Deep Dive
1. Gas Limit Increase & Throughput Boost (May 2026)
Overview: This upgrade increased the network's gas limit to 140 million, directly raising its capacity to handle over 3,800 transactions per second (TPS). It ensures transaction costs remain low even during periods of high demand.
The change is a parameter adjustment within the network's consensus rules, allowing each block to process more computational work. This is a foundational step in Polygon's Gigagas roadmap, which aims for 100,000+ TPS to compete with traditional payment networks like Visa.
What this means: This is bullish for POL because it makes the network significantly faster and more efficient. Users and businesses can expect cheaper and more reliable transactions, which is critical for Polygon's goal of becoming a backbone for global payments and settlements. (Source)
2. Lisovo Hard Fork (March 2026)
Overview: The Lisovo hard fork implemented several key enhancements, including subsidies for machine-to-machine payments, more predictable fees for businesses, and improved smart contract support. It specifically prepares the network for a surge in AI-driven microtransactions.
Technically, the upgrade optimized gas consumption for complex operations and introduced new transaction types to support automated, high-volume payment flows between devices and services.
What this means: This is bullish for POL because it expands the network's utility beyond human users to machines and AI agents. This creates a new, massive source of transaction volume and demand for POL tokens to pay gas fees, positioning Polygon at the forefront of the machine economy. (Source)
3. Madhugiri Hard Fork (December 2025)
Overview: This major hard fork targeted a 33% increase in network throughput and slashed block consensus time from two seconds to one. It also implemented key Ethereum Improvement Proposals (EIPs) to enhance security and efficiency.
The update introduced a new transaction type dedicated to bridge traffic from Ethereum and added built-in flexibility for future protocol changes. It followed the foundational Heimdall v2 upgrade from July 2025, which first brought 5-second finality to the network.
What this means: This is bullish for POL because it delivers a tangibly faster and more secure user experience. Quicker finality reduces wait times for users and developers, making the chain more attractive for high-value applications like real-world asset (RWA) tokenization and institutional stablecoin settlement. (Source)
Conclusion
Polygon's recent codebase evolution is a focused engineering sprint toward ultra-high throughput and finality, cementing its infrastructure for the "Open Money Stack" and global payment dominance. How will the network's proven scalability translate into developer migration and sustained on-chain activity in the coming quarters?