Polygon (Matic) Reduces Headcount By 20% As Consolidation Ramps Up

Summary:

• Ethereum scaling entity Polygon Labs reduced its workforce by 20% or almost 100 jobs, the protocol shared via an announcement on Tuesday.
• Polygon said the job cut was part of a business consolidation process from earlier in 2023.
• The scaling platform is the latest crypto entity to lay off part of its workforce following a turbulent year for digital assets last year.

Ethereum scaling protocol Polygon reduced its workforce by 20% or almost 100 jobs, the platform shared via an announcement on Tuesday. The statement from Polygon Labs described the cut as a “painfully hard decision”, hailing the outgoing team members as a historic part of the company’s journey. 

Also, the scaling protocol noted that the decision forms part of a business consolidation strategy. Laid-off team members will receive three months of severance no matter how long they work at the Ethereum scaling powerhouse. 

Earlier this year, we consolidated multiple business units under Polygon Labs. As part of this process, we’re sharing the difficult news that we’ve reduced our team by 20% impacting multiple teams and about 100 positions. This was a painfully hard decision, but a necessary step in our journey.

Tuesday’s announcement also reiterated the protocol’s vision for driving mass adoption of Ethereum web3 scaling technology. The release noted that Polygon’s treasury boasts over $250 million and 1.9 billion MATIC worth over $2.6 billion at current prices. MATIC was down more than 4% and traded around $1.4, per CoinMarketCap data. 

Polygon’s job cut follows a raft of layoffs in the crypto landscape following notable failures from former industry giants. Indeed, the crashes of stakeholders like TerraLuna (LUNA) and its sister token TerraUSD (UST), Three Arrows Capital, and FTX rocked the digital asset ecosystem. 

Polygon zkEVM Mainnet Beta Coming In March

The scaling protocol revealed plans to launch its zero-knowledge Ethereum Virtual Machine, or zkEVM on March 27. ZK technology has been touted as a significant upgrade for layer 1 blockchains, allowing networks to handle greater traffic and activity. 

ZKEVMs leverage a scaling solution known as ZK rollup. This allows a protocol to quickly settle bulk transactions on a layer 2 network before sending the transactions back to the mainnet network.

Polygon also gained traction last year after integrations with Solana wallet Phantom, Meta, and token listings on Robinhood.