Polygon Foundation CEO Highlights 'Advantages' of Retaining POL Amid Decline in Active Addresses

Polygon Foundation CEO Clarifies POL Token Benefits

The head of the Polygon Foundation recently published a detailed explanation highlighting how the network’s native token, POL, is designed to directly benefit from the ecosystem’s expansion.

Sandeep Nailwal, the CEO, stated that his message was meant to clearly reaffirm a longstanding principle: as Polygon Chain and Agglayer thrive, those holding POL tokens will see rewards. “If Polygon Chain and Agglayer succeed, then POL holders benefit. Full stop,” he emphasized.

After Nailwal’s statement, POL’s price surged to a weekend peak of $0.1842, but soon reversed most of those gains, falling by 6.7% within the last day, according to CoinGecko.

Despite positive messaging from Polygon’s leadership and a general upswing in the altcoin market, the start of the week was turbulent for Polygon, with on-chain data presenting a mixed picture.

Polygon’s daily revenue has climbed sharply, rising from about $13,000 in mid-December to nearly $200,000 recently. However, the number of active addresses has dropped significantly, from a high of 2.9 million to around 489,000, based on Growthepie’s figures.

Ryan Lee, Chief Analyst at Bitget, described the recent price decline as typical market fluctuation following a rally sparked by the Open Money Stack announcement. He noted that improvements in utility, token burns, and staking mechanisms are reinforcing POL’s fundamentals and supporting long-term industry growth.

Key Advantages for POL Holders

• Transaction fee earnings
• Staking incentives
• Potential future interoperability fees from Agglayer

Nailwal also highlighted the token’s deflationary structure, pointing out that all base transaction fees on the Polygon chain are burned.

He referenced recent network activity, including a single day where 3 million POL were burned. Nailwal estimated that if the average daily burn rate remains at 1.5 million POL, this would result in an annual reduction of about 5% of the total supply, potentially making POL “the most deflationary token in the industry.”

Transaction volumes have also been robust, reaching 5.9 million in a single day, though this still lags behind Base’s 10.1 million daily transactions.

Introducing Polygon’s Open Money Stack

In collaboration with Polygon Labs CEO Marc Boiron, Nailwal recently introduced the “Open Money Stack,” a bold initiative aiming to bring all financial transactions onto the blockchain.

This vision targets the vast, multi-trillion-dollar global payments market, positioning Polygon’s infrastructure as the backbone for the next generation of digital finance.

Ryan Lee from Bitget praised the Open Money Stack as an innovative, forward-looking project that combines blockchain technology, stablecoin compatibility, compliance solutions, and fiat gateways into a flexible system. He believes this positions Polygon as a leader in enabling smooth, worldwide on-chain payments and will be a major driver of mainstream crypto adoption.

Market Outlook and Future Prospects

Jamie Elkaleh, CMO at Bitget Wallet, agreed that short-term price swings should not distract from Polygon’s broader strategy. “With enhanced utility, increased token burns, and improved staking, the fundamentals are getting stronger even if market sentiment is volatile,” Elkaleh told Decrypt.

Looking ahead, Ryan Lee anticipates that POL will stabilize and trade within the $0.15 to $0.25 range in the near future, calling this a “healthy accumulation zone” ahead of further ecosystem growth.

Investor sentiment remains largely optimistic. On the prediction platform , owned by Decrypt’s parent company Dastan, users currently assign a 76% probability to Bitcoin reaching $100,000 before falling to $69,000. However, the likelihood of an “alt season” occurring in the first quarter is seen as just 19%.