The Polygon ecosystem experienced significant growth across the board in Q4 2025, emerging as a key player in on-chain payments and real-world asset tokenization. According to Messari Research , the Polygon PoS network saw a total transaction volume of $3.57 billion during the quarter, a 399.2% year-over-year surge. The use of stablecoin-based crypto cards also grew, with combined Mastercard and Visa transaction volume exceeding $362.6 million across 10 card programs.
Polygon's growth in the payments sector goes beyond simple adoption, driven by increased use cases through strategic partnerships. DeCard leveraged Polygon's infrastructure to enable stablecoin payments at over 150 million merchants worldwide, while Stripe, Revolut, and Mastercard adopted Polygon-based payment services, strengthening its credibility as a payments network. According to Messari Research , these integrations align with the company's strategic direction of merging existing financial systems with blockchain technology.
Polygon also achieved notable performance in the DeFi sector. Total Value Locked (TVL) reached $1.16 billion, a 33.9% year-over-year increase, and QuickSwap, Polymarket, and Aave emerged as key platforms. Polymarket, in particular, achieved the highest performance in the event-based prediction market sector, recording $253.9 million in open interest, up 88.1% quarter-over-quarter and 49.7% year-over-year. The Intercontinental Exchange (ICE)'s strategic investment of up to $2 billion underscores the company's expectations for this growth.
In terms of tokenization of real-world assets, the launch of compliance-based Real-World Assets (RWAs) stood out, with Polygon ranking ninth among blockchain networks in terms of total RWA value. Calastone moved global fund allocation on-chain, and AlloyX launched a tokenized money market fund on Polygon, addressing demand from traditional financial institutions. According to Messari Research , this institutional adoption has been a key factor in demonstrating the practical usability of the Polygon network and the reliability of its technological infrastructure.
On the technical side, Polygon implemented payment-centric optimizations through two major hard forks, "Rio" and "Madhugiri." The Rio hard fork reorganized the consensus structure while implementing immediate block finality, while the Madhugiri hard fork fixed the consensus time at 1 second, increasing the TPS (transaction processing speed) to 1,400. Both upgrades garnered industry attention for their "parameter adjustment" approach, which ensured network stability and reliability rather than a destructive approach.
Additionally, the introduction of an agentic payment system based on the x402 infrastructure enabled gas-free payments and further enhanced user accessibility at the protocol level. The average number of daily transaction addresses exceeded 930,000, a 78% year-over-year increase, and the number of new addresses increased by 116.4%, confirming continued demand. While the average transaction fee remained low at $0.0048, total fees increased by 280.2% quarter-over-quarter, supporting increased network utilization.
While the circulating market capitalization of POL tokens decreased by 55.1% quarter-over-quarter due to the overall market weakness, increased transaction fees and on-chain activity suggest that the Polygon ecosystem remains productive and profitable. In conclusion, Mesari Research predicts that Polygon's governance, infrastructure, and real-world usage growth will solidify its position as a global payments and RWA hub.
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