Polygon is preparing to permanently burn 100 million POL tokens after its network generated $24.5 million in revenue so far in 2026. The planned burn, equal to roughly 1% of POL's total supply, will target tokens held in a dedicated collector contract, and once executed it cannot be reversed.

Polygon CEO Sandeep Nailwal said the relevant contracts are currently deployed on testnet and are awaiting final signatures from the network's Security Council before moving to mainnet. The arrangement ties token supply directly to network usage: fees paid in POL accumulate in an onchain collector contract, and a portion of that balance will now be periodically destroyed rather than held indefinitely.

Burn Mechanism Moves Closer to Mainnet

The planned burn will permanently remove 100 million POL from circulation. After the burn transaction executes, those tokens cannot return to the market.

Polygon collects POL through network base fees paid when users execute transactions. Those fees flow into the collector contract, which has accumulated 121 million POL generated by user activity. Against that balance, the first burn would remove the large majority of the tokens accumulated to date, with the remainder staying in the contract as fee collection continues.

Once the required Security Council approvals are obtained, the contracts will move from testnet to mainnet. At that point, anyone in the community will be able to initiate the first 100 million POL burn without Polygon needing to execute it manually. The mechanism is then set to run quarterly, allowing community members to trigger subsequent burns as eligible tokens accumulate. Because the burns are community-triggered, the process removes the need for Polygon to carry out each quarterly reduction itself.

The proposal adds a new component to Polygon's existing token economics and comes as the network reports rising activity and continued deflationary conditions. Burning transaction fees to constrain supply has industry precedent: Ethereum's EIP-1559 upgrade has been permanently removing base fees from circulation since 2021, making supply-linked fee burns an established tool among major networks. Nailwal said POL has remained deflationary since January 2026 and that Polygon has continued handling significant activity across payments, trading, and consumer applications. According to Nailwal, the network has scaled to 5,000 transactions per second, linking the token supply mechanics directly to ongoing network usage.

Nailwal announced the plan in a post on X on September 18, 2026:

BIG UPDATE: 100M POL ready to be permanently BURNED. Polygon is printing. $24.5m YTD. We are deploying a change that lets anyone in the community trigger its burn.

2026YTD Revenue

Super happy about $NEAR and $ARB getting much deserved love, but in terms of revenue, my… pic.twitter.com/NRvsGUA7YD

— Sand | CEO, Polygon Foundation (※,※) (@sandeepnailwal) September 18, 2026

Reported Revenue of $24.5 Million Leads Peers

Polygon reported $24.5 million in revenue year-to-date in 2026. Fee revenue has become a widely followed yardstick for comparing real usage across blockchain networks. Nailwal compared the figure with $8.41 million cited for Arbitrum and $5.6 million for NEAR, putting Polygon's reported revenue at roughly three times Arbitrum's level and about five times NEAR's. The figures reference year-to-date activity for 2026 and position Polygon well ahead of both peer networks over the same period.

The comparison includes specific activity within the other networks. Arbitrum's figure includes the Robinhood chain, while NEAR's figure includes Near Intents.

POL Trades Near $0.104 Amid Bitcoin-Led Rally

POL was trading at $0.104 after gaining 3.98% over 24 hours, according to CoinMarketCap data. The move closely tracked a broader cryptocurrency rally led by Bitcoin.

The CoinMarketCap analysis attributed POL's advance primarily to its strong beta correlation with Bitcoin, citing regulatory optimism and easing macroeconomic concerns as drivers of Bitcoin's strength. No clear POL-specific catalyst was identified in that market data, though the planned burn represents a separate token-supply development for traders monitoring the asset. At $0.104, the token sits just above the $0.10 threshold now in focus.

An analyst, @venturefounder, sees POL potentially moving toward $0.17 and expects a possible return toward CoinMarketCap's top-40 ranking. Those targets remain analysis rather than confirmed outcomes.

Market participants can instead monitor whether POL holds the $0.10 level during the current move. A sustained move above that level could keep $0.11 in focus, while a break below $0.10 could expose the token to a pullback toward $0.095.

A Recurring, Community-Triggered Supply Reduction

The core mechanism is straightforward: Polygon collects POL through base fees, stores those tokens in the collector contract, and then permanently removes them on a quarterly schedule. The initial 100 million POL burn will reduce the collector contract's balance and establish a recurring, community-triggered supply reduction mechanism going forward.

Source: Blockonomi