The Polygon Bridge is a trustless, bidirectional transaction channel that connects the Ethereum Mainnet with the Polygon network. At its core, it allows users to transfer tokens back and forth between Ethereum and Polygon. When people talk about "moving funds," the bridge changes the state of your assets so they become usable on the destination chain — the tokens are not physically moved but locked on one side and minted on the other.
The demand for Polygon crypto interactions has grown massively because Polygon acts as a commit chain to Ethereum. It bundles transactions and submits them to Ethereum, inheriting much of its security while offering throughput that Ethereum's mainnet currently cannot match at low cost.
Two Official Bridge Methods
Polygon offers two official bridging methods, and knowing the difference can save you time and money:
Polygon PoS Bridge (Proof of Stake): This is the most commonly used bridge. It is fast, inexpensive, and supports all major ERC-20 tokens. Deposits from Ethereum to Polygon take approximately 7–8 minutes. Withdrawals back to Ethereum take 2–3 hours due to the checkpoint process.
Polygon zkEVM Bridge: This bridge leverages ZK-rollup infrastructure to settle transactions with cryptographic proofs. It enables faster Ethereum finality (15 minutes to 3 hours) compared to the PoS withdrawal window, and eliminates the need for a challenge period.
How the Polygon Bridge Works
When you deposit tokens from Ethereum to Polygon, the original tokens are locked in a smart contract vault on Ethereum. An equivalent amount of "wrapped" tokens are then minted on the Polygon side and made available in your wallet. This mechanism ensures the total circulating supply remains constant across both networks, preventing inflation.
When you want to withdraw back to Ethereum, the process reverses: your tokens are "burned" (destroyed) on Polygon, the validators verify this, and the original funds are unlocked from the Ethereum vault and returned to your wallet.
Why Bridge to Polygon?
Polygon is an Ethereum scaling platform that has processed over 5 billion transactions and has nearly 500 million unique addresses. With a TVL of over $765 million and 477+ dApps deployed, including integrations from major brands like Nike, Reddit, and Starbucks, Polygon offers scale and utility that few Layer 2 solutions can match. Bridging is the gateway to accessing this ecosystem with transaction fees as low as fractions of a cent.
Ready to get started? Read our step-by-step guide to bridge to Polygon or learn more about Polygon bridge fees.
Related Pages
