Latest news with #Nailwal
Yahoo
11-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
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." Read more: Polygon, GSR Release Katana Network Tackle DeFi Fragmentation
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Business Standard
11-06-2025
- Business
- Business Standard
Polygon appoints Sandeep Nailwal as CEO, signals founder-led reboot
In a strategic shift, Polygon, an L2 blockchain platform, has announced that Sandeep Nailwal has been appointed chief executive officer of the Polygon Foundation. In this role, Nailwal will focus on long-term strategy, oversee key ecosystem initiatives, and ensure that the Polygon Foundation—which supervises Polygon Labs and other entities—decisively steers the project towards exponential growth, sharper focus, and greater value delivery to the Polygon ecosystem, including users, applications, and POL stakers. 'At our beginnings, Polygon was all about bold execution and big goals. During 2021–23, we made a real effort to institutionalise the project by onboarding some amazing people as co-founders, setting up a board, and undergoing a period of intense tech research and exploration. Now, it is time to again move fast, aggressively, and with full conviction and focus,' said Sandeep Nailwal. With Nailwal's move to the Polygon Foundation, Marc Boiron will be chief executive of Polygon Labs and will continue to guide the organisation's strategic vision and drive execution. Mudit Gupta was recently named chief technology officer, and Ryan Niedzialek—a long-time Polygon Labs executive—is now serving as chief operating officer, overseeing business development, partner enablement, and core operational functions. Nailwal's immediate priorities include a product-first approach to rapidly launch a full-featured Agglayer, a transformative roadmap to evolve Polygon PoS into the high-throughput GigaGAS chain capable of supporting over 100,000 transactions per second for payments and real-world assets (RWAs), expansion of the Agglayer Breakout Programme, the sunset of Polygon zkEVM, and renewed engagement with market makers to reinforce support for POL and ensure liquidity across decentralised and centralised exchanges. The company said these moves represent a clear shift from a more passive phase in Polygon's history to a focused and ambitious founder-led vision for the future. Nailwal added, 'With a world-class team in place and the Foundation under my leadership, we are fully aligned on our strategy and what matters most—building amazing products and delivering real value to POL stakers. That starts with my plan for several key priorities: completing Agglayer to become the trustless interoperability layer of Web3, evolving Polygon PoS to dominate payments and real-world assets, and empowering our founders to launch independent, high-impact projects through the Agglayer Breakout Programme. With focused leadership, this is the moment to scale the next chapter of Polygon.' This strategic move marks a defining moment for the Polygon ecosystem—one rooted in clarity of vision, decisive leadership, and a commitment to long-term value creation, the company said. With Agglayer nearing full launch, Polygon PoS evolving into a leading platform for payments and RWAs, and a new wave of founder-led projects expanding the network, the Foundation is doubling down on what has always set Polygon apart: speed, innovation, and alignment with its community.
Yahoo
03-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Exclusive: Polygon co-founder Sandeep Nailwal says ‘no plans' for ETF, slams premature filings
Exclusive: Polygon co-founder Sandeep Nailwal says 'no plans' for ETF, slams premature filings originally appeared on TheStreet. As the crypto market sees a flurry of exchange-traded fund (ETF) filings following the greenlight for Bitcoin and Ethereum ETFs, Polygon co-founder Sandeep Nailwal says the network has no intention of joining the rush — at least not anytime soon. 'Most of the crypto companies are filing for these ETFs, while most of them know that it's not going to be approved for the next 3-4 years,' Nailwal said in a conversation with TheStreet Roundtable's Senior Editor Mehab Qureshi. 'They are not that decentralized, they are not that trustless and all that.' Rather than spending millions in lobbying and legal fees to push for a token-backed ETF, Nailwal said Polygon's strategy is to focus on product development and user growth. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is currently reviewing over 70 crypto-related ETF filings, signaling a growing appetite among asset managers to offer regulated exposure to altcoins. Following the landmark approvals of spot Bitcoin ETFs in January 2024 and spot Ethereum ETFs in May 2024, firms have expanded their focus beyond the top two cryptocurrencies. Now, new filings include applications for ETFs tied to Solana (SOL), XRP, Cardano (ADA), Avalanche (AVAX), Dogecoin (DOGE), Litecoin (LTC), and even Tron (TRX). 'When the asset is ready, the market actually automatically goes forward,' Nailwal said. 'I would want to take Polygon's fundamental interaction to a place where a large ETF provider reaches out to us automatically. Instead of we paying millions of dollars that, we'll go and buy our ETFs.' His remarks come amid growing optimism in the crypto industry after the approval of Ethereum ETFs and the launch of dozens of filings from smaller firms, many betting on future regulatory clarity under the Trump administration. But Nailwal says filing for an ETF prematurely could be a distraction. 'I don't want to spend any of that. I better focus my efforts on getting the fundamental traction of users,' he said. 'And then the ETFs and the markets will push forward.' In the same conversation, Nailwal also addressed concerns around Ethereum's stagnating price action and declining narrative dominance. 'There was a narrative violation for Ethereum that maybe Ethereum was not the L1,' he said, referring to the rise of other layer-2 execution environments that pulled attention away from Ethereum's core value. 'But if you see in terms of the value