Polygon Implements Hard Fork After 15-Minute Transaction Finality Lag

• Polygon executed a hard fork on September 10 to fix a bug in its node software that caused up to 15-minute delays in transaction finality and disrupted third-party services.
• Despite the setback, no funds were at risk, and the network quickly restored full functionality, with POL rebounding after an initial dip.

Polygon has executed a hard fork to resolve a technical bug that briefly delayed transaction finality across the network, underscoring the importance of fast upgrades in maintaining blockchain stability.

According to Polygon’s official POL (formerly MATIC) X account, the disruption first surfaced on September 10, when users began experiencing up to 15-minute delays in reaching “local fast finality,” a milestone system that enables rapid confirmation of transactions. Developers traced the issue to a bug in Polygon’s node software that interfered with validator synchronization.

Ethereum Security Unaffected

While Polygon’s block production and Ethereum checkpointing remained fully operational during the disruption, users were still affected by lagging confirmations. The slowdown also spilled over to third-party services. Several DeFi apps temporarily lost accessibility, while Polygonscan, the primary block explorer for the network, stopped displaying updates for more than five hours.

Despite the disruptions, Polygon emphasized that no funds were ever at risk and Ethereum’s security guarantees were not compromised.

Hard Fork and Critical Updates

To address the bug, Polygon developers rolled out two crucial updates: Bor v2.2.11-beta2, covering the block production layer, and Heimdall v0.3.1, which required a hard fork to fully restore consensus and validator synchronization.

UPDATE:

The hard fork has been successfully completed, and milestones are now processing normally along with state sync. Checkpoints are going through and consensus finalization has been fully restored on Polygon PoS.

We will continue to monitor the network closely to ensure… https://t.co/UwiAYdcKXu

— Polygon Foundation (@0xPolygonFdn) September 10, 2025

The fork was successfully executed on September 10 at 3 p.m. UTC, restoring milestone confirmation and checkpointing to normal. Following the upgrade, Polygon confirmed that consensus finalization was once again fully operational. The team also pledged to continue monitoring network performance closely in the days ahead.

During the disruption, Polygon’s native token POL fell by about 4%, but quickly rebounded after the hard fork, reflecting restored market confidence in the project’s resilience.

Ongoing Development Challenges

This marks the second major technical challenge Polygon has faced in 2025. In July, a validator exit caused the Heimdall component to halt finality after forcing RPC nodes to resynchronize. Both incidents highlight the complexity of maintaining high-performance blockchain infrastructure at scale.

Still, Polygon co-founder Sandeep Nailwal reiterated that constant upgrades remain essential to the network’s long-term vision. He described Polygon’s goal as achieving “GigaGas throughput,” an ambitious target designed to make the network’s capacity comparable to global payment systems.

Ecosystem Growth Uninterrupted

Despite the occasional technical setbacks, Polygon has solidified itself as a cornerstone of Web3 infrastructure. The network supports billions of foreign exchange transactions, has emerged as a leader in stablecoin settlement and real-world asset tokenization, and recently even hosted official U.S. Department of Commerce GDP data on-chain.

For users and developers, the swift resolution of the finality issue reaffirms Polygon’s ability to adapt and maintain stability, even under pressure. As adoption of decentralized applications and tokenized assets grows, the network’s ability to quickly identify and patch problems will remain critical to its continued expansion.

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