An investigation by blockchain analytics firm Bitquery published on October 7 found that addresses matching address-poisoning scam patterns accounted for 58% of the net growth in Polygon’s USDT0 holders over the preceding 13 months, raising questions about the quality of adoption metrics for the network’s native stablecoin.
Bitquery’s analysis covered the period since Polygon’s August 2025 upgrade from bridged USDT to native USDT0. The upgrade preserved existing token balances and contract addresses. Over that 13-month window, 1.71 million addresses were added as USDT0 holders. Of those, approximately 998,000 addresses, or 58%, matched patterns consistent with address-poisoning scams, according to Bitquery’s probabilistic classification.
What Address Poisoning Means
Address poisoning involves scammers creating wallet addresses that resemble legitimate payment destinations and sending tiny transactions to potential victims, hoping they mistakenly copy fraudulent addresses when transferring funds. These addresses retain fractional token balances, allowing them to count as holders in on-chain metrics.
Holder and Supply Declines
Polygon’s USDT0 metrics have deteriorated alongside the scam-linked growth. USDT0 supply fell 41% over the analysis period, from $1.35 billion to $798 million. Addresses holding at least $10 declined 42%, from 1.24 million to 720,000.
Despite these declines, Polygon maintained 8.1 million USDT0 holder addresses, the highest count among blockchains in a Token Terminal comparison. However, 48% of current holders control less than one cent, and 65% of holders neither sent nor received the token in the year preceding Bitquery’s investigation.
Scam Address Scale
Bitquery identified 1.42 million addresses matching address-poisoning patterns on Polygon. A sample verification suggested approximately 1.1 million of these were scam look-alikes. Bitquery’s classification was probabilistic and did not quantify actual losses from suspected scams.
Broader Stablecoin Context
USDT0 remains the second-largest stablecoin on Polygon by supply. USDC holds $1.62 billion on the network, representing 55.29% of Polygon’s $2.93 billion stablecoin market. USDT supply on Polygon totals $795 million, or 27% of the stablecoin market.
According to Growthepie, Polygon processed more wallet-to-wallet stablecoin transactions over seven days than Ethereum’s mainnet and more than Base and Arbitrum combined. That metric excludes decentralized finance contracts, although transfers associated with automated activity, including address poisoning, could still contribute to transaction counts.
Unresolved Questions
Bitquery’s findings do not establish whether genuine USDT0 payment volumes have declined despite the supply and holder address shrinkage. Additionally, 67% of current USDT0 holders first received Tether before the August 2025 upgrade, but
