Polygon Burns 100 Million POL in Community-Triggered Fee Burn

Polygon has permanently removed 100 million POL from circulation after a community-triggered transaction moved tokens accumulated through the network’s base-fee system to an Ethereum dead address.

Polygon Foundation CEO Sandeep Nailwal confirmed the completed burn on September 23. The 100 million POL was worth approximately $10 million at current prices and represents about 1% of POL’s original 10 billion supply, or roughly 0.93% of its current total supply.

The onchain burn transaction transferred 100 million POL from Polygon’s BurnTunnel to Ethereum’s 0x000...dEaD address. The Polygon-side fee collector decreased by the same amount.

Network Fees Fund 100 Million POL Burn

Polygon’s EIP-1559 system directs the base-fee portion of network transaction fees toward its burn infrastructure rather than paying it to validators. Priority fees follow a separate path.

The burn collector had accumulated roughly 121 million POL before the latest transaction. Nailwal said on September 18 that the first 100 million POL was ready for permanent removal once the new contracts completed Security Council approval and moved from testnet to mainnet.

Polygon’s fee routing changed again in March under PIP-82. Base fees now initially enter a routing address, where eligible fees generated through specified agentic-commerce activity can be used for rebates under a program capped at $1 million. Non-recycled POL continues to the existing burn collector.

Polygon has used an EIP-1559 burn mechanism since 2022. PIP-24 later changed the designated collector used for base fees as Polygon prepared its infrastructure for the MATIC-to-POL transition.

Community Can Trigger Future Quarterly Burns

The new deployment removes Polygon Foundation as the required executor for each burn. Nailwal said any community member can trigger the burn process once eligible POL has accumulated, with further executions planned on a quarterly basis.

The September 23 settlement sent POL to an unspendable dead address rather than invoking the token contract’s internal _burn() function. The 100 million POL therefore leaves circulating-supply accounting, although the POL contract’s raw ERC-20 totalSupply() does not decline by the same amount.

Nailwal also said POL has been net deflationary since January when fee accrual is measured against new issuance over that period. Polygon still issues POL for validator funding and its Community Treasury, so future net supply changes will depend on whether fee-directed burns exceed newly created tokens.

Polygon Activity Feeds the Burn Collector

Polygon has expanded its payments footprint during 2026, adding more transaction activity capable of generating base fees. Visa added Polygon to its stablecoin settlement network in May, while Polygon Wallet introduced shielded stablecoin payments for USDC and USDT.