Polygon Schedules MATIC to POL Token Migration For September 7

POL will immediately become the gas and staking token on the Polygon PoS network.

Polygon announced its long-awaited token migration will take place in early September.

On July 18, Polygon revealed that token migrations from its MATIC token to POL are scheduled to go live on Sept. 4, with POL replacing MATIC as the native gas and staking token for the Polygon PoS network. Testnet token migrations went live on July 17.

“After reaching vibrant community consensus, today the date has been announced for the MATIC to POL upgrade on Polygon,” Polygon said. “Mark your calendars, tattoo it backwards on your forehead, set your sundials. It’s almost here.”

Polygon said MATIC holders with tokens on the Ethereum and Polygon zkEVM networks or on centralized exchanges “may” have to migrate their tokens to POL. MATIC holders on the Polygon PoS chain, MATIC stakers, and MATIC governance delegates do not need to take any action, with the migration taking place automatically.

Polygon first announced plans to introduce the POL token in July 2023 as part of its Polygon 2.0 overhaul — now called AggLayer. POL’s contract went live on Ethereum last October.

MATIC’s price is up 6.8% over the past seven days, according to The Defiant’s crypto price feeds.

Polygon’s AggLayer overhaul

The news comes as Polygon is undergoing big changes, with Polygon launching AggLayer in early February.

AggLayer seeks to facilitate the creation of a unified ecosystem of networks leveraging the Polygon Chain Development Kit (CDK), bypassing the centralization and security risks associated with typical centralized bridges.

“Each chain will have a local copy of the unified bridge root, enabling cross-chain transactions that don’t require withdrawing to Ethereum or the security risks of third-party bridges,” Polygon said. “Not only can users transfer assets between chains (bridge), but they can also trigger contracts on a different chain after the asset has arrived (call)… within a single transaction.”

Astar zkEVM became the second network supporting AggLayer after Polygon zkEVM in March. In April, OKX’s X-Layer L2 became the third network connected to AggLayer at launch. In early July, The Open Network (TON) also announced it would develop a Layer 2 network leveraging Polygon’s CDK and AggLayer.

Polygon said POL will serve a “crucial role” within its multi-chain AggLayer ecosystem, pending community governance. The token is intended to power Polygon’s forthcoming Staking Hub — which is expected to launch next year.

“POL is a hyperproductive token that can be used to provide valuable services to any chain in the Polygon network, including the AggLayer itself,” Polygon said. “POL… further expands the utility of Polygon’s native token to reflect and power the vision of Polygon as an ever-growing network of aggregated blockchains.”