Polygon Tokenomics Inflection Point: Base Fee Burn Approaches New Token Issuance, POL Valuation Multiple Just Half of TRX

Author: Alea Research

Compiled by: TechFlow

TechFlow Summary: Polygon is undergoing a critical tokenomic transition from a single scaling solution to a payment and settlement infrastructure base. By acquiring Coinme to obtain remittance licenses across 48 U.S. states, combined with a high-frequency on-chain stablecoin payment network, Polygon’s base fee revenue has exceeded its current token inflation minting volume for multiple months. Based on detailed on-chain microdata, this article deeply calculates its fee capture model and staker share mechanism, revealing its significant valuation gap relative to leading public chains.

Core Takeaways

In 2025, the base network fees paid by Polygon on-chain users amounted to only 5% of the newly minted POL tokens that year. During the period from January to September 2026, this proportion surged directly to 86%. Across five separate months in the year, burned base fees completely exceeded monthly new minting volumes.

Polygon Labs has currently established a complete payment closed loop from USD fiat on/off ramps to final on-chain settlement. Its acquisition of Coinme directly brought the ecosystem remittance licenses covering 48 U.S. states.

As of September 2026, the Polygon chain firmly holds the title of the world's busiest stablecoin settlement network, processing 17.6 million stablecoin transfers daily, accounting for one-third of the total stablecoin payment volume across nine major public chains.

Over the past 18 months, Polygon's median per-transfer fee increased fivefold, while the number of on-chain transfer transactions simultaneously exploded by 7.5x, demonstrating extremely rigid payment demand and fee tolerance.

Currently, POL's valuation multiple is less than half that of TRX. As of September 30, POL's P/E valuation based on the past 12 months of on-chain fees stood at 41.2x, while TRX's valuation during the same period reached as high as 87.5x.

The reserve pool dedicated to burning base fees now roughly matches the scale of newly minted POL, with stakers directly claiming half of the validator fund share through the PIP-85 proposal.

Chart: Core Overview of On-Chain Stablecoin Transfers and Fuel Fee Capture on Polygon

Securing Underlying Fiat On/Ramp Infrastructure Nationwide

Polygon Labs officially completed its wholly-owned acquisition of crypto payment provider Coinme on October 14. This heavyweight transaction directly injected remittance license assets covering 48 U.S. states into the team.

Around this closing milestone, the development team consecutively rolled out five major iterations within just 30 days: institutional-grade subscription services based on Polygon ID, a zero-gas fee relay network, and a dedicated matching channel for large-volume transactions.

Chart: Year-to-Date Price Trends and Drawdowns of Major Public Chain Assets

The entire tech stack adopts a fully open design architecture. When TRON announced its integration on October 8, Polygon explicitly stated that its goal was precisely to more smoothly absorb the $94 billion USDT assets already circulating on the TRON network.

The Most Active Retail Stablecoin Payment Hub on the Network

From January to September this year, no other public chain could match Polygon's daily average stablecoin trading frequency, with its daily stablecoin transfer volume firmly ranking among the top on the network.

Chart: Polygon Staking Rewards and PIP-85 Implementation Roadmap

The vast majority of these transfers belong to typical small-value daily payments. In Q3, the average single transfer amount on the Polygon chain was $175, while the corresponding figure on Solana reached $1,254, and on Ethereum Mainnet it soared to $3,850.

Even though per-transaction fees have seen some upward movement alongside network activity from earlier lows, the median stablecoin transaction cost on Polygon in Q3 remained at just 1.6 cents, enabling global cross-border merchants and remittance apps to maintain exceptionally high settlement profit margins.

Chart: Daily Average Stablecoin Transfer Volume Trends Across Major Public Chains

Stablecoins Account for 72% of Network-Wide Gas Fuel Consumption

On the Polygon chain, every interaction requires a base fuel fee paid in POL. In the first nine months of 2026, Gas fees driven purely by stablecoin transfers accounted for a staggering 72% of the chain's total revenue.

Chart: Transaction Fees Consumed per Thousand Stablecoin Transfers Across Public Chains

When measuring revenue generation efficiency per unit of dollar asset turnover, the on-chain fees captured by Polygon for every dollar of stablecoin circulated have substantially surpassed Solana, Ethereum, and Base, trailing only the TRON network.

Base Fee Burn Mechanism Approaches Inflationary New Minting

According to Polygon's current architectural design, the base fee generated from every interaction is directly allocated to the burn collector reserve pool, while priority fees are entirely directed to block validators and stakers.

Chart: Fee Contribution Proportions of Stablecoin vs. Non-Stablecoin Transactions on Polygon

With the official implementation of the PIP-85 proposal, ordinary stakers can directly claim half of the priority fee share from the validator fund pool after deducting commissions, effectively locking in substantial on-chain native liquidity.

Chart: Polygon's Historical Five-Tier Burn Execution and Reserve Trends

Relative Valuation Multiples Lagging Significantly Behind TRON

On January 1, POL's dynamic P/E multiple had reached as high as 179.6x, compared to TRX's 45.8x. However, with Polygon's actual on-chain settlement revenue and burn volume growing explosively, as of late October, POL's P/E valuation against the past 12 months of genuine on-chain fees had compressed to around 30x, with a market cap of approximately $949 million, corresponding to an annualized fee scale of $31.6 million.

Chart: Fee Multiple Trend Changes for POL and TRX Over the Past Year

Compared to TRON network's valuation center above 40x, market capital re-pricing for Polygon's payment fundamentals is clearly still lagging severely. As payment companies and institutions fully adopt fixed fee structures, the window for true net token deflation will be fully realized.