📝 Editor’s Note: Setting the Scene

Welcome to our third Mega Issue focused on Polygon, whose proof-of-stake chain quietly served as the home to Polymarket, the breakout prediction market app.

Polymarket had an electric final quarter in 2024 as it generated over $3B in trading volume in Q4. Notably, there were no outages despite a $350M volume spike for the prediction market on Election Day.

There are other signs of Polygon's proof-of-stake chain becoming a go-to option for breakout apps. Courtyard, a marketplace and tokenization platform for physical collectibles, facilitated a $200,000 sale of a first edition Charizard, one of the most valuable Pokemon cards available. Courtyard also generated $4M+ in volume in the past month. Kudos!

And at a $175M market capitalization, the total value of Real World Assets (RWAs) on Polygon —excluding stablecoins— rank third only behind Ethereum and Stellar. Stablecoins too, have found product-market fit on Polygon — the dollar-pegged assets reached a $2.1B high in Q4 2024.

That goes without addressing Polygon's upcoming AggLayer, a new architecture which will serve to unite all blockchains’ state and liquidity through zero-knowledge proofs.

More on that later. For now, here's the latest onchain from Polygon. 

– ON Editorial Team

• Polygon has emerged as a leading blockchain platform, ranking among the top three chains by transaction volume. Its steady growth and focus on innovation have made it a stable, secure, and low-cost home for breakthrough apps. In 2024, Polygon achieved key milestones, including major upgrades and strategic partnerships, further cementing its reputation as a trusted and scalable network for decentralized applications.

• In 2024, Polygon hit 1.3B transactions (+17% year-over-year), with active wallets soaring to 54.4M (+70%) and 45.7M new wallets (+66%). Growth surged in early 2024 and Q4 (+8% quarter-over-quarter). TVL peaked at $1.34B in November, showcasing Polygon’s consistent momentum and adoption.

• Polygon's Napoli and Ahmedabad upgrades drove 2024 success. Napoli improved UX and efficiency, while Ahmedabad increased code size limits and transitioned the MATIC token to POL. These updates enhanced Ethereum compatibility and reinforced Polygon's position as a blockchain leader.

• Trading volume on Polymarket, crypto's leading prediction market platform, soared during the 2024 US presidential election, exceeding $350M on Nov. 6. Key markets were "Presidential Election Winner 2024" ($241.9M) and "Who will win Pennsylvania?" ($6.08M). This milestone showcased Polymarket's role in offering real-time, market-driven political insights, reflecting public interest and financial stakes while creating a more engaging alternative to polls and forecasts.

• At $2B, November 2024 set a record for Polymarket in terms of monthly volume, again driven by US election markets. Key markets included "Super Bowl Champion 2025" ($187M) and "Popular Vote Winner 2024" ($87M). This surge showcased the platform’s role in predicting major events and engaging users.

• Polymarket also hit 40,000+ daily active users on Nov. 6 2024. This surge highlighted Polymarket’s scalability and its role in capturing public sentiment during pivotal events.

• Over the last 30 days, Courtyard, a marketplace and tokenization platform for physical collectables, recorded $4.38M in trading volume, up 3.38% from the previous period, with an average daily sales volume of $146.02K. The peak was Jan. 1, 2025, which generated $255K in volume, driven by New Year excitement. Dec. 16, 2024, generated just $80K, reflecting pre-holiday quiet. Seasonal trends and market dynamics drove these fluctuations.

• Notable Courtyard sales included a 2020 Panini Prizm #258 Anthony Edwards card for $6,440, a 2016 Japanese XY Promos #20 Pokémon card for $4,940, and a 2022 Panini Contenders #137 card for $4,530. Two 1998 Flair Showcase TAKEIT2 cards sold for $4,250 and $4,240, reflecting strong collector demand.

• Courtyard's tokenized collectibles on Polygon saw the number of traders drop of 18.79% to 1.23K and sellers down 45.12% to 529, reflecting reduced supply or market consolidation. Despite this, the market cap rose 19.98% to $396.8K, floor prices grew 1.29% to $5.92, and average prices increased 3.13% to $40.36.

• Polygon is gaining recognition as one of the leading platforms for Real World Asset (RWA) tokenization, securing a 3.3% market share valued at $174.65M — that ranks third behind only to Ethereum and Stellar. Over the past 30 days, the platform has demonstrated notable growth — RWA value increased by 3.84%, and the number of holders surged by 29.4%, reaching 1,118.

• Polygon’s RWA ecosystem is led by the USDC-issuer Circle, which contributes $436.17M. That's a 70.93% share of the value on RWAs on Polygon. Spiko, which focuses on US treasuries, is at $97.19M (15.8%). Securitize ($44.3M, 7.2%) spans global debt, while Franklin Templeton ($32.37M, 5.26%) offers tokenized funds.

• The RWA market is set to grow to $4–30T by 2030, driven by tokenized real estate and commodities. Institutional interest in real estate and infrastructure is rising. Regulatory clarity in 2025 and blockchain, AI, and DeFi integration are likely to boost adoption, efficiency, and new investment opportunities.

• Stablecoins have become a cornerstone of Polygon’s ecosystem, facilitating secure and efficient transactions across decentralized finance (DeFi) platforms and payment systems. The total stablecoin supply on Polygon's PoS chain grew by 14% in Q4 2024, reaching over $2B.

• Polygon also had a significant rise in stablecoin monthly active wallets in Q4 2024, reflecting growing user adoption. The increase is likely driven by Polygon's, low fees and scalability, attracting both new and existing users.

• In November 2024, Polygon Labs partnered with the Worldwide Stablecoin Payment Network (WSPN) to promote WUSD, WSPN's flagship stablecoin. This collaboration focuses on innovative use cases in payments and DeFi, targeting regions like Hong Kong SAR, Singapore, and Africa.

• In 2024, Polygon’s NFTs generated $18B in total volume and 54M transactions. Q4 2024 was a standout period, with NFT volumes soaring by 150% quarter-over-quarter to reach $9.58B. Transactions also saw a remarkable increase, rising by 180% to 28.5M in Q4 from 10.1M in Q3. This explosive growth was fueled by a combination of factors, including the popularity of gaming-related NFTs and the integration of innovative cross-chain solutions.

• Top NFT collections in Q4 2024 showcased Polygon's creativity, drawing new users and collectors. Their success boosted the platform’s growth, with data on sales and user participation offering deeper insights into their impact and performance.

• OpenSea dominates NFT volume on Polygon, as shown by its consistent majority share throughout December. The green section of the chart represents OpenSea's nearly 90% control of marketplace activity, showcasing its leading role in Polygon’s NFT ecosystem.

💡Looking Ahead:

As Polygon's proof-of-stake chain continues to gain momentum and credibility, plans to launch the AggLayer in the first quarter of 2025 are set.

First and foremost, the solution will provide the user experience of using a single blockchain while uniting any chain under the hood. The AggLayer will use zero knowledge proofs to do this, allowing connected blockchains to share both liquidity and state.

The team sees the AggLayer as an evolution from the modular architecture trend which has become popular in the Ethereum space in the last few years. Displaying the AggLayer’s utility, partners like Ronin, the gaming chain with 17M active addresses, Movement Labs, the Layer 2 infrastructure provider, and Magic Labs, a leader in wallet abstraction, have publicly committed to integrating with AggLayer.

If Q1 2025 is anything like Q4 2024, AggLayer's launch will solidify the Polygon ecosystem's place as a key resource for Ethereum and beyond. For now, users and developers alike will continue to enjoy Polygon’s proof-of-stake solution.