Polygon Co-Founder Takes Sole Leadership of the Project

Polygon co-founder Sandeep Nailwal has assumed full control of the Polygon Foundation (PF) as its first CEO, introducing changes to the project’s strategic priorities.

BIG update — As the largest holder of POL and someone who dedicated his life to development and success of @0xPolygon from the very beginning, I have decided to take full control of Polygon Foundation and will be its CEO going forward. Polygon Foundation owns and oversees…

— Sandeep | Polygon (※,※) (@sandeepnailwal) June 11, 2025

“I always refrained from taking the CEO position because I was focused on building PF as an institutionally managed foundation. But now Polygon needs clear direction and purposeful execution, which means stepping up,” he wrote.

The organization will continue to oversee the project’s divisions, including Polygon Labs, which will retain their current leadership.

According to the entrepreneur, the L2 platform, with a treasury “in the hundreds of millions of dollars,” is well-positioned to overcome the crisis affecting the entire Ethereum ecosystem.

He announced a series of measures aimed at supporting the value of the POL token and clarifying development prospects:

• next year, the project will close the Polygon zkEVM network and focus on developing Polygon PoS (oriented towards stablecoin payments and the RWA segment) as well as the AggLayer protocol (designed to help create the internet of blockchains);
• an iteration of Polygon PoS called Gigagas will be launched on the mainnet, having achieved over 5000 TPS in tests. By September-October, this will place the network among the fastest blockchains, with the potential to scale to 100,000 TPS in the coming years;
• AggLayer v0.3 will be released on June 30, with full functionality expected by the end of the third quarter. The protocol is returning to “mass delivery” mode;
• support for projects under the AggLayer Breakout program will continue, with airdrops for POL stakers;
• the circle of market makers for token market creation negotiations will be expanded. This is facilitated by the closure of the investigation by the SEC regarding the offering of what was then MATIC as securities.

Nailwal believes that Ethereum’s “existential crisis” has set Polygon back to its startup phase.

“What is needed here is speed, the audacity to make bold bets, and the ability to handle failures. Moreover, the crypto industry has shifted from a research orientation to a user focus, and Polygon needs to change accordingly,” stated the project’s co-founder.

He noted that governance structures like boards of directors or committees are suitable for stable times and are generally incapable of aggressive moves to achieve “exponential results.”

Back in December 2024, the largest liquid staking protocol, Lido, ceased support for Polygon PoS.