Hi guys. A bit new to the community and wanted to ask a question regarding the Matic Token and the Polygon Token. I know that the Matic Token was the original token before the upgrade and a new token (Polygon Token) was chosen as main token. What I’m a bit lost about is why balances for the Matic Token change on explorers without any ERC-20 token transfers occurring. I have an address that originally had different values for each of these 2 tokens and both fluctuate over time, but only the Polygon Token has transactions to reflect the change. Does someone understand what exactly is going on? Want to understand how to track both of these tokens independently for tax reasons. Thanks.
Tl;dr Why does the Matic Token balance change over time when no ERC-20 transaction is made?
Hi @simply_daniel.
$MATIC is the native token of Polygon. There is no other Polygon Token nor an upgrade or adoption of a new token.
You can read about the $MATIC token on our website and find the links for the token on the Polygonscan!
As for the second part of your question, you need to be a little more specific to be able to help you. Where exactly are you looking at?
It is a hypothesis, but if you are looking at your address on polygonscan it is possible that it is not the balance that is changing but the price next to it (reflecting the current market value).
As for the Polygon Token you are referring to if it is other than $MATIC, it is a scam.
Hi so I uploaded an image to better explain what I’m referring to.
As can be seen in it, there are 2 MATIC token balances, one Polygon Token and one Matic Token. Both balances change over time but the MATIC Token doesn’t have any transactions to denote it’s change. Hope this better explains what the situation i was previously talking about refers to. Thanks.
Thank you, for the response however it is still unclear to me what I see in the picture.
Where is this picture from? Is it from your address, a contract?
The second address, marked as Matic Token, appears to be the burn address for Matic tokens.
Can you please specify where this picture is from and what kind of address it refers to?
If possible post a link (to polygonscan or wherever else you are seeing the above) too.
It looks like that the second token in the picture is fake. The Polygon one (MATIC) is the only native token that Polygon has. I would not interact with that token that might compromise your wallet.
One of my wallets has this curiosity too. I had asked once in discord and told it was a bug. It messes up my wallet calculation on polygon scan though.
Hello again. Thanks for your responses. I have a bit of a clearer image as to what’s going on. The image I had taken is from the Token Holdings page of a Polygon address on Polygon Scan. The address contains multiple tokens, of which i sent the two relevant ones (the Polygon token and the Matic Token). The address operates some contracts.
Also, with regards to what was said about the Matic Token being a burn address, what exactly does that refer to? Would that mean that the token balance has a value attributed to it (i.e. an active market)? I am asking as I need to know for tax reasons.
Thanks as always.
Hi!
Now that I can see the rest of the address it is obvious that it is not a burn address but the Matic Token contract address. So basically what is indicated as Polygon and Matic Token are exactly the same thing.
As for the discrepancy in the balances as shown in the picture above, my only guess is that is some sort of visual bug by polygonscan!