Buy Polygon

Polygon is a network built to make Ethereum-style transactions cheap and fast enough to use for ordinary payments. It runs its own chain with its own validators, it runs the same smart contract code Ethereum does, and it periodically anchors its state back to Ethereum. POL is its token: it pays transaction fees, it secures the network through staking, and it carries governance rights.

POL was called MATIC until 2024, and the change was more than a rename. It is also the single largest source of outdated information about this asset, so it is worth dealing with first. Our guide to Ethereum covers the network Polygon anchors to, and our guide to blockchain layers explains where chains like Polygon sit in the stack.

From MATIC to POL

Polygon began life in 2017 as Matic Network, founded in India by Jaynti Kanani, Sandeep Nailwal and Anurag Arjun, with Mihailo Bjelic joining later as a co-founder. The MATIC token launched in 2019, and the project rebranded to Polygon in 2021.

The token migration began on 4 September 2024. On the Polygon chain itself the conversion was automatic and one for one: balances that were MATIC simply became POL, with nothing for holders to do. On Ethereum it was not automatic. The original MATIC contract on Ethereum still exists, and anyone holding MATIC there swaps it for POL one for one through Polygon's official portal. Polygon has not set a deadline for that, though it has said governance could set one later.

Two practical points follow. POL held in a CoinJar account is POL, and CoinJar does not ask you to migrate, swap or claim anything. And because migrations are a favourite setting for fraud, treat any site that offers to convert your tokens for you with suspicion. A genuine ticker change is handled at the network and exchange level, not by asking you to connect a wallet.

How Polygon actually works

The main Polygon chain, usually called Polygon PoS, is secured by a proof of stake validator set. Validators stake POL, produce blocks, and periodically submit signed checkpoints summarising recent activity to contracts on Ethereum. Holders who do not run a validator can delegate their POL to one and share in the rewards, in the delegated model described in our guide to crypto staking.

The marketing around this has been loose for years, so it is worth being precise about three things.

Polygon PoS is not a rollup, and Ethereum does not verify it. The contracts on Ethereum accept checkpoints signed by a supermajority of Polygon's validators. They do not check that the transactions behind those checkpoints were valid. Polygon PoS is more accurately a proof of stake sidechain, or commit chain, that uses Ethereum for settlement and anchoring rather than for security. Independent research site L2BEAT places it outside the layer two rollups for that reason and records its state validation as none.

Its security is its validator set, and control is more concentrated than it looks. The validator set is capped, entry requires a substantial stake, and control of a supermajority of that stake is effectively control of the bridge that holds assets on Ethereum. Separately, the core Ethereum contracts can be upgraded by a small group of signers, and the emergency path for doing so takes effect without a delay, which means users have no guaranteed window to exit ahead of a change they dislike.

Its performance is genuinely fast, and that is recent. The Bhilai upgrade in 2025 raised throughput and added account abstraction, Heimdall v2 in July 2025 rebuilt the consensus client and cut finality from a minute or two to a few seconds, and the Rio upgrade later that year changed how blocks are produced. The far larger throughput target Polygon markets under the gigagas banner is a roadmap goal, not a description of the network today.

That pace of change has costs. Polygon halted for around an hour in July 2025 shortly after the Heimdall upgrade, and in September 2025 a consensus bug delayed finality for roughly half a day while blocks kept being produced. Both were fixed, but they are the kind of event a fast moving chain produces.

What POL is used for

Transaction fees. Activity on Polygon is paid for in POL, and part of each fee is burned in the same way Ethereum burns a base fee. Staking. POL is staked or delegated to validators to secure the chain, and stakers share in rewards. Governance. Changes are proposed as Polygon Improvement Proposals and decided through a mix of forum discussion and on chain voting by staked POL. The governance documentation sets out the process. AggLayer. POL is the asset used to help secure Polygon's cross chain layer, described below.

