Polygon has executed its first block time reduction since launch, cutting the average to 1.75 seconds to increase throughput for stablecoin transfers and decentralized finance.
The upgrade, part of Polygon Improvement Proposal PIP-86, raises theoretical throughput to approximately 3,260 transactions per second—a roughly 14% gain. The two-stage plan also targets a further reduction to 1.5 seconds and adjusts checkpoint rewards to keep annual POL emissions near 1%. Software engineer Lucca Martins said the change will shorten transaction queues during congestion, limiting fee spikes for payments, DeFi trades, and stablecoin activity.
The speed boost arrives alongside a new zero-knowledge privacy feature built with Hinkal. Businesses can now route stablecoin transfers through a shielded pool, hiding transaction details from public view while preserving compliance via Know Your Transaction screening before execution. Polygon community lead Smokey emphasized that firms need operational privacy, not avoidance of oversight, and Hinkal’s documentation allows users to generate auditable records for regulators without on-chain exposure.
Institutional adoption is growing: Visa added Polygon to its stablecoin settlement pilot on April 29, and Meta Platforms began offering select creators USDC payouts via Polygon and Solana with Stripe handling tax reporting. Polygon Labs is also seeking up to $100 million in funding for a payments stack involving Coinme and Sequence. The network’s stablecoin market cap reached $3.6 billion in April, according to DeFiLlama.
Despite the upgrades, POL was trading near $0.09 at press time, down 54% over the past year.
