Polygon schedules Ithaca hard fork for July 29 mainnet activation

Polygon plans to activate the Ithaca hard fork on its mainnet on July 29 after successfully deploying the upgrade on the Amoy testnet. The Polygon Foundation has said the changes are designed to improve payment reliability, introduce automatic failover during rare block producer stalls, block transactions that could slow or destabilize the network, and give node operators clearer visibility into network conditions. Binance said it will support the Polygon network upgrade and hard fork by suspending deposits and withdrawals on the Polygon network from 4:00 p.m. on July 29, 2026, ahead of the upgrade scheduled at block height 50,185,000, expected around 5:00 p.m. the same day. The exchange said trading of POL and related tokens on Binance Spot and other trading platforms will continue during the maintenance window, users will not need to take technical action, and services will reopen once the network is stable. Earlier, South Korean exchange Upbit said it would pause Polygon-network deposits and withdrawals, including for POL and GMT, from 11:00 a.m. UTC on July 29 as a routine risk-control measure ahead of the hard fork.