Why did the price of POL fall?

Polygon (POL) dropped 4% in the last 24 hours, tracking a 3.36% decline across the overall crypto market. The main reasons behind this move are:

1. Coinbase MATIC delisting – The final step in switching from MATIC to POL caused selling pressure.
2. Market-wide downturn – Aftershocks from a $19 billion liquidation event in October continue to affect prices.
3. Technical weakness – POL’s price fell below important support levels, signaling further downside risk.

In-Depth Analysis

1. Coinbase MATIC-to-POL Swap (Negative Impact)

What happened: On October 14, 2025, Coinbase stopped trading MATIC, completing Polygon’s year-long switch to POL. Any remaining MATIC tokens on Coinbase are being converted to POL at a 1:1 rate. However, transfers are paused until October 18 (MEXC News).

Why it matters:

• Short-term uncertainty: Traders might sell POL due to confusion or the mechanics of the migration.
• Limited liquidity: With withdrawals paused from October 14 to 18, fewer participants can trade, which can increase volatility.
• Historical trend: Since the migration started in 2024, POL has lost over 40% of its value, showing ongoing selling pressure.

What to watch: How POL trades after October 18, once full exchange functionality returns, will be key to understanding if the token can stabilize.

2. Market-Wide Risk Aversion (Negative Impact)

What happened: The crypto market is still feeling the effects of a major crash on October 10, caused by geopolitical tensions like U.S.-China tariff issues and $19 billion in forced liquidations (MEXC News).

Why it matters:

• POL’s price movement closely followed the overall market, which dropped 3.36% in 24 hours, while POL fell 3.97%.
• Investor sentiment is cautious: The Fear & Greed Index is at 42 (Neutral), down from 62 (Greed) last week.
• Altcoins are underperforming: The Altcoin Season Index dropped 50% over the past month, favoring Bitcoin over riskier tokens like POL.

3. Technical Breakdown (Negative Impact)

What happened: POL’s price fell below key support levels, showing signs of weakness:

• Price vs. Moving Averages: Trading below the 7-day average ($0.21) and 30-day average ($0.23).
• RSI (Relative Strength Index): At 41.6 (14-day), indicating weak buying interest.
• MACD (Moving Average Convergence Divergence): Negative value (-0.0031), confirming bearish momentum.

Why it matters: Traders are likely exiting positions due to lack of positive signals. The next important support level to watch is the Fibonacci 61.8% retracement at $0.1867.

Conclusion

POL’s recent decline is driven by a combination of migration-related selling, overall market caution, and technical weakness. Although Polygon’s ecosystem continues to expand—such as AMINA Bank offering 15% staking rewards—short-term market sentiment is currently overshadowing these positives.

What to watch next: Will POL hold the $0.1867 support level? And can trading activity after October 18, when Coinbase resumes POL transfers, help stabilize the token? Keep an eye on Coinbase’s POL liquidity and broader market recovery signs.

What could affect the price of POL?

Polygon’s price is currently caught between promising technical improvements and challenging market conditions.

1. Migration Completion – The switch from MATIC to POL tokens is done, which clears up uncertainty but could lead to some selling pressure.
2. Rio Upgrade – New features like validator staking and cross-chain tools are designed to increase usage.
3. Institutional Demand – Regulated staking programs may help create steady, long-term interest.

Deep Dive

1. Migration Finalization (Mixed Impact)

Overview: Coinbase finished the MATIC to POL token swap on October 14, ending a year-long process. More than 99% of MATIC tokens have been converted to POL. However, since the migration started in September 2024, the token price has dropped about 40%. Token migrations often cause short-term price swings as some holders sell off their old tokens.

What this means: Completing the migration removes a major technical uncertainty. Still, leftover MATIC tokens held by inactive wallets might be sold, putting downward pressure on POL’s price. On the positive side, since POL’s total supply now matches MATIC’s, the reduced token inflation could help stabilize prices after the transition.

2. Rio Upgrade & Staking (Bullish Impact)

Overview: Polygon’s Rio upgrade, active since September 2025, introduced new features like validator-elected block producers and tools that allow different blockchains to work together, aiming for faster transaction speeds (up to 5,000 transactions per second). AMINA Bank has launched regulated POL staking services for institutions, offering yields up to 15%. You can read more about this here.

