From MATIC to POL: Understanding Polygon’s Major Upgrade

You may have opened your portfolio or a price-tracking app and noticed something odd. The MATIC ticker has disappeared and a new token called POL has taken its place.

If you have been holding for a while or using cold storage, this can feel worrying. You might be wondering whether something has gone wrong or if your MATIC has somehow been removed.

Your funds have not vanished. This is the result of a planned technical upgrade by the Polygon team, designed to move the project from a single main chain to a broader network of connected blockchains.

The shift from MATIC to POL

In September 2024, Polygon carried out a token migration that gradually retired MATIC and introduced POL. The change was part of what the team calls “Polygon 2.0”, a wider technical roadmap for the network.

MATIC has been in use since 2017, when Polygon (then called Matic Network) mostly ran as one sidechain that helped scale Ethereum. Since then, Polygon has added new technologies such as Zero-Knowledge (ZK) rollups and tools for building dedicated application chains. The original token model was not designed for this newer, multi-chain structure.

POL is intended to replace MATIC over time as the main token used for securing Polygon chains, paying transaction fees, and participating in network governance.

Why the upgrade was introduced

Polygon’s long-term plan centres on something it calls the Aggregation Layer, or “AggLayer”.

Today, many blockchains work like separate islands. Moving assets or data from one chain to another is often slow, can be costly, and usually depends on bridges that add extra risk.

Polygon’s AggLayer is intended to help different chains in the Polygon ecosystem feel more connected. Instead of each chain needing its own separate validator set and token, the idea is that one shared security layer can support several chains at once.

POL is built for this model. Validators can stake POL to help secure multiple Polygon-based blockchains at the same time. In return, they may receive rewards from several chains, without having to manage a different staking token for each one.

This design is sometimes described by Polygon as “hyperproductive staking”. In practical terms, it means a single staked token, used to support and secure many chains within the same network.

Practical examples: POL in everyday use

For most regular users, the move from MATIC to POL does not change how you use the network on a daily basis. The main difference is the name and contract of the token.

Here are some of the main uses of POL:

• Gas fees
  On Polygon’s Proof-of-Stake (PoS) chain, users used MATIC to pay for transaction fees when swapping tokens, using DeFi, or buying NFTs. POL now fills that role. Costs are still lower compared with Ethereum mainnet, since Polygon is built as a scaling solution. While Ethereum's Dencun upgrade has significantly reduced mainnet fees, Polygon transactions remain cheaper at the time of writing.

• Staking and validation
  Users who help secure the network by delegating tokens to validators, or by running validators themselves, now stake POL instead of MATIC. In the longer term, the multi-chain design means validators may be able to support several Polygon chains with the same stake, and earn rewards from each, subject to protocol rules and economic conditions.

• Governance
  POL is also intended as a governance token. Holders may be able to vote on proposals that affect protocol upgrades, treasury decisions, and key parameters. The exact governance rights depend on how Polygon’s community and developers implement the system over time.

As always, returns from staking or any on-chain activity are not guaranteed. They depend on market prices, network usage, protocol settings, and smart contract risk.

What happened to your MATIC?

Whether you need to take any action depends on where you held your tokens during the migration.

Tokens held on the Polygon PoS network

If you held MATIC directly on the Polygon PoS chain, the upgrade was handled via a smart contract change on 4 September 2024. Balances that appeared as MATIC on Polygon PoS should now appear as POL.

In this case, there is usually no need to carry out a manual swap. Your tokens should already function as POL on the network.

Tokens held on centralised exchanges

Most large exchanges managed the migration on behalf of their customers, or offered them an option to manually swap MATIC for POL. Where supported, MATIC balances in exchange wallets could be typically converted to POL at a 1:1 ratio.

You don’t need to worry about this if you are on CoinJar Ireland, as MATIC was retired before CoinJar Ireland was launched.

If you are unsure how other exchanges handled this, check their official migration announcement or your transaction history. The ticker in your account should now show POL if the migration is complete.

Tokens held on Ethereum (ERC‑20)

The main area where manual action may still be needed is for “legacy” MATIC on Ethereum mainnet.

If you hold MATIC as an ERC‑20 token on Ethereum (for example in a Ledger, Trezor, or MetaMask wallet connected to Ethereum rather than Polygon PoS), it probably did not change automatically.

To upgrade these tokens, users generally need to interact with the official Polygon migration or portal interface and swap ERC‑20 MATIC for ERC‑20 POL. This is a standard Ethereum transaction and requires ETH in your wallet to pay gas fees.

Before doing anything:

• Confirm the correct official website or portal through Polygon’s official documentation or social media accounts.
• Double check the token contract addresses from trusted sources, such as the Polygon website or well-known blockchain explorers.
• Consider testing the process with a small amount first to reduce the impact of any mistakes.

If you are not confident using self-custodial wallets or interacting with smart contracts, you may wish to seek independent guidance, or consider using regulated service providers that support the migration.

Security and risks

Major token migrations often attract scams and phishing attempts. Criminals rely on confusion around new token names, contracts, and processes to trick users into signing malicious transactions.

Being cautious is particularly important if you are interacting with new websites or upgrading tokens from a self-custodial wallet.

Red flags to watch for

• Fake migration websites
  Scammers may pay for adverts that appear when you search for terms like “Swap MATIC to POL” or “Polygon migration”. These sites may copy the design of real pages but attempt to get you to approve transactions that drain your wallet.

• Unsolicited “support” messages
  Genuine support staff from Polygon, CoinJar, or other reputable platforms will not contact you first in private messages to ask for seed phrases, passwords, or to “verify” your wallet. Anyone who does this should be treated as suspicious.

• Pressure and threats
  Fraudsters often claim that your tokens will be deleted, burned, or blocked unless you act “immediately”. While some migrations may have long-term timelines or cut-off dates, real projects explain these clearly on official channels, not through private messages or threats.

To reduce risk:

• Type official URLs directly into your browser or use trusted bookmarks, instead of clicking links from emails or social media.
• Verify announcements using several independent official channels, such as Polygon’s website and multiple verified accounts.
• Keep your seed phrase and private keys offline and never share them with anyone.

As with any on-chain activity, there is always a risk of loss through user error, smart contract failures, or security breaches.

The future direction of Polygon

The shift from MATIC to POL is part of Polygon’s attempt to position itself as a network that can support many interconnected chains, rather than just a single Ethereum sidechain.

The aim is that developers can launch their own Polygon-based blockchains that still benefit from shared security and liquidity, all coordinated through the AggLayer and secured using POL.

If this strategy works as intended, users might interact with a range of applications that all sit on different Polygon-based chains, without needing to manage several different tokens or bridge assets manually. In this scenario, POL would operate in the background as the common token used for fees, staking, and coordination.

There are, however, still uncertainties. Competing scaling solutions, changes in Ethereum itself, regulatory developments, and technical execution all affect whether Polygon’s long-term plan will succeed. As with any crypto-asset, there is a real risk that the value of POL could fall sharply, including to zero.

Anyone considering buying, holding, or staking POL should take time to understand how the network works, how the migration affects their specific holdings, and what risks they are comfortable with.