Polygon sPOL officially goes live, unlocking 3.6 billion POL to enable staking rewards

Polygon Labs officially launched sPOL on Tuesday. This is Polygon’s first native liquid staking token (LST), designed to unlock more than 3.6 billion POL tokens currently locked in validator staking contracts. With sPOL, stakers can deploy their sPOL tokens in DeFi as collateral or a liquidity source while continuing to earn staking rewards—achieving double earnings from the same asset.

sPOL Mechanism Design: Preserve Liquidity and Staking Rewards at the Same Time

In the form of “yield-bearing receipt tokens,” sPOL allows staked POL to remain liquid within the DeFi ecosystem. After stakers lock POL into the system, they immediately receive an equivalent amount of sPOL. These tokens can be used in DeFi as collateral, liquidity provision, or building blocks for yield strategies, while the underlying POL staking rewards continue to accrue.

The exchange rate is initially set at 1:1 and gradually increases as staking rewards accumulate—holders’ sPOL balances remain unchanged, but the amount of POL redeemable per sPOL continues to rise. Holders can redeem sPOL back into the corresponding POL and accumulated rewards at any time, without needing to wait for any unlock period. Existing stakers can migrate seamlessly via Polygon’s staking portal without interrupting rewards; all newly staked POL will be automatically distributed in the form of sPOL.

PIP-85 Fee Reform: Delegators Share Network Priority Fees for the First Time

The launch of sPOL is advancing in parallel with a governance proposal for PIP-85, which was championed by Polygon Foundation CEO Sandeep Nailwal. The goal is to distribute, for the first time, 50% of validator priority fees directly to delegators. Before this, delegators who had funds locked to support validators were virtually unable to share any fee revenue.

Core Background Data for sPOL and PIP-85

Fee growth scale: Since the introduction of the PIP-65 fee framework, network priority fees have grown by about 10x; in February 2026 alone, more than 5.4 million POL tokens were allocated to validators in a single month

Liquidity penetration gap: More than 43%+ of staked ETH on Ethereum exists in the form of liquid staking derivatives; Polygon’s share is still below 5%. The team attributes the gap to market fragmentation—third-party LST service fees range from 5% to 16%

Fee linkage mechanism: Validators participating in sPOL have agreed to return a portion of priority fees to delegators, establishing a direct linkage between network activity and staker rewards

Cold-Start Strategy and Broader Context

To address the issue of insufficient liquidity in the early stage, Polygon Labs injected 10 million sPOL from its treasury at launch, plans to increase it gradually to 90 million, and ultimately committed to issuing a total supply of 100 million tokens.

The launch of sPOL is part of Polygon’s “Open Money Stack” strategy this year, aimed at transitioning toward payment infrastructure. In February 2026, Polygon recorded 493 million stablecoin transactions, setting a monthly record. However, despite ongoing strength in network usage metrics, since completing the MATIC-to-POL migration in September 2024, the POL token price is still down about 94% from its post-migration peak—suggesting the token price has not yet fully reflected real network usage.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the fundamental difference between sPOL and ordinary POL staking?

During ordinary POL staking, tokens are locked and cannot be used in DeFi. sPOL, in the form of transferable receipt tokens, enables stakers to deploy sPOL in DeFi as collateral or a liquidity source while continuing to earn staking rewards—delivering the effect of “one asset, two streams of yield.”

Why is Polygon’s LST penetration far lower than Ethereum’s?

Polygon’s LST market penetration is below 5%. The main reason is market fragmentation: multiple third-party LST service providers have fee rates as high as 5% to 16%, which weakens users’ willingness to adopt. sPOL, as a native solution, reduces fee-friction, and resolves the cold-start problem through the Foundation’s large-scale initial token injection.

What is the real impact of PIP-85 on POL stakers?

PIP-85 will be the first to allocate 50% of validator priority fees to delegators. Because network priority fees have grown by about 10x, this change means delegators’ income will be directly tied to network activity—providing stronger economic incentives for long-term token holders who stake—and further increasing the attractiveness of total earnings for sPOL holders.