon ranks as the second most active chain and top EVM chain for USDC addresses. stablecoin transfers in general.
Stablecoin supply on the network has nearly doubled (99.8% growth) to $3.28 billion (well above the global average) as of February 2026, while payment processor volumes have also increased by 409% to nearly $2 billion per month.
Total Value Locked (TVL) increased by 40.1% year-on-year to $1.17 billion as of end-January 2026.
Polimarket This accounts for 24.3% of TVL ($375 million), followed by decentralized exchange QuickSwap ($451 million).
Network revenue also increased fivefold in January 2026, largely driven by payment activity and prediction market usage.
Successful migration from MATIC to POL reached 99% by September 2025, and a record 28.2 million POL tokens were burned in February 2026, creating new deflationary pressure.
Challenges continue. DEX In 2025, volume fell 32% to $39.5 billion, pushing Polygon out of the top ten chains in terms of trading activity.
staking After legacy emissions ended, APRs settled at a modest 2.5-3%. But these numbers seem secondary to the network’s new identity.
With a revenue of 3.4 billion dollars stablecoin With liquidity, seven years of operational maturity, and institutional partners, Polygon is positioning itself to challenge both legacy payment rails and competing blockchains. solana and Base are in a race to move money on chain.
CoinGecko report It paints a clear picture: Polygon is no longer competing as an all-encompassing Tier-2. became focused payments center – and measurements at the beginning of 2026 show that the bet is already paying off.
