How to Easily Add Polygon NFTs to MetaMask

5 min readJul 27, 2021

Written by Robin Prock

I just added Polygon to MetaMask, wrapped ETH over the Polygon bridge and finally transferred a Polygon NFT to MetaMask…Please what? Then you’ve come to the right place!

In this short article, you’ll learn:

What Polygon and MetaMask actually are,
How to add Polygon / Matic Mainnet to MetaMask,
How to put Ether on Polygon as Wrapped Ether,
Receive and send a Polygon NFT with Metamask.
And finally, what this means for the MGH community.

Basics 1: What is Polygon?

At its peak times, Ethereum is like a traffic jam in downtown New York: You’re happy to pay $100 for a transaction — and sometimes the gas fees dig even deeper into your wallet. These are Ethereum’s scaling problems; and Polygon (formerly Matic) solves them: Polygon is a Layer 2 solution for Ethereum and helps by taking over some traffic. In doing so, Ethereum and Polygon are interoperable; so you can transfer tokens from Ethereum to Polygon via the Polygon Bridge.

These are the advantages of Polygon:

Block Time: 2 seconds (Ethereum 13).
Fees: $0.00004 (see the difference?)

So Polygon sweeps the streets empty for Ethereum, but what is MetaMask?

Basics 2: What is MetaMask?

MetaMask is a crypto wallet for Ethereum that runs

a.) as a browser extension and/or

b.) as a mobile wallet. You can also use MetaMask for other chains like Polygon or the Binance Smart Chain.

You can download Metamask here: https://metamask.io/

But now: Let’s go through the whole process of getting Polygon NFTs onto MetaMask. I’m looking forward to the gas fees. I’m glad, nobody asked me to do this in April!

How to Add Polygon NFTs to MetaMask in 3 Easy Steps

1. Connect MetaMask to Polygon

Polygon is not pre-installed on MetaMask, but that’s no problem! That’s how you do it:

a.) Click on “Ethereum Main Net” in MetaMask and select “Special RPC”.

b.) Now enter the following information into the fields

Network name: Matic Mainnet
New RPC URL: https://rpc-mainnet.maticvigil.com/
Chain ID: 137
Currency symbol: MATIC
Block Explorer URL: https://explorer.matic.network/

c.) Then you confirm the new network

DONE! Now you can send and receive MATIC tokens and wrapped tokens in MetaMask. But how do you get Ether on Polygon, so you can buy Polygon NFTs on, say, OpenSea?

2. Send Ether to Polygon

Ether is like a Mercedes in front of a river without a bridge — it can’t get across. It needs a ferry to avoid sinking like a leaking submarine. This ferry is the POS Bridge of Polygon. It turns your Ether into Wrapped Ether (WETH) — Ether that runs on Polygon. How do you use the bridge?

To do so, go to this website: https://wallet.matic.network/bridge

a.) Connect it with MetaMask and move funds to Polygon (Attention: Ethereum Mainnet must be selected in MetaMask!).

b.) Now determine the number of Ether you want to wrap — i.e. bring onto the ferry to Polygon:

c.) Pay the gasfees:

d.) Confirm the transaction:

e.) Let’s take a smoke or something because you’ll have to wait 7–8 minutes, until the process is done (often longer!)

Don’t worry, I’ll wait here for you.

f.) Back? Perfect! Now marvel at your WETH:

g.) You can’t see them in MetaMask though; that’s why you have to add WETH to MetaMask first (Attention: On the Matic Main Net!).

Go to “Assets” and select “Add Token”.

The contract address for WETH is: 0x7ceb23fd6bc0add59e62ac25578270cff1b9f619

DONE again! Now let’s send an NFT to your Polygon address

3. transfer and receive Polygon NFTs

It’s the last minute in a horror film…The credits are looming, but also the killer. You are almost there, the killer is behind you … don’t stumble now! Let’s follow these easy steps to send and receive your Polygon NFT.

a.) Buy an NFT — go to OpenSea or another NFT market supporting Polygon.

I’ve bought a lobster on Venly. Why a lobster? Because it reminds me of the hilarious scene from the TV show “The Boys”.

That’s my guy:

b.) Now just transfer your NFT to MetaMask (Attention: Select Matic Mainnet) and confirm the transaction. (If you buy it on OpenSea, it will already be in MetaMask).

c.) Now you go to MetaMask … want to admire your NFT … and, lo and behold: There is NOTHING!

What do you do now? Unfortunately, MetaMask cannot show your NFT. Go to OpenSea or another Polygon compatible NFT platform and connect it to MetaMask.

There it is: