Polygon, originally launched in 2017 as a general-purpose Ethereum scaling solution, has repositioned itself as a specialized payments blockchain in 2026. CoinGecko’s new report details how the network has strengthened its infrastructure, forged strategic partnerships, and delivered impressive on-chain activity metrics despite a broader industry shift away from traditional DeFi.
Over the past 18 months, Polygon completed six major network upgrades, the latest arriving on March 4, 2026.
These improvements raised the gas limit from 65 million to 110 million, pushing theoretical throughput above 2,600 transactions per second.
In parallel, co-founder Sandeep Nailwal assumed the role of CEO of the Polygon Foundation in June 2025.
The leadership change coincided with two sizable acquisitions—payment rails Coinme and Sequence—valued together at $250 million, underscoring the chain’s pivot toward real-world financial infrastructure.
The centerpiece of this strategy is the “Open Money Stack,” unveiled on January 8, 2026.
This modular, vertically integrated platform lets enterprises, fintechs, and payment apps build directly on-chain without stitching together separate wallet, compliance, or liquidity layers.
The announcement triggered an immediate 38% rally in POL’s price, lifting it from roughly $0.13 to $0.18.
High-profile partnerships followed: Revolut now routes up to $1.2 billion in volume across Polygon, while global payments provider Flutterwave and U.S. processor Shift4 (handling over $200 billion annually) have integrated the network.On-chain data reflects this momentum.
Monthly transactions climbed from 116 million to an all-time high of 204 million in February 2026.
Monthly active users, which had stabilized around 6–8 million earlier in 2025, surged in late Q4 and continued growing.
Polygon ranks as the second-most active chain for USDC addresses and the top EVM chain for stablecoin transfers overall.
Stablecoin supply on the network nearly doubled (99.8% growth) to $3.28 billion by February 2026—well above the global average—while payment-processor volumes surged 409% to nearly $2 billion monthly.
Total Value Locked (TVL) rose 40.1% year-over-year to $1.17 billion by the end of January 2026.
Polymarket accounts for 24.3% of that TVL at $375 million, followed closely by decentralized exchange QuickSwap ($451 million).
Network revenue also spiked fivefold in January 2026, driven largely by payment activity and prediction-market usage.
The successful migration from MATIC to POL reached 99% completion by September 2025, and a record 28.2 million POL tokens were burned in February 2026, introducing fresh deflationary pressure.
Challenges remain. DEX volume slipped 32% to $39.5 billion in 2025, pushing Polygon out of the top-ten chains by trading activity.
Staking APRs have settled at a modest 2.5–3% after legacy emissions ended. Yet these figures appear secondary to the network’s new identity.
With $3.4 billion in stablecoin liquidity, seven years of operational maturity, and institutional partners on board, Polygon is positioning itself to challenge both legacy payment rails and rival blockchains such as Solana and Base in the race to move money on-chain.
CoinGecko’s report paints a clear outlook: Polygon is no longer competing as a catch-all Layer-2. It has become a focused payments hub—and early 2026 metrics suggest the bet is already paying off.
