Polygon's Sandeep Nailwal Takes Over as Foundation CEO Amid Strategic Shakeup

Polygon co-founder Sandeep Nailwal has officially assumed the role of CEO of the Polygon Foundation, marking a pivot in the organization’s leadership makeup and a sweeping overhaul of the network's longterm roadmap.

Nailwal, who launched the project in 2017 when it was still called Matic Network, will consolidate control and reorient the team toward AggLayer — Polygon’s new cross-chain liquidity protocol that promises seamless interoperability across networks.

"This renewed control marks the beginning of a strategic push for Polygon to reclaim its position at the forefront of Web3," the team wrote in a press release shared with CoinDesk

As chief executive, Nailwal will steer long-term planning, guide key ecosystem initiatives, and ensure that the foundation — which oversees Polygon Labs and other affiliated entities — delivers “exponential growth, increased focus and greater value to POL stakers,” according to the foundation.

In its early days, Polygon’s proof-of-stake sidechain marketed itself as a low-cost, fast alternative to Ethereum, providing users with access to decentralized apps without the burden of high gas fees. It quickly rose to prominence as a go-to Ethereum scaling solution.

But activity has since cooled. Total value locked (TVL) across Polygon networks has fallen to around $1 billion, down nearly 90% from its June 2021 peak of $9.79 billion, per DefiLlama.

Polygon has ceded ground to a new wave of Ethereum scaling networks — namely “layer-2 rollups” like Optimism and Arbitrum — which offer similar user experiences but with tighter Ethereum compatibility and more sophisticated security systems. Polygon’s own rollup, zkEVM, ranks just 27th by TVL among layer-2s, according to L2Beat, trailing well behind its newer competitors.

Now, the zkEVM experiment is being phased out. Polygon said it will sunset the zkEVM Mainnet Beta in 2026, citing developer friction, architectural limitations, and sluggish adoption. “To ensure a smooth transition, the sequencer will remain live for the next twelve months,” the team noted.

The decision also comes with a key personnel shift: Jordi Baylina, Polygon’s zero-knowledge research lead, will leave to spin out his own project, ZisK.

As part of its strategic reset, Polygon will double down on its flagship PoS sidechain, now targeting real-world financial assets (RWAs). The foundation teased an “ambitious roadmap” with milestones to transform the chain into a “gigagas” network capable of processing 100,000 transactions per second and securing trillions in tokenized assets.

Polygon's reorganization mirrors changes at the Ethereum Foundation, which recently restructured its leadership and revamped its roadmap in a process led by Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin.

In a post on X, Nailwal said Ethereum’s “existential crisis” had pushed Polygon to revisit its core identity — returning to a bolder, more nimble, and more decisive “zero-to-one” mentality.

His stated goal: "to deliver greater value to POL stakers and bring increased clarity to the broader market." POL, previously called MATIC, is Polygon's native token. The asset can be "staked" with Polygon's PoS network to help secure it in exchange for rewards.

The timing of the revamp, Nailwal suggested, could work in POL's favor.

"The SEC has dropped its investigations and lawsuits related to MATIC as a security, which should have never existed given the nature of MATIC (and now POL)," he wrote. "We are excited to see several large market makers coming back to the table in recent days to make markets in POL that strengthens the liquidity of POL on exchanges globally."

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