Polygon Speeds Up Network Performance

Polygon has lowered its average block time by 250 milliseconds to 1.75 seconds, marking the network’s first reduction in block production time since launch as it continues expanding into stablecoin payments and settlement infrastructure.

Data from Polygonscan shows that recent blocks on the network are now being produced in approximately 1.75 seconds. According to Polygon software engineer Lucca Martins, the upgrade increases the network’s theoretical throughput by around 14%, allowing it to process up to roughly 3,260 transactions per second (TPS).

Shorter block times may help clear transaction backlogs more efficiently, potentially reducing congestion and minimizing spikes in transaction fees—an important factor for high-frequency applications such as payments, stablecoin transfers, and decentralized finance (DeFi) trading.

Focus on institutional payments and privacy

The upgrade comes as Polygon increasingly positions itself for institutional-focused use cases, particularly in the stablecoin sector. On Tuesday, the network introduced a new wallet feature designed to support private stablecoin transactions. The feature enables users to route transactions through a shielded pool secured with zero-knowledge proofs.

The privacy-focused functionality is intended to conceal sender and receiver identities, as well as transaction amounts, while still supporting compliance through Know Your Transaction (KYT) screening and auditable records. According to Polygon community lead Smokey, the feature is aimed at providing businesses with greater privacy when transacting with stablecoins.

The block-time reduction is part of Polygon Improvement Proposal PIP-86, a broader initiative that seeks to further lower block times to 1.5 seconds while adjusting checkpoint rewards to maintain the target 1% annual emission rate for the POL token.

Stablecoin expansion and market reaction

Polygon has continued to expand partnerships within the payments sector. On April 29, Visa extended its stablecoin settlement pilot to include Polygon alongside networks such as Base, the Canton Network, Arc, and Tempo. Visa’s pilot, initially launched in 2023, allows participating institutions to settle transactions using stablecoins instead of traditional banking infrastructure in order to test faster settlement systems.

Despite the technical upgrades and growing institutional integrations, Polygon’s token price showed limited movement over the past 24 hours, trading near $0.09 at the time of writing. According to data from CoinMarketCap, the token remains down approximately 54% over the past year.

Sources:

https://forum.polygon.technology/t/pip-86-recalibrate-checkpoint-reward-for-reduced-polygon-block-times/21864

https://cointelegraph.com/news/polygon-reduces-block-production-time-175-second

https://x.com/0xlucca30/status/2052130984817000620

https://x.com/Smokey_/status/2051364280663175362

https://polygonscan.com/