Polygon

Polygon is a blockchain network that settles transactions at low cost and connects to Ethereum, letting an application move assets between the two. Polygon's own site describes the network as infrastructure for payments and real-world asset tokenization at scale. The native token, first launched as MATIC, was migrated to POL, which now pays transaction fees and secures the network through staking. Polygon PoS, the network's main proof-of-stake chain, upgraded its consensus layer to Heimdall v2 in 2025 to raise finality speed and reliability for the transaction volume institutional issuers need.

For a bank or an asset manager, Polygon is a settlement layer, not an asset issuer. A tokenized fund, a stablecoin or a bond sits on top of it, and that instrument, not the chain, is what an institution actually holds or trades.

Franklin Templeton's Franklin OnChain US Government Money Fund, whose share token is called BENJI, was the first US-registered mutual fund to run onchain when it launched in 2021, and Franklin Templeton later brought it to Polygon among nine public blockchains it now supports, including Ethereum, Avalanche, Arbitrum, Aptos, Base, Solana, Stellar and BNB Smart Chain (Franklin Templeton, 2023). The fund invests at least 99.5 percent of its assets in US government securities, cash and fully collateralized repurchase agreements, the same holdings a money market fund would report off-chain.

USDC, Circle's dollar stablecoin, runs natively on Polygon, and EURC, Circle's euro stablecoin, is available on Polygon as well, giving a European institution a euro-denominated settlement token on the same chain that carries BENJI. Finance Loop's page on euro stablecoins under MiCA covers EURC's license and how it compares with EURAU and Qivalis.

NRW.BANK, the development bank of the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia, issued a 100 million euro two-year digital bond on Polygon, with Deutsche Bank, DZ BANK and DekaBank acting as joint lead managers. The bond was registered under Germany's Electronic Securities Act (eWpG) through Cashlink, a BaFin-licensed crypto securities registrar that Finance Loop's tokenization in Germany page also covers. Polygon called the issuance a step toward the institutionalization of digital capital markets in Europe. It shows the same pattern as the Siemens bond on a public blockchain: a German bank issuer, a BaFin-licensed register keeper and established banks as buyers, with Polygon as the settlement chain instead of a different network.

A German bank or broker holding POL, USDC, EURC or a tokenized fund share like BENJI for a customer needs a crypto custody license under the Banking Act (Kreditwesengesetz, KWG), the same license German banks already use for other crypto-asset custody. Staking POL to a validator is a crypto-asset service under MiCA once a firm offers it to customers, so a bank offering Polygon staking needs the matching authorization. For a Polygon-based bond such as NRW.BANK's, the eWpG sets out the crypto securities register and the BaFin license that keeps it, covered in full on Finance Loop's tokenization in Germany page. A crypto exchange-traded product built on POL sits under prospectus and MiFID II rules like any other listed security.

A tokenized bond or fund on Polygon needs a price or a net asset value written onto the chain from an outside source, the problem Finance Loop's page on oracle networks explains. Chainlink runs its Data Feeds, Data Streams, CCIP and Proof of Reserve products on Polygon and has used the chain in parts of its work with Swift and DTCC on cross-chain fund data. Other oracle networks also serve Polygon; Pyth Network, native to Solana, publishes feeds on Polygon too, though its deepest institutional integrations remain on its home chain. A team pricing a Polygon-based fund position typically starts with Chainlink, given its work with DTCC's Smart NAV service, and checks whether a second oracle adds useful redundancy.

Finance Loop has been a partner of the Crypto Assets Conference of Frankfurt School and Deutsche Börse and of the Frankfurt Forum on Digital Assets & Applications by d-fine, where tokenized bonds, funds and market infrastructure across several blockchains, Polygon among them, have been part of the program. Chainlink Labs joined the panel of Tokenization & On-Chain Capital Markets in Zurich alongside 21X, Franklin Templeton, DFNS and AMINA on tokenized asset infrastructure, the same Franklin Templeton whose BENJI fund runs on Polygon.

Yes. Franklin Templeton's BENJI fund runs on Polygon alongside eight other public blockchains, Circle's USDC and EURC both settle on the chain, and NRW.BANK, a German state development bank, issued a 100 million euro digital bond on Polygon with Deutsche Bank, DZ BANK and DekaBank as joint lead managers.

POL is the token that replaced MATIC as Polygon's native asset. MATIC holders could migrate their tokens to POL, which pays transaction fees on Polygon PoS. Unlike MATIC, POL is designed to secure several chains across the wider Polygon network at once.

Polygon itself is a blockchain network, not a company offering a service to customers, so it holds no MiCA license. A firm offering Polygon-based services to EU customers, such as custody, exchange or staking of POL or a Polygon-based token, needs its own MiCA authorization for that service, plus a KWG license in Germany if it holds the assets in custody.

An institution delegates POL to a validator on Polygon PoS, which confirms blocks and earns rewards based on its total stake; the institution receives a share of those rewards minus the validator's fee. Offering that service to customers is a crypto-asset service under MiCA, so a bank or broker needs the matching license from its national supervisor before it can offer Polygon staking to clients; staking for its own book alone does not need one.