Polygon Dominates with $407M Net Inflows, Leaving Solana and Ethereum in the Dust

Move over, blue chips—Polygon just pulled off a capital raid that's rewriting the liquidity playbook.

The Layer-2 Contender That Became a Capital Magnet

Forget gradual growth. The network didn't just attract funds; it executed a strategic vacuum, pulling capital from across the ecosystem. This isn't mere adoption—it's a wholesale migration of value, signaling a profound shift in developer and institutional conviction. The scale of movement suggests a reevaluation of foundational blockchain value propositions is underway.

Outflanking the Established Guard

The narrative of 'Ethereum-first, everything else second' is getting a serious stress test. By outpacing both its foundational layer and its closest 'Ethereum-killer' rival, Polygon demonstrates that scalability solutions aren't just sidechains—they're becoming primary destinations. It turns out that when you build a highway next to a congested city, the traffic doesn't just flow faster; it decides to live there. A classic case of the infrastructure play beating the brand-name premium—Wall Street would be proud of the sheer, cynical efficiency of it.

The real story isn't the number—it's the direction. Money talks, and right now, it's shouting that the future is modular, scalable, and ruthlessly pragmatic.

Polygon remains a widely used chain despite its legacy status. The Polygon proof-of-stake chain is the main venue for USDC transfers, used in Polymarket trading. 

The active inflows followed the expansion of users and fees on the network, as traders continued to engage with Polygon’s trading pairs. 

Polygon passes other L2 with organic activity

Polygon is one of the few L2 chains to revive its organic activity, passing other chains with much more developed DeFi apps. 

The chain still carries only $1.15B in total value locked, and has not returned to the activity of 2021. Based on L2Beat, Polygon PoS also carries $3.63B in total secured value.

The chain still has robust activity through Quickswap, with Polymarket coming in second among the most liquid apps. 

The remaining Polygon activity comes from legacy apps and versions of leading DeFi hubs like Aave, Uniswap, PancakeSwap, and others. Polygon also keeps posting weekly records for active addresses.

Recently, Polygon displaced Arbitrum as the leading recipient of inflows. On a one-month basis, Polygon is just behind Hyperliquid for new inflows, but the three-month time frame shows Polygon drew in more significant netflows. 

One of the reasons for the inflows is the structure of Polygon’s markets. Hyperliquid, the runner-up, still has significant withdrawals, while Polymarket is constantly expanding its pool of traders. 

Polygon switches to payment network

Polygon remains one of the chains with the highest USDC transfer volume. Polygon still works on its Open Money Stack, becoming a venue for payment apps. 

The chain recently acquired Coinme and Sequence to build an on-chain transaction network. The project aims to build fiat on-ramps and offer up to 50,000 fiat-to-crypto locations in the USA. 

The network’s growth is only partially dependent on its main prediction market, as the chain actively seeks new use cases. Polymarket focuses on P2P payments, and may carry the x402 standard tokens.

Recently, Polygon onboarded Toku, which will use the chain for USDC payroll distributions. Users can also spin up private on-chain payment gateways with USDC, USDT, or POL.

Polygon aims to reinvent itself, also shedding up to 30% of its staff to pivot into payments. Stablecoin payments are still growing despite the overall crypto slowdown.

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