Binance Supports Polygon’s Major Hard Fork with Temporary Withdrawal Freeze

Binance will temporarily suspend Polygon (POL) network deposits and withdrawals on October 8, 2025, as the blockchain undergoes a major upgrade and hard fork.

Key Takeaways

• Polygon’s Rio upgrade is scheduled for October 8, 2025, at block height 77,414,656.
• Binance will suspend deposits and withdrawals on the Polygon network starting at 1:12 p.m. UTC.
• Trading will remain unaffected, and the suspension is temporary.
• The Rio upgrade introduces key features like Validator-Elected Block Producer and Stateless Block Verification to improve scalability and efficiency.

What Happened?

Binance has confirmed it will support the Polygon (POL) network upgrade and hard fork, set for October 8, 2025. As part of the process, the exchange will suspend deposits and withdrawals starting at 1:12 p.m. UTC. The upgrade, dubbed the Rio mainnet upgrade, is expected to go live one hour later at approximately 2:12 p.m. UTC, once block height 77,414,656 is reached. Users can continue trading during this time.

Binance supported the Polygon (POL) Network Upgrade & Hard Fork.

👉 https://t.co/vwVYQT6KaR

— Binance (@binance) October 3, 2025

Details of the Network Upgrade

The Rio upgrade is a significant milestone in Polygon’s development, aligning with the network’s GigaGas roadmap to improve transaction speeds and scalability for global applications including Real-World Assets (RWAs) and payments. The upgrade aims to allow the network to handle up to 5,000 transactions per second (TPS).

Key technical improvements include:

• Validator Set Redesign: The upgrade restructures how validators are organized to enhance performance and reduce network reorgs.
• PIP-64 (Validator-Elected Block Producer): Shifts block production control from the protocol to validator decisions, increasing decentralization.
• PIP-65 (Economic Model for VEBloP): Introduces a fee redistribution mechanism that incentivizes both validators and block producers.
• PIP-72 (Witness-Based Stateless Verification): Enables nodes to verify blocks without needing full blockchain history, reducing storage needs and hardware costs.

These enhancements not only lower operational costs for validators but also strengthen the network’s architecture against inefficiencies and bottlenecks.

Binance’s Role and User Impact

Binance will manage all technical requirements on behalf of its users. This ensures that the upgrade process will be seamless for those trading Polygon tokens on the exchange. Users do not need to take any manual action.

• Deposits and withdrawals will be automatically re-enabled once the network is stable.
• No further announcement will be issued about the reopening of these services.

This operational pause is standard practice during major blockchain upgrades to prevent transaction errors or asset losses during the fork.

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CoinLaw’s Takeaway

Honestly, this upgrade is a big leap forward for Polygon. In my experience, any time a blockchain introduces stateless validation and shifts consensus power to validators, it marks a maturity moment. These aren’t just minor tweaks; they’re foundational changes designed to handle real-world scale. And the 5,000 TPS potential? That’s huge for DeFi and enterprise applications.

I found Binance’s decision to temporarily pause withdrawals both necessary and reassuring. It shows coordination between platforms and networks, which is critical when things get technical fast. If you’re holding Polygon assets, there’s nothing to worry about. Just be aware of the short pause and watch how this upgrade shapes the network’s future.