Polygon has proposed a technical upgrade of its native token MATIC. This upgrade would see MATIC replaced with a “next generation” token called POL, with the rebranding being part of the Polygon 2.0 roadmap. POL is a hyperproductive token, meaning holders can become validators and earn rewards, while also being able to operate across multiple chains, including PoS, zkEVM and Supernets.

The upgrade would involve holders sending their MATIC tokens to a given smart contract, which would then replace the MATIC with POL in a 1:1 ratio and send the new token to the holder’s address. The Polygon community is expected to adopt the proposal in the next six months, with holders having a four or more years timeline to complete the switch.

The news of the upgrade saw the price of MATIC rise, with the token’s value surging to its highest level since early June. Data from CoinGecko showed it traded nearly 5% in the past 24 hours and its daily trading volume was up 21.7%, with more than $306 million traded.