By A member of Polygon Labs’ Validator Support Team has proposed a coordinated hard fork of the Polygon Proof-of-Stake network to recover approximately 70.49 million POL tokens linked to separate security breaches involving Binance and Polymarket.
The proposal, published on the Polygon governance forum on November 4, 2026, outlines a mechanism to transfer the stolen assets from attacker-controlled wallets to verified recovery addresses designated by the affected companies.
The tokens were valued at approximately $6.5 million using POL’s October 29 price of $0.0924. According to the proposal, four addresses associated with the Polymarket incident hold approximately 23.86 million POL, while one address connected to Binance contains approximately 46.63 million POL.
Polygon’s block producers have already restricted transactions from the five addresses, preventing the attackers from transferring the assets. However, those restrictions do not provide a mechanism for returning the funds.
The proposal remains subject to governance approval and has not been implemented.
Hard Fork Would Transfer Frozen POL Without Increasing Supply
The proposal was submitted by a Polygon Labs validator-support contributor identified as Parvez03. It recommends modifying Polygon’s blockchain rules at a predetermined block to remove the native POL balances from five specified attacker-controlled addresses.
Equivalent amounts would then be credited to recovery wallets controlled by Binance and Polymarket. The adjustment would occur through a network-level state change rather than conventional transactions requiring the attackers’ private keys.
Polygon’s total POL supply would remain unchanged. The proposed intervention follows security incidents affecting Polymarket on October 29 and Binance on October 29–30.
During the Binance incident, approximately 46.63 million POL and 6.19 million USDT were transferred from a hot wallet to an attacker-controlled address. Tether subsequently froze the USDT, while Polygon block producers restricted movement of the POL.
The Polymarket incident involved approximately 28 million POL, although only the remaining balances in four identified addresses would be eligible for recovery. The proposal argues that maintaining wallet restrictions indefinitely creates operational risks because block producers must continue enforcing their transaction block lists.
A coordinated hard fork would provide a permanent recovery mechanism for the specifically identified assets.
Governance Review Raises Questions About Blockchain Immutability
The proposal is scheduled for discussion during the Polygon Protocol Governance Call on November 5 at 14:30 UTC. If approved, developers would prepare updated network software and test the recovery mechanism on Polygon’s Amoy testnet.
The document estimates that development and testing could take approximately two weeks following approval. Before implementation, Binance and Polymarket would need to verify control of their designated recovery addresses.
Validators and infrastructure providers would also need to upgrade their software before the selected activation block. Failure to coordinate upgrades could create incompatible versions of the blockchain.
The proposal acknowledges that forcibly transferring wallet balances represents an exceptional intervention in a blockchain network. Its authors argue that the measure is justified by publicly acknowledged security incidents, identifiable stolen assets and existing transaction restrictions.
However, such intervention raises broader questions about immutability, decentralization and the circumstances under which blockchain participants should reverse transactions. The document explicitly rejects introducing a permanent mechanism allowing authorities to freeze and recover assets.
Instead, it recommends a narrowly defined, one-time adjustment limited to the five identified addresses. The proposed recovery would not affect other tokens, bridge contracts or previously recorded transactions.
For Polygon, the decision will test how its governance framework balances asset recovery against the principle that blockchain transactions should remain irreversible. The immediate outcome remains uncertain, with approval, technical implementation and validator coordination all required before any funds can be returned.