Polygon Labs Cuts 60 Team Members and Spins-Off Two Units

Polygon Labs, which develops an ecosystem of blockchains, today announced it is cutting team members and spinning off two units in a major restructuring .

Polygon Labs' restructuring involves a 60-person reduction in team size. The restructured Polygon Labs will now consist of approximately 220 team members, focusing on the collective goal of building a "planetary scale" blockchain network, founder Sandeep Nailwal said in an X post.

The move was necessary to take company back to its "underdog" roots, Nailwal said.

Polygon's POL token is down 2.3% today, while its MATIC token is down 1.6%, in line with BTC and ETH.

Spin-Offs

As part of the restructuring, Polygon Ventures has been spun off as a separate entity. This move allows the venture capital arm of Polygon to operate with increased autonomy, further supporting innovative blockchain startups.

Additionally, Polygon ID will also exist as a separate entity, addressing secure decentralized identity solutions independently.

Polygon's Proof-of-Stake chain is the sixth largest chain by total-value locked, holding over $800 million of assets. Its MATIC token is the largest Layer 2 token by market capitalization at $7.35 billion.

The Polygon ecosystem also encompasses a zkEVM chain and a rollup, which is in development.

Network of Chains

Polygon Labs intends to redirect its efforts towards building a network of aggregated blockchains.

In a forum post, Polygon Labs CEO Marc Boiron clarified that this measure was not primarily aimed at cost reduction but at creating a smaller, nimbler team. Despite the job cuts, the remaining Polygon Labs employees will receive a minimum of 15% hike in their salaries.