What this means: These improvements could attract more decentralized finance (DeFi) projects and enterprise users, increasing the demand for POL tokens for transaction fees and staking. Institutional involvement through AMINA, which manages $4.2 billion, might reduce the number of tokens available on the market and improve liquidity.

3. Macro Sentiment & Crypto Crash (Bearish Impact)

Overview: POL’s price dropped 22% last week during a $19 billion sell-off in the crypto market on October 13, 2025. The overall crypto market value fell 12% over the past month, while Bitcoin’s market share increased to 59%, indicating investors are favoring safer assets.

What this means: POL’s price movement is closely tied to Ethereum’s performance (down 30% monthly), and the weak performance of other altcoins suggests limited price growth until the broader market improves.

Conclusion

Polygon’s future depends on whether the adoption driven by the Rio upgrade can overcome selling pressure after the migration and the current tough market environment. Institutional staking and validator growth are positive signs, but a wider market recovery is essential.

Will Polygon’s integration with real-world assets be enough to counter the current altcoin liquidity challenges?

What are people saying about POL?

The Polygon community is divided—some are excited about the ecosystem’s growth, while others are concerned about POL’s recent price challenges. Here’s what’s happening:

1. 97.8% of MATIC tokens have been migrated to POL – signaling growing confidence
2. CEO Sandeep Nailwal shifts focus to Proof-of-Stake (PoS) scaling – a strategic change
3. Price range between $0.19 and $0.21 is critical – traders watch for a breakout or drop
4. Upcoming upgrade aims for 5,000 transactions per second (TPS) – technology promises meet market doubts

In-Depth Look

1. Polygon Migration Milestone (Positive)

Polygon recently announced that 97.83% of the migration from MATIC to POL tokens is complete (source). This means the old MATIC tokens are nearly phased out, and POL is becoming the main token used for transaction fees and staking on Polygon’s updated networks. This is a positive sign for the network’s future usability and growth.

2. Mixed Predictions on Price Rally

Analysts predict that POL could potentially double in value, based on strong adoption indicators like $1.23 billion in total value locked (TVL) and over 45,000 decentralized apps (dApps) running on Polygon (source). However, POL’s price has dropped about 68% over the past six months (CoinMarketCap), which tempers enthusiasm and suggests caution.

3. Price Support Zone Under Debate

Market analyst Crypto Patel points out that POL’s price has consistently found support between $0.19 and $0.21 since August (source). However, trading volume has decreased by 7.73% in the last 24 hours, indicating less market activity. This lower liquidity means the price could either break above this range or fall below it, making this a critical zone to watch.

4. Leadership and Roadmap Changes (Positive)

The Polygon Foundation announced a goal to reach 5,000 transactions per second (TPS) by September or October (source). New CEO Sandeep Nailwal is focusing on scaling with Polygon’s Proof-of-Stake (PoS) network rather than the zero-knowledge Ethereum Virtual Machine (zkEVM) approach. While this could speed up enterprise adoption, it also highlights risks of fragmentation, as some projects have moved away, leaving about $20 million in TVL on the abandoned chain (L2Beat).

Summary

Overall, the outlook for POL is cautiously optimistic. The technical upgrades and near-complete token migration are promising, but the weak price performance and ecosystem fragmentation raise concerns. Keep an eye on the upcoming 5,000 TPS upgrade expected by late September and whether POL can maintain support around $0.19 during the upcoming market volatility.

What is the latest news about POL?

Polygon is wrapping up its token migration and gaining traction with institutional investors, even as the market faces challenges. Here are the key updates:

1. Coinbase Completes POL Token Swap (October 14, 2025) – Trading of MATIC ends, and all remaining MATIC tokens are automatically converted to POL, marking the end of Polygon’s migration.
2. AMINA Bank Launches POL Staking (October 9, 2025) – The first regulated bank offering POL staking, with yields up to 15% for token holders.
3. Rio Testnet Reaches 5,000 Transactions Per Second (September 13, 2025) – A major scalability upgrade that sets the stage for business and payment applications.

