In the fourth quarter of 2025, the Polygon ecosystem achieved comprehensive growth, becoming a core pillar in on-chain payments and the tokenization of physical assets. According to a Messari Research report , the total transaction volume transferred through the Polygon PoS network reached $3.57 billion during the quarter, a surge of 399.2% year-over-year. The use of stablecoin-based crypto cards also expanded, with transactions integrated with Mastercard and Visa exceeding $362.6 million across 10 card projects.
In the payments sector, Polygon's growth is not only reflected in its expanded usage but also in the increase of real-world use cases through strategic partnerships. DeCard leverages Polygon's infrastructure to enable stablecoin payments at over 150 million merchants globally, while companies like Stripe, Revolut, and Mastercard have enhanced their credibility as payment networks by introducing Polygon-based payment services. Messari Research analysis indicates that these integrations are linked to the strategic direction of connecting traditional financial systems with blockchain technology.
Polygon has also achieved significant results in the DeFi space. Its total value locked (TVL) reached $1.16 billion, a year-on-year increase of 33.9%, with QuickSwap, Polymarket, and Aave becoming core platforms. Polymarket, in particular, saw its open interest grow by 88.1% quarter-on-quarter and 49.7% year-on-year, reaching $253.9 million, achieving the largest increase in the event prediction market. The strategic investment of up to $2 billion from Intercontinental Exchange (ICE) confirms the market's expectations for this growth momentum.
In the area of real-world asset tokenization, compliant RWA (Real-World Asset) issuances have performed exceptionally well, with Polygon ranking ninth in the blockchain network by total RWA value. Calastone has moved its global fund allocations on-chain, and AlloyX launched a tokenized money market fund on Polygon to address the needs of traditional financial institutions. In particular, according to a Messari Research report , this institutional adoption trend is a major factor demonstrating the actual usability of the Polygon network and the reliability of its technical infrastructure.
On the technical level, Polygon also implemented significant payment-centric optimizations through two large-scale hard forks: "Rio" and "Madhugiri." The Rio hard fork achieved instant block finality while reorganizing the consensus structure; the Madhugiri hard fork fixed the consensus time to 1 second and increased TPS (transactions per second) to 1400. These two upgrades were not carried out in a destructive manner, but rather through "parameter tuning" to ensure network stability and reliability, which has attracted industry attention.
Furthermore, the Agntic payment system, built on the x402 infrastructure, enables gas-free payments, further enhancing user accessibility at the protocol level. The average daily number of transaction addresses exceeded 930,000, a year-over-year increase of 78%; new addresses grew by 116.4%, confirming continued demand inflows. Average transaction fees remained at a low level of $0.0048, while total fees increased by 280.2% quarter-over-quarter, supporting improved network utilization.
Despite a 55.1% quarter-over-quarter decrease in the circulating market capitalization of the POL token due to the overall market downturn, the increase in transaction fees and on-chain activity indicates that the Polygon ecosystem remains productive and profitable. In conclusion, Messari Research predicts that , based on its governance, infrastructure, and application-driven growth momentum, Polygon is poised to solidify its position as a global payments and RWA hub.
