$POL
As of February 14, 2026, Polygon Ecosystem Token (POL)—formerly known as MATIC—is showing signs of independent strength, attempting to break free from a broader market slump characterized by "Extreme Fear."
1. Market Performance & Health
Current Price:
Approximately $0.101 – $0.110. POL is up roughly +3.4% to +12% today (depending on the exchange), a notable move considering Bitcoin has been under pressure.
Recent Momentum:
POL hit a cycle low of $0.083 on February 6, 2026. Since then, it has staged an 8.3% recovery over the last week.
Market Cap: Roughly $1.07 Billion, currently ranked around #62 globally.
Volume:
24-hour trading volume has surged by over 18% to approximately $100 Million, confirming that today's bounce is backed by real buying interest rather than just low-liquidity volatility.
2. The 2026 "Open Money Stack" Narrative
The rebranding from MATIC to POL is now complete (99%+ migration), and the narrative has shifted toward Polygon becoming the "payment layer of the internet":
The Coinme Acquisition: Sentiment is high following reports that Polygon Labs is finalizing a $125M acquisition of Coinme, the largest Bitcoin ATM operator in the U.S. This gives Polygon direct access to fiat on-ramps in 48 states.
Gigagas & 100k TPS:
The 2026 technical roadmap is focused on the "Gigagas" initiative. Following the Madhugiri hardfork in late 2025, the network is now targeting 100,000 transactions per second, positioning it for massive institutional stablecoin volume.
Deflationary Burn:
On-chain activity remains high; a record 94 million stablecoin transfers were processed in a single day this month, resulting in the burning of 3 million POL tokens in 24 hours.