Polygon DAO Reviews Proposal to Deploy $1.3B Bridge Assets Into DeFi

A new Pre-PIP submitted to the Polygon DAO outlines a plan to utilize $1.3 billion in stablecoin reserves currently held in the Polygon PoS bridge. The proposal, authored by Allez Labs, Morpho Association and Yearn, suggests gradually moving these idle assets into yield-generating protocols, which could produce around $70 million in annual returns based on current lending rates.

The proposed program would handle different stablecoins through separate strategies. DAI would be stored in Maker's sUSDS yield-bearing wrapper, while USDC and USDT would be managed through Morpho Vaults. These vaults would invest in established platforms including Superstate's USTB, Maker's sUSDS and Angle's stUSD. To ensure security, any risk-increasing changes would require a 72-hour waiting period, with the Polygon Protocol Council maintaining veto power.

Under the proposal, Yearn would oversee the yield distribution by creating new Polygon Ecosystem Vaults for each stablecoin. The earned yields would be reinvested across Polygon PoS and AggLayer DeFi projects to support ecosystem growth. Each asset type would need separate approval through individual Polygon Improvement Proposals (PIPs).

The technical implementation would use the ERC-4626 standard for vault interactions. The proposal maintains backwards compatibility with existing bridge APIs, though some bridging operations may require more gas. In cases where immediate liquidity isn't available, users would receive vault tokens they can redeem later for the underlying assets.

Allez Labs would serve as the system's risk manager, conducting analysis of the assets and publishing recommendations on the forum. They would also present their findings to the Polygon Protocol Governance Council (PPGC) as part of the final PIP submission process.

The Pre-PIP was created in response to the Pilani Feature Request Thread, where community members supported putting bridge reserves into conservative yield strategies. The proposal will undergo community debate through the forum and PPGC consensus process before moving to formal PIPs for each asset type.