Key Highlights
- Polygon Labs has laid off employees as part of a broader restructuring tied to its Coinme acquisition and business transformation.
- CEO Marc Boiron said the company is shifting from a blockchain foundation to a blockchain-enabled payments company to reach profitability in 2027.
- Boiron stressed the layoffs were driven by changing organizational needs, not employee performance, as Coinme’s team is integrated.
Polygon Labs, a blockchain payments company, is undergoing a corporate transformation as it finalizes the acquisition of Coinme, a digital currency exchange, and shifts its business model from a blockchain foundation to a blockchain-enabled payments company. As part of the restructuring, the company announced layoffs, affecting a number of employees.
In an X post on Thursday, Polygon Labs CEO Marc Boiron said the company is in the final stages of integrating Coinme’s team. He said the restructuring is intended to position Polygon Labs for profitability in 2027.
“These changes are about the company we’re building, not the quality of the people leaving,” Marc wrote.
He emphasized that a blockchain foundation and a blockchain-enabled payments company require fundamentally different organizational structures and skill sets. While acknowledging the difficulty of the decision, he said the timing was chosen to capitalize on strong current momentum.
Layoffs come with the transition
Marc expressed gratitude to those affected, stating, “To everyone affected, thank you. You worked hard and believed in what we were building when it was far from certain. We would not be here without you.”
The company is providing severance packages and support to impacted staff. In a notable gesture, Marc personally offered to vouch for former Polygon talent and invited hiring managers to reach out via direct message for potential matches.
The Coinme acquisition is expected to bring additional expertise and resources into Polygon Labs.
POL stays under pressure
The announcement drew mixed reactions from the community. Some supporters praised the action and long-term vision, while others expressed concern over the impact on employees. Polygon’s native token, POL, saw varied trading activity following the news.
According to CoinMarketCap, POL was trading at $0.08358 at the time of this writing, down 0.16% in the last 24 hours. After an intraday rally that pushed the price toward $0.0843, the token pulled back modestly but remains near session highs.
Market capitalization stands at $892.6 million, with a 24-hour volume of $44.2 million, being 7.65% down in the past 24 hours. The token has recovered nicely from its recent all-time low of $0.068 around mid-July, posting over 22% gains from those levels. However, it still trades more than 93% below its 2024 all-time high of $1.29.
Another step in Polygon’s restructuring
The layoffs follow another major restructuring move by Polygon. On July 1, the company officially shut down its zkEVM Mainnet Beta, retiring a network it once hailed as a flagship Ethereum scaling solution. The shutdown marks the end of a wind-down process first announced in June 2025, giving the community a full year’s notice.
Polygon acquired Hermez Network in 2021 for approximately $250 million, rebranded it as Polygon zkEVM, and launched the Mainnet Beta in March 2023 with the goal of building an Ethereum-equivalent rollup.
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