The post Polygon’s Sandeep Nailwal Takes Over as Foundation CEO Amid Strategic Shakeup appeared on BitcoinEthereumNews.com.

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,…

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Filed under: News - @ June 11, 2025 11:27 am