POL is not hard capped. Ten billion tokens existed at the migration, matching MATIC one for one, and new POL is issued on top of that at a rate designed to run at around two per cent a year, split between validator rewards and a community treasury. That rate is set by governance rather than fixed in code: it has already been adjusted once through the proposal process, and the only hard limit is a ceiling on how fast new tokens can be minted. A further proposal to end issuance altogether and redirect treasury income into buybacks was put to the community in late 2025, and its outcome was not settled at the time of writing. Treat POL's supply as a policy that can change rather than a fixed property of the token. The POL token documentation is the primary source.

What is AggLayer?

AggLayer is Polygon's answer to fragmentation: the problem that every new chain arrives with its own liquidity, its own bridge and its own island of users. It is a settlement and interoperability layer that lets separate chains connect through a shared bridge and move assets between one another without the usual chain by chain wrapping. Our guide to bridges explains why that problem is worth solving and why bridges have historically been the most exploited part of the industry.

It is being delivered in stages rather than all at once, it is designed to accept chains that were not built with Polygon's tooling, and Polygon's own main chain was scheduled to connect to it during 2026. The interoperability documentation covers the current design. It is fair to describe AggLayer as the centre of Polygon's strategy and equally fair to describe it as under construction.

What is Polygon actually used for?

The durable uses are unglamorous ones: low value payments, stablecoin transfers, and tokenised real world assets such as money market funds and treasury products, where a few cents of cost per transaction is the difference between viable and not. Polygon Labs has explicitly repositioned around payments.

The consumer brand experiments that once dominated coverage of Polygon have mostly ended. Starbucks closed its Odyssey loyalty programme in 2024, and Nike's digital collectibles venture has gone quiet. Anyone assessing Polygon on the strength of a 2022 partnership list is reading a network that no longer exists.

What are the risks of holding POL?

Security is not inherited from Ethereum. Polygon PoS relies on its own validators, not on Ethereum verifying its work. A failure of that validator set, or of the contracts holding assets on Ethereum, is a risk to funds on the network. Concentrated control. The validator set is capped and the core contracts can be upgraded by a small multi signature group without delay. That is a trust assumption, not a technical guarantee. Supply policy can change. Issuance is set by governance rather than fixed in the way a capped supply is, and the direction of that policy has been actively contested. Execution risk. Much of the case for POL rests on delivery: AggLayer, far higher throughput and adoption as payment infrastructure. Roadmaps in this sector slip routinely. Discontinued products. Polygon has retired products before, including its zero knowledge rollup, and has changed direction more than once. Building on that record is part of the assessment. Competition. Polygon competes with Ethereum's own rollups, with alternative layer ones, and increasingly with conventional payment rails that are not on a blockchain at all. Volatility. POL is not a stablecoin. Its value moves sharply and can fall substantially. Limited protection. Cryptoassets are not covered by the Australian Government's Financial Claims Scheme, and holding POL does not give you the protections that apply to regulated financial products. You should be prepared to lose all the money you put in.

Buying POL with Australian dollars on CoinJar

CoinJar has operated since 2013 and lists POL against Australian dollars, so you can buy, sell and hold it without converting through another cryptocurrency first. Current charges are on our fees page, and live Australian dollar rates are on our cryptocurrency prices page.

CoinJar is registered with AUSTRAC as a digital currency exchange provider, Registration No. DCE100749118-001. That registration covers anti money laundering and counter terrorism financing obligations only. It is not endorsement of CoinJar's products, and it is not approval of any cryptoasset listed on the platform.

How is POL taxed in Australia?

The ATO generally treats POL as a capital gains tax asset. A disposal can occur when you sell it for Australian dollars, exchange it for another cryptoasset, spend it or give it away.

The ATO sets out its position on its crypto asset investments pages. Our guide to crypto tax in Australia provides a practical overview. This is general information, not tax advice. Consider speaking to a qualified tax adviser about your circumstances.