In-Depth Look

1. Coinbase Completes POL Token Swap (October 14, 2025)

What happened:
Coinbase stopped trading MATIC tokens on October 14, completing Polygon’s year-long switch to POL tokens. Any leftover MATIC balances were automatically converted to POL at a 1:1 ratio. Sending and receiving MATIC was paused until October 18. This follows Polygon Labs’ announcement on September 3 that 99% of MATIC tokens had already been migrated.

Why it matters:
This step finalizes a planned transition rather than creating new demand for POL. It helps clear up confusion by retiring the old token, but it hasn’t reversed POL’s 40.5% price drop since the migration began in 2024. Traders should watch if liquidity moves toward POL-based trading products after the swap.
(MEXC News)

2. AMINA Bank Launches POL Staking (October 9, 2025)

What happened:
Swiss-regulated AMINA Bank started offering POL staking services to institutions, with base yields of 4-5% plus additional rewards from the Polygon Foundation that can push returns up to 15%. This service targets family offices and corporations, leveraging Polygon’s growing ecosystem of tokenized real-world assets backed by firms like BlackRock and JPMorgan.

Why it’s positive for POL:
Institutions can now earn steady income while helping secure the Polygon network, all within a regulated environment. This supports Polygon’s focus on real-world asset tokenization. However, POL’s price has stayed steady between $0.23 and $0.24 despite this development.
(Cryptonews)

3. Rio Testnet Reaches 5,000 Transactions Per Second (September 13, 2025)

What happened:
Polygon rolled out its Rio upgrade on the Amoy testnet, introducing new features like Validator-Elected Block Producers (VEBloP) and stateless verification. The goal is to reach 5,000 transactions per second (TPS) on the mainnet by October, aiming to support payment systems and enterprise applications.

Why it matters:
This upgrade is a key technical step toward Polygon 2.0’s ambitious “gigagas” vision for high-speed, scalable blockchain solutions. Still, POL’s price dropped 22.7% in the past week, showing that traders are more focused on broader market issues—like the $19 billion in crypto liquidations on October 10—than on network improvements right now.
(Coinspeaker)

Conclusion

Polygon is making solid progress with its ecosystem through completing the token migration, launching institutional staking, and improving scalability. However, POL’s price remains under pressure. The big question is whether these regulated yield opportunities will attract enough investment to counteract the overall market downturn.

What is expected in the development of POL?

Polygon’s roadmap is focused on improving scalability, enabling cross-chain connections, and attracting institutional investors.

1. AggLayer Integration (Q4 2025) – Connecting different blockchains and combining liquidity.
2. 5,000 TPS Upgrade (October 2025) – Boosting Polygon PoS to handle more transactions per second.
3. Institutional Staking Expansion (Q4 2025) – Offering regulated, high-yield staking options for institutions.

In-Depth Look

1. AggLayer Integration (Q4 2025)

What’s happening:
Polygon PoS will link up with AggLayer, a technology that uses zero-knowledge proofs (ZK) to enable smooth communication and liquidity sharing across different blockchains. This comes after nearly completing the switch from MATIC to POL tokens (99% done by September 2025) and supports Polygon’s goal of creating a connected blockchain ecosystem. AggLayer version 0.3, launching late 2025, will allow easy cross-chain transactions while letting each blockchain maintain its independence (Polygon Blog).

Why it matters:

• Positive: Strengthens POL’s role as the main token for cross-chain security and transaction fees.
• Potential challenge: Delays in rolling out fast interoperability features (now expected by late Q3 2025) could slow user adoption.

2. 5,000 TPS Upgrade (October 2025)

What’s happening:
The “Rio” upgrade on Polygon’s Amoy testnet aims to increase transaction speed to 5,000 transactions per second (TPS), up from 1,000 TPS after the Heimdall v2 update in July 2025. This upgrade introduces Validator-Elected Block Producers (VEBloP), which improve how the network reaches agreement and reduce transaction finalization time to under 5 seconds (CoinMarketCap).

Why it matters:

• Positive: Positions Polygon as a leader for fast payments and real-world asset tokenization (currently $1.13 billion in total value locked).
• Potential challenge: The technical complexity could cause short-term network issues during the upgrade.

