Key Takeaways
- Migration Date: November 4, 2025
- No action required for Figment stakers
- Temporary staking or display delays may occur during migration
- Polkadot becomes more modular, efficient, and interoperable
- Figment continues to lead in enterprise-grade Polkadot staking and infrastructure
What Is Happening?
On November 4, 2025, Polkadot will complete one of its most significant upgrades to date: migrating key network functions, including balances, staking, and governance, from the Relay Chain to the Polkadot Asset Hub.
The Asset Hub is a specialized system parachain designed to manage user-facing functionality, while the Relay Chain will focus exclusively on consensus and interoperability.
This transition is part of Polkadot’s broader evolution toward JAM (Join-Accumulate Machine) — a new, modular framework that improves scalability, flexibility, and upgradeability across the entire network.
Why the Migration Is Happening
Over time, the Relay Chain became a bottleneck for development. It managed everything, from governance to staking to token balances, making upgrades increasingly complex and resource-intensive.
By moving these modules to the Asset Hub, Polkadot aims to:
- Reduce relay chain state bloat
- Enable faster and safer network upgrades
- Allow parachains and services to evolve independently
- Prepare for the JAM architecture, which supports modular compute and flexible staking models
For users, this means a more scalable, efficient, and interoperable Polkadot, without requiring any manual migration or user intervention.
Implications for Figment Stakers
If you stake DOT through Figment, you don’t need to take any action.
All staking-related data and balances will automatically migrate to the Asset Hub. During the first few hours of the migration, you may notice temporary display delays or staking action pauses, for example, while claiming rewards or unbonding. This is normal and expected.
Once the migration completes:
- You’ll see your staking activity reflected on the Polkadot Asset Hub rather than the Relay Chain
- Your funds and staking rewards remain safe and unaffected
- Figment will handle all necessary backend updates to ensure uninterrupted staking services
As a best practice, we recommend that stakers verify their staking status once the migration is complete, just to confirm everything displays correctly.
For reference, you can view similar guidance in the Ledger migration note for Polkadot users, which outlines expected migration behavior and temporary limitations.
Impact on the Polkadot Network
This migration marks a pivotal step in streamlining Polkadot’s design and preparing for next-generation scaling.
By offloading user-facing functions to the Asset Hub, the network can:
- Scale horizontally to handle more parallel operations
- Introduce lower fees and reduced existential deposits (as low as 0.01 DOT, down from 1 DOT)
- Support a wider range of assets: including stablecoins (USDT, USDC), NFTs, and cross-chain tokens
- Enable multi-asset fee payments
- Integrate directly with trustless bridges to Ethereum via Bridge Hub
The migration will not affect trading or rewards, as confirmed by Binance’s support announcement, which notes that all technical requirements will be handled automatically for users.
Looking Forward
The Polkadot Asset Hub migration isn’t just a technical shift, it’s a foundation for JAM, a complete redesign of how Polkadot executes and scales blockchain services.
The JAM architecture introduces:
- A RISC-V–based Polkadot Virtual Machine (PVM)
- Service-oriented modules for flexible app development
- Improved scalability and interoperability across ecosystems
At Figment, we are working to ensure a smooth upgrade and transition. With JAM and the Asset Hub, Polkadot is poised to unlock more efficient staking models, liquid staking opportunities, and cross-chain composability, all areas where Figment provides deep expertise and robust infrastructure.
As one of Polkadot’s leading staking providers, Figment remains committed to supporting every stage of the network’s growth, ensuring secure, reliable, and high-performance validation for our stakers worldwide.
Your DOT stays secure, your rewards continue uninterrupted, and the network you’re helping to secure is becoming faster and more future-ready than ever. Reach out today to discuss DOT staking.
Additional Resources
