Polygon moves closer to 100 million POL token burn
Polygon plans to burn 100 million POL tokens
Polygon is preparing a new contract that would let anyone permanently destroy 100 million POL tokens. The tokens would be burned, meaning they are removed from circulation forever.
The contracts are currently on the testnet, a trial version of the network. They will move to the mainnet, the live network, only after the final Security Council signatures are collected, according to Polygon Foundation CEO Sandeep Nailwal.
Key details of the burn
- The first burn would remove 100 million POL from a base-fee collector that Nailwal said holds 121 million tokens.
- After that, smaller burns could happen every three months, and any community member would be able to trigger them.
- Burning 100 million POL would leave approximately 21 million POL in the collector before more fees add to it, based on Nailwal's figures.
- The planned burn equals 1% of POL's initial 10 billion token supply. Blockscout lists the total supply at about 10.716 billion POL, which would make the burn roughly 0.93% of the total.
What Nailwal says
Nailwal said each base fee—a network-determined charge that is burned—adds POL to the collector. He also said POL has been deflationary since January 2026, meaning the supply has been shrinking.
Nailwal also claimed that Polygon generated $24.5 million in revenue in 2026, compared with $8.41 million for Arbitrum and $5.6 million for Near. He wrote that the comparison came from “my analyst at ChatGPT,” and the post did not identify a dataset or methodology, so these figures remain unverified claims.
What is confirmed and what is still unclear
It is confirmed that the burn contracts are on testnet and await final Security Council signatures, according to Nailwal. It is also confirmed that the 100 million token burn equals 1% of POL's initial supply and roughly 0.93% of the total supply as listed by Blockscout.
What is still unclear is whether the burn will make POL's supply contract over time, since POL has ongoing emissions with an effective annual rate of 2% beginning after June 2025. Whether the supply shrinks depends on future fee burns compared with new issuance.
As of Nailwal's post, the first 100 million POL had not yet been burned.
Why this matters
Removing 100 million tokens from circulation could reduce the total supply of POL, which may be significant for holders. However, because POL continues to emit new tokens, the long-term effect depends on how much is burned in the future relative to new issuance.
Next step
The next step is deployment to the mainnet after the remaining Security Council approvals are obtained.
Sources
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