Polygon Targets Faster Finality as Giugliano Upgrade Goes Live April 8

The upcoming Polygon upgrade introduces faster block announcements, new fee parameters, and improved RPC support to ramp up overall network performance.

Polygon will roll out its Giugliano hard fork on the mainnet on April 8, and the upgrade is expected to go live at around 2:00 PM UTC at block 85,268,500, according to the Polygon Foundation.

The update is focused on improving how quickly transactions reach finality, meaning the point at which they are confirmed and cannot be reversed.

Giugliano Hard Fork

As part of the changes, block producers will be able to signal new blocks earlier in the process, which is intended to shorten confirmation times across the network. The upgrade also embeds fee-related parameters directly into block headers and adds new RPC capabilities for accessing fee data, which should streamline how developers and users interact with transaction costs.

Polygon had previously tested the changes on its Amoy testnet, where the team recorded a reduction of roughly two seconds in finality time.

To ensure a smooth transition, node operators are required to upgrade their infrastructure ahead of the activation block, specifically updating Bor to version 2.7.0 or Erigon to version 3.5.0. Nodes that fail to update risk falling out of sync with the network after the fork is implemented.

The Giugliano hard fork is part of Polygon’s broader “Gigagas” scaling plan, which outlines a phased approach to increasing throughput and improving overall network efficiency. By July, the roadmap targets a throughput of around 1,000 transactions per second alongside finality times of about five seconds, as well as more stable transaction fees.

Further milestones include scaling beyond 5,000 TPS by October, which is expected to enable smoother cross-chain liquidity through Agglayer integration, and eventually achieve near-instant finality with one-second block times and no chain reorganizations. The long-term goal is to support up to 100,000 TPS.

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Network Transaction and Revenue Metrics

The upgrade also comes against the backdrop of steady network activity. A recent report by CoinGecko found that Polygon maintained steady activity through most of 2025, averaging about 119 million transactions per month and roughly 7.4 million active users. Monthly transaction volumes largely stayed within the 85 million to 110 million range, while user numbers remained consistent between 6 million and 8 million.

Activity picked up sharply in the final quarter as transactions rose from 116 million in October to 183 million by December. While active users also increased during this period, they declined in early 2026 even as transaction levels stayed high. There was also a sharp jump in network revenue in January 2026, which reached its highest level since early 2023, supported by strong usage of payment applications and trading activity on platforms like Polymarket.

Earlier this year, Polygon Labs axed 30% of its workforce as part of a restructuring effort. The layoffs followed previous workforce reductions in 2023 and 2024.