TechFlow reports on December 18, Mikko Ohtamaa, co-founder of Trading Strategy, criticized Polygon for deploying users' bridged USDC deposits into capital markets such as Morpho. He pointed out that this practice carries multiple risks: First, it severely undermines the self-custody trust foundation of the Polygon bridge. Although users are aware that funds are controlled by a multi-signature wallet, this trust is only maintained when managers refrain from making controversial decisions.
Second, moving billions of dollars in funds could easily attract attention from mainstream media and subsequently draw regulatory scrutiny, similar to the Pump.fun incident. He suggested that at the very least, the appearance of decentralization and self-custody should be preserved. Third, users have no choice or opt-in mechanism regarding this use of their funds, which stands in stark contrast to Blast's approach of clearly informing users upfront. Finally, there is a serious issue of double-counting assets: if users bridge USDC to Polygon for lending purposes, while the same USDC is simultaneously used within Morpho on the mainnet, significant systemic risk arises.
Ohtamaa recommended that Polygon adopt more prudent measures, such as establishing an independent bridge or allowing users to voluntarily convert their existing USDC into "Polygon yield-bearing USDC." He also noted that although Circle has launched native USDC on Polygon, its late rollout, combined with the declining state of Polygon's DeFi ecosystem and the non-interchangeability between native and bridged USDC (which requires conversion fees), has led to persistently low adoption rates.
Previous report, the Aave community received a proposal from contributor team Aave Chan to withdraw its lending services from Polygon’s Proof-of-Stake (PoS) chain. This move responds to another proposal within the Polygon community to generate yield using over $1 billion in bridged assets.
