Polygon has activated its long-planned Madhugiri hardfork on the Polygon PoS mainnet at around 10 am UTC on December 9. This technical upgrade increases the network’s transaction capacity by one-third and also sets the stage for simpler, faster future improvements.
What the Madhugiri Hardfork Changes Right Now
The hard fork, activated at block height 80,084,800, has introduced several foundational changes. Most notably, it has raised the network’s block gas limit from 30 million to 45 million, allowing about 33% more transaction data per block.
Consensus time is now formally set to one second, enabling faster block finality. Furthermore, a change implemented through Polygon Improvement Proposal (PIP) 75 means developers can now adjust block times through simple parameter changes rather than requiring a full network hardfork in the future.
The upgrade has also integrated three Ethereum Improvement Proposals (EIPs), namely 7823, 7825, and 7883, which were originally part of Ethereum’s Fusaka hardfork that went live earlier in the month.
According to the Polygon team, these changes will increase gas costs for certain complex operations while capping individual transaction limits, therefore enhancing network security as capacity grows.
Additionally, a new transaction type for bridge operations between Ethereum and Polygon was added, with the Polygon Foundation stating that users and applications do not need to take any action for the upgrade to become effective.
Why Polygon Is Pushing Performance Ahead of Payments Growth
Madhugiri has come at a time when Polygon is positioning itself as payment-friendly infrastructure, especially following announcements such as last month’s Mastercard Crypto Credential rollout. That initiative tapped Polygon for verified, user-friendly wallet aliases intended to simplify digital payments.
The network also recently attracted interest from fintech and institutional users, and its PoS chain has been promoted as settlement-ready for stablecoin transfers. These steps help explain why Polygon is tightening block production, aiming for faster finality and fewer bottlenecks before pushing further into mainstream transactions.
Meanwhile, at the market, POL, the blockchain’s native token, has shown mixed performance during this period. Trading near $0.12 earlier today, it is down by about 1.3% in the last 24 hours and nearly 30% lower across the past month.
According to CoinGecko, the asset touched an all-time low of $0.117 on December 2, but has recovered about 2% over the past week, faintly ahead of the wider crypto market, which slipped about 1% in the same period.
Still, POL is trailing other smart contract platforms that climbed more than 5% during the same timeframe. It also remains far below its March 2024 peak near $1.29, reflecting broader risk-off conditions and uncertainty across alternative L1 and L2 networks.