3. Institutional Staking Expansion (Q4 2025)

What’s happening:
AMINA Bank, a Swiss crypto bank regulated by FINMA, now offers institutional staking for POL with rewards up to 15% (4–5% base plus incentives from the Polygon Foundation). This follows Polygon’s growing presence in enterprise decentralized finance (DeFi), including partnerships with BlackRock’s BUIDL Fund and Stripe (AMBCrypto).

Why it matters:

• Positive: Attracts long-term institutional investors and helps stabilize POL’s price.
• Neutral: Staking rewards depend on validator participation and network activity, so yields may vary.

Conclusion

Polygon’s roadmap focuses on improving scalability (5,000 TPS), connecting blockchains (AggLayer), and expanding institutional use—key factors for POL’s usefulness in a tough market. With MATIC being phased out on major platforms like Coinbase by October 14, 2025, the success of POL depends on smoothly implementing these upgrades.

How will Polygon balance its ambitious technical goals with maintaining decentralized governance?

What updates are there in the POL code base?

Polygon is upgrading its technology to improve speed, security, and compatibility with other blockchains.

1. Heimdall v2 Mainnet Migration (July 10, 2025) – Updated the core system to confirm transactions faster and reduce outdated code.
2. Bhilai Upgrade (July 2025) – Increased transaction capacity to 1,000 transactions per second (TPS), aiming for 5,000 TPS by October.
3. MATIC→POL Migration (99% Complete) – Almost finished switching from MATIC to POL as the main token for fees and staking.

Deep Dive

1. Heimdall v2 Mainnet Migration (July 10, 2025)

Overview: Polygon’s Proof-of-Stake (PoS) network upgraded its consensus system—the part that confirms transactions—from an older version (Tendermint/Cosmos-SDK v0.37) to a newer one (CometBFT/Cosmos-SDK v0.50). This change cut the time to finalize transactions from about 90 seconds down to roughly 5 seconds.

The upgrade also removed old code from 2018–2019, making the system easier to maintain and safer when connecting with other blockchains. Validators (the network’s transaction verifiers) now process blocks every ~2 seconds with almost instant checkpoint confirmations. During the upgrade, decentralized apps (dApps) temporarily required more confirmations (256 blocks) to avoid transaction issues.

What this means: This is positive for POL because faster transaction finality improves user experience, especially for payments and decentralized finance (DeFi). Cleaner code also lowers long-term technical risks. (Source)

2. Bhilai Upgrade & Gigagas Roadmap (July 2025)

Overview: This upgrade increased Polygon PoS’s capacity to handle 1,000 transactions per second on the main network, with transaction fees under $0.001 and finality under 5 seconds.

It’s part of the Gigagas roadmap, which aims to reach 5,000 TPS by October 2025 and eventually 100,000 TPS. The upgrade included PIP-60, which raised gas limits (the amount of computational work allowed per block) and optimized Bor nodes (Polygon’s block producers). Validators had to update their software and adjust gas settings.

What this means: This is somewhat positive, as higher throughput strengthens Polygon’s role in real-world asset (RWA) payments and other use cases. However, reaching 5,000 TPS by October still carries some execution risks. (Source)

3. MATIC→POL Migration (99% Complete)

Overview: As of August 2025, nearly 98% of MATIC tokens on Ethereum have been swapped for POL tokens, according to Polygon’s dashboard.

POL is now the native token for paying fees and staking on Polygon PoS. The migration process is backward compatible, ensuring a smooth transition. Users who still hold MATIC on Ethereum can switch to POL through the Polygon Portal.

What this means: This is good news for POL because the near-complete migration reduces confusion caused by having two tokens and aligns incentives for those staking and validating the network. (Source)

Conclusion

Polygon is upgrading its technology to become a faster, more scalable settlement layer. Heimdall v2 and Bhilai upgrades tackle speed and capacity limits, while the POL migration unifies the network’s token system.

The big question: Can Polygon’s technical improvements help it outpace other Layer 2 solutions in attracting institutional real-world asset (RWA) use cases?