Polygon tokenomics inflection point: base fee burn approaches new coin minting, POL valuation multiple is only half of TRX

Polygon’s base-fee burn reached 86% of new POL issuance in the first nine months of 2026, up from just 5% in 2025, with burns exceeding minting in five separate months as the network pivots toward stablecoin payments. The chain processed 17.6 million stablecoin transfers per day as of September 2026—one-third of all stablecoin transactions across nine major blockchains—while stablecoin activity drove 72% of gas consumption and the median transfer cost 1.6 cents. Polygon Labs closed its acquisition of Coinme on October 14, adding money-transmitter licenses across 48 U.S. states and completing a fiat on-ramp-to-settlement loop. POL trades at roughly 41.2x trailing 12-month on-chain fees versus 87.5x for TRX, with a market cap near $949 million against $31.6 million in annualized fees, and the PIP-85 proposal now directs half of the validator priority-fee pool to stakers. Watch whether fee capture keeps outpacing issuance enough to force net deflation, and whether the valuation gap to TRON narrows as payment volumes scale.