Polygon Hard Fork has become a governance issue after Polygon validators were asked to approve a proposal to recover approximately 70.49 million POL linked to separate security incidents involving Polymarket and Binance. The proposed measure would transfer the blocked tokens into verified recovery wallets without changing the network’s total supply.
Table of Contents
The proposal was announced on November 5, after its publication on Polygon’s official governance platform on November 4. According to the draft, five hacker-owned addresses store the funds in question. Four hacker-owned addresses store approximately 23.86 million POL connected to Polymarket, and one address is owned by Binance and stores 46.63 million POL.
In total, these assets were worth about $6.8 million based on market rates on November 4. They became the subject of separate security issues on October 29 and 30, 2026. It should be noted that despite the attempts of Polygon block producers to prohibit any transactions on these addresses, the current mechanism lacks such an opportunity.
Also Read | Litecoin Price Looks to Recover as Privacy Discussion Takes Center Stage at AIBC World
Polygon Hard Fork Targets Blocked Funds
According to the Polygon Improvement Proposal (PIP), all validator-elected block producers added the identified addresses to Bor’s transaction block list at the request of the affected companies. In this way, the movement of the rest of POL was hindered. However, the action restricted the transactions and did not regain control of the assets.
The proposal argues that leaving approximately 70 million POL locked indefinitely is not a permanent recovery solution. Moreover, operational problems occur because the block producers read the transaction block lists at startup time. Any update requires deployment and restart or span rotation of Bor.
The document further elaborates on how the attacker tried to move the blocked assets. On October 30, there was a pending transaction in which 219,450 POL were offered as fees to complete the transaction. The attacker further contacted the validators and made cash offers in return of unblocking the transactions.
Polymarket and Binance Incidents Behind Recovery Plan
The Polymarket attack was about 28 million POL on the Polygon PoS chain. According to the post-mortem analysis, the breach occurred due to a compromised third-party script that made use of user sessions to sell users’ positions and drain their wallets. On-chain transactions drained millions of POL to the addresses that Polygon block producers restricted.
The proposal highlights that there are four Polymarket-related addresses that hold about 23.86 million POL. Besides, Polymarket has set up a recovery channel on-chain through SEAL Safe Harbor Recovery Safe, but there is no response from the attacker. Thus, the proposed reassignment provides a second option to recover the traceable funds.
The other incident occurred at Binance involving unauthorized access to the internal wallet signing service. On 30 October, Binance reported to Polygon to block the address where 46,626,589.6 POL and 6,185,900.1 USDT were transferred by Binance Hot Wallet. After freezing USDT by Tether, the recovery target turned out to be only native POL.
How the Proposed POL Recovery Mechanism Works
As per the Polygon Hard Fork proposal, the network will perform balance reallocation when reaching the activation block. As a preliminary step before transaction processing in the activation block, the network will retrieve the balance from the previous block, set it to zero, and allocate an equal value of funds to the corresponding recovery wallet.
The procedure applies solely to native balances of POL in the mentioned addresses, and other types of tokens will be unaffected. In addition, it is emphasized that the total amount of POL will not be changed since the balances will simply be moved from one wallet to another.
For the activation of the Polygon Hard Fork, Polymarket and Binance have to prove possession of their recovery wallets. The respective addresses will be submitted in the discussion of the proposal, and the ownership will be proven by signing a message or performing a test transaction.
Governance Conditions and Chain Split Risks
The proposal portrays the process as a special intervention that is not supposed to become a norm in the future. It does not aim at creating a long-term authorization for Polygon validators to freeze and transfer users’ funds. On the contrary, the process will involve only five addresses involved in known cases.
For the process to start, there should be several requirements to meet. Among such requirements are governance approval, publication of a post-mortem report in accordance with on-chain data, and permanent blocking of the addresses in question by all the block producers. It is necessary to recount balances once more prior to implementation of the solution and make public the differences from initial amounts.
The proposal also raises the issue of the chain split, which may appear due to the inability of certain participants to upgrade their clients. In case of such a situation, the nodes using the old client version will operate on another chain starting from the time of activation.
Polygon Schedules Governance Discussion
The proposal was scheduled to be presented during Polygon’s Protocol Governance Call on November 5 at 14:30 UTC. After being approved, the proposal suggests that two weeks would be a reasonable period of time for client development and Amoy testnet rehearsal. One week for implementation is considered tight.
Neither the activation block nor the mainnet release has been determined yet. According to Polygon’s validator operations team, about 70-80% of the stake on the network would upgrade to the necessary software quickly after the release. The final deployment will depend on the readiness of the technology and the validators, as well as on the testnet.
Finally, the proposal implies the publication of a transaction-free balance change and verification script after activation. The Binance block-listed addresses should be analyzed for possible removal after confirming the information from the exchange. Polymarket block-listed addresses could be removed once their balance becomes zero.
Also Read | NEAR Gains Pump.fun Integration as NEAR Price Eyes Recovery Toward $13
Bena Ilyas is a Global News Correspondent and Market Analyst at Tronweekly with over four years of experience covering global cryptocurrency, blockchain, and Web3 developments. She has written 1,000+ articles for leading crypto news platforms, reporting on Bitcoin, Ethereum, altcoins, DeFi, and global crypto regulation, alongside Web3 trends, Layer 2 ecosystems, and AI-driven crypto use cases. Her work is based on verified sources and fact-based reporting for global market participants.
