Polygon's native token POL experienced a significant 40% price rally from its February 6 low, but the recovery is under threat as large holders, or "whales," sold approximately 210 million POL tokens during the upswing. Data from Santiment shows whale holdings decreased from 8.75 billion to 8.54 billion POL between February 14 and 25, indicating distribution during strength. This selling pressure has created a standoff, as retail selling pressure simultaneously collapsed by 95%, with exchange inflows dropping from 470,000 to just 23,000 tokens.
Technical analysis reveals a hidden bearish divergence on the charts. While the POL price tested the same resistance level twice, forming a potential double top, the Relative Strength Index (RSI) made a higher high, signaling that buyer momentum is improving but failing to break through key supply. The Chaikin Money Flow (CMF) indicator crossed above zero, suggesting institutional accumulation is occurring even as whales distribute. The immediate price future hinges on the $0.14 resistance level; a break above could target $0.18, while a fall below $0.10 support could trigger a swift drop toward $0.08.
In a separate but significant development for the Polygon ecosystem, activity in local-currency stablecoins is surging, particularly the Japanese yen-pegged JPYC and the Brazilian real-pegged BBRL. In Japan, JPYC is being integrated for daily payments, wallet transfers, merchant transactions via MynaWallet and Digital Garage, and even DeFi lending markets through a vault on Morpho. An application called Tria allows users to top up cards and transfer JPYC seamlessly.
In Brazil, Grupo Braza, the country's largest foreign exchange bank, expanded its BBRL stablecoin to the Polygon network on February 25. This move aims to improve liquidity and payment efficiency for forex transactions. Polygon CEO Marc Boiron highlighted the network's growing Latin American presence, noting that partner Koywe is processing roughly $30 million per month in the region. Boiron stated, "Local-currency stablecoins are going to be huge. Give it time."
This stablecoin growth complements other real-world use cases, such as airports in Milan, Rome, and Venice offering instant VAT refunds in USDC on Polygon during the 2026 Winter Olympics. The network has also seen periods where its daily fees surpassed Ethereum's, driven in part by activity on platforms like Polymarket. At the time of reporting, POL was trading at $0.1104, with a market capitalization of $1.17 billion.
