Polygon’s Proof-of-Stake network is experiencing a 10-15 minute transaction finality delay due to a "milestone issue," affecting applications and leading to a 4% decline in the POL token.

Executive Summary

Polygon’s Proof-of-Stake (PoS) network is currently experiencing a 10-15 minute delay in transaction finality. While block production continues, this delay, attributed to a "milestone issue" affecting specific Bor and Erigon nodes, impacts decentralized applications (dApps) and exchanges that rely on immediate transaction immutability. The POL token, Polygon’s native cryptocurrency, has seen a 4% decrease amidst this incident and a broader cryptocurrency market slowdown.

The Event in Detail

The Polygon Foundation reported on September 10, 2025, that the finality delay stems from issues with certain Remote Procedure Call (RPC) services, preventing some nodes from progressing normally. This has resulted in interruptions for some validators and RPC providers. Many affected nodes have been restarted, restoring normal operations for a significant portion of the network. However, some nodes necessitated a rollback to the last finalized block, number 76,273,070, and are undergoing resynchronization. The Polygon team has identified a fix, which is being progressively deployed to all validators and service providers. User services such as Polygonscan mainnet, OKLink explorers, and Alchemy Polygon have reported partial outages or slowed performance as a consequence.

Market Implications

Transaction finality delays directly affect dApps, exchanges, and Decentralized Finance (DeFi) applications that require transactions to be irreversible within expected timeframes. The current delay creates short-term operational disruptions for these platforms. The POL token’s 4% decline reflects immediate market reaction and potential minor erosion of user and developer confidence, particularly if such issues persist. This incident follows a recent Heimdall v2 upgrade on July 10, 2025, which aimed to significantly reduce transaction finality to 5 seconds, and a prior hour-long disruption. It also occurs in a period where other Layer-2 networks, such as Linea and Starknet, have experienced operational setbacks, underlining a broader challenge in maintaining consistent reliability across scaling solutions.

Business Strategy and Network Reliability

Polygon has actively pursued advancements to enhance its network's speed and stability, exemplified by the Heimdall v2 upgrade. This upgrade was designed to achieve a 5-second transaction finality, a critical factor for attracting institutional investors and facilitating real-world assets (RWAs) and payments on the blockchain. The current finality delay, however, contrasts with these strategic objectives, highlighting the complexities inherent in maintaining high-performance blockchain infrastructure. Polygon's long-term roadmap includes integrating with the Agglayer for unified liquidity and aiming for single-block instant finality and throughput of over 5000 transactions per second, positioning itself as a leading chain for payments and RWAs. Addressing the current finality issue expeditiously is crucial for reaffirming network robustness and sustaining investor confidence in its strategic direction.