Polygon wants to move 70 million POL without the wallet holders’ signatures

The November 4 proposal specifically targets five addresses associated with stolen funds from security incidents affecting prediction market Polymarket and exchange Binance. According to reference tables in the proposal, approximately 24 million POL are linked to four Polymarket addresses and 47 million POL to one Binance address. The actual recovery would use balances at activation rather than these dated reference amounts.

As of November 9, the published proposal still leaves key details undecided, including the recovery fork's name, client release, and activation block. The November 5 governance agenda lists the proposal for discussion without recording approval. A separate Bor v2.11.0 release implements Uburu's StateReceiver changes, rather than this proposed recovery.

Recovery Mechanism

Under the proposed design, upgraded software would read each listed address's balance immediately before activation, set it to zero, and credit the same amount to a designated recovery address. This would occur before transactions execute in the activation block, maintaining the total supply and preserving earlier chain history. The proposal notes that Bor engineering must still confirm this design.

The rule would read each account's full balance from block F−1, before the recovery credit executes. The proposed recovery changes balances at a single block, meaning custody records would require separate adjustment.

Authorization Process

Governance approval, recipient-control checks, and Bor engineering confirmation are required for the recovery to proceed. The affected companies would designate recipients, with Polygon Labs confirming proof of recipient control. Crucially, the proposed sweep would not require a transaction signed by the source addresses.

Verification Requirements

Recipient verification requires proof of control, such as a signed message or small test transfer confirmed by Polygon Labs, plus written confirmation that the address belongs to the recipient. The proposal excludes other tokens and a separate category of blocked addresses, limiting the sweep to native POL at the five listed accounts.

The full-balance rule creates another ownership question: later deposits would also be moved. The proposal requires balances to be checked again before activation and any changes to be published. For exchanges and custodians, the proposed movement would create a difference between the balance shown by an upgraded node and the balance reconstructed from ordinary transactions.

Customer Reimbursement

In its October 30 postmortem, Polymarket reported that 95% of affected wallets had been refunded in full that afternoon, with $4 million being returned including $1 million for pause-related losses. These refunds compensate traders, while the proposed fork would return assets to company-designated recovery addresses.

The next recovery milestones require a governance decision, final software specification, verified recipients, and an activation block. The proposal calls for publishing the transaction-free balance change and a verification script after activation to allow operators to compare the implemented change with the approved scope.