Polygon has permanently burned 100 million POL tokens, equivalent to roughly 1% of its original supply, but the cryptocurrency has continued to struggle despite the reduction in circulating tokens.
POL was trading near $0.103 on October 12, after declining from approximately $0.12 in late September, according to market data from CoinGecko. The token remained under pressure even as Polygon reported progress in reducing its supply through network-generated fees.
Polygon co-founder Sandeep Nailwal said in an October 11 post on X that the network had burned 100 million POL approximately two weeks earlier. Another 22 million tokens, representing about 0.2% of the original supply, were lined up for the next burn.
Polygon protocol burnt 100M POL(~1% of supply) 2 weeks back powered by fees generated on the network
Already 22M POL more(~0.20% of supply) is lined for next stage of burn
Plus we havent disclosed to the fullest extent how Polygon OMS impacts $POL (soon)
Last week was 2nd…
— Sandeep | POL Shiller (@sandeepnailwal) October 11, 2026
The September burn was funded through fees accumulated by the network rather than tokens taken from the Polygon Foundation‘s treasury. It permanently removed the tokens from supply as part of Polygon’s existing fee-burning mechanism.
Nailwal further disclosed that Polygon‘s Open Money Stack (OMS) had processed more than $1 billion in annualized volume for two consecutive weeks. He suggested that additional details about the payment infrastructure’s implications for POL would be released later.
Why hasnt the POL token burn supported its price？
Polygons supply reduction comes alongside an existing token issuance mechanism that continues to introduce new POL into circulation.
Under Polygons original tokenomics framework, POL was designed with a 2% annual emission rate, divided equally between validator rewards and the community treasury.
Based on the initial supply of 10 billion tokens, the mechanism represents approximately 200 million POL in annual issuance before accounting for compounding and any subsequent governance changes.
The 100 million token burn therefore needs to be assessed against continuing issuance rather than treated as an equivalent reduction in net annual supply.
Data from POLTRACKs supply and value capture dashboard showed that Polygon recorded approximately 17.45 million POL in protocol emissions during the 30 days ending October 11, compared with 13.23 million POL in base fees accumulated toward burning.
The figures indicated a net supply increase of approximately 4.22 million POL over that period before accounting for the timing of separately executed burns. They illustrate why token issuance and fee destruction must be considered together when assessing Polygons supply changes.
Polygons burn rate has previously coincided with stronger price performance. In January, POL rallied as network activity and token burns accelerated, with decentralized exchange trading volumes and transaction fees increasing alongside the recovery.
However, the relationship has not remained consistent. POL subsequently lost much of those gains despite continued development of Polygons payment infrastructure.
Market demand remains another factor. POL is used to pay transaction fees and support staking within the Polygon ecosystem, but the removal of tokens through accumulated fees does not create an equivalent amount of new buying activity on exchanges at the time of the burn.
The tokens recent decline does not establish that the burn had no market impact, since broader cryptocurrency market conditions and exchange trading activity can influence prices independently of changes in supply.
Can Polygons growing payment activity change POL demand？
Polygon has increasingly focused on payment infrastructure and stablecoin transfers, with its Open Money Stack designed to support payment processing across blockchain and traditional financial systems.
The network recently integrated TRON into its Open Money Stack, allowing businesses to manage USDT deposits, wallet services, cross-chain transfers, and fiat payouts through a single integration.
The expansion gives businesses access to TRON‘s established stablecoin infrastructure while using Polygon’s payment routing and conversion services.
Polygon has pursued other payment-related developments as well. In May, the network introduced private stablecoin transfers using zero-knowledge proofs to conceal transaction details while retaining compliance checks and audit capabilities.
However, payment processing volume does not directly represent revenue earned by the Polygon network.
Stablecoin transaction volume measures the value transferred through payment infrastructure, while the networks burn mechanism depends on fees collected from transactions executed on Polygon.
Services operating across multiple blockchains may generate activity without routing every transaction through Polygon or requiring an equivalent amount of POL for settlement.
Nailwals disclosure of more than $1 billion in annualized OMS processing volume therefore does not establish how much additional POL demand or fee revenue the infrastructure will generate.
For now, the next measurable development is the proposed burn of another 22 million POL. Nailwal did not specify an execution date, while further details about the Open Money Stacks economic relationship with POL remain undisclosed.