Why Move from Ethereum to Polygon?
Ethereum mainnet has the deepest liquidity and longest track record, but gas fees during high-activity periods can make small transactions uneconomical. Polygon PoS offers near-instant finality and much lower transaction fees for most operations, making it practical for frequent on-chain activity, DeFi participation, and NFT interactions.
Common reasons to migrate:
- Gas cost reduction — daily DeFi interactions cost a fraction of mainnet fees
- Gaming and NFT activity — most high-frequency NFT platforms have migrated to Polygon
- Yield farming — Aave, QuickSwap, and other protocols on Polygon offer competitive rates with lower overhead
- Consolidation — you have residual balances on mainnet from earlier activity
How MovingWallet Handles This Migration
1. Detection Phase
MovingWallet scans your Ethereum mainnet wallet and identifies:
- Native ETH balance
- Supported ERC-20 token holdings (USDC, USDT, LINK, WBTC, etc.)
Each asset is assessed for bridge availability on Polygon. Most major ERC-20 tokens have canonical Polygon equivalents via the PoS bridge.
2. Plan Generation
The migration planner builds a sequenced plan:
- ETH → bridged ETH (WETH on Polygon) via the official PoS bridge
- USDC, USDT → bridged stablecoins via Polygon bridge or Circle's native USDC
- Other ERC-20s → token-specific bridge routes where one exists. A token with no direct route is left out of the plan: bridging and converting are planned separately, never in the same step
3. Gas Estimation
Each step includes a gas estimate. The plan accounts for:
- Bridge deposit transaction on Ethereum mainnet (gas in ETH)
- Bridge withdrawal on Polygon (usually a small cost compared with the mainnet deposit)
- Any intermediate swaps needed for assets without direct bridge support
4. Review
Before any signing, you review the plan: the bridge steps, the route and the estimated costs, including the estimated amounts on Polygon.
5. Execution
You sign each transaction in your wallet. The bridge deposit is submitted on mainnet. Polygon bridge finality typically takes 20–30 minutes for the PoS bridge checkpoint.
Important Notes
- Keep some ETH on mainnet for gas — bridge transactions require mainnet gas
- Bridged tokens on Polygon are canonical equivalents, not the same contract address as mainnet tokens
- NFTs and DeFi positions aren't supported in this flow yet. Manage them separately with the relevant wallet or protocol.
- This is not financial advice. Asset values fluctuate during the time it takes to complete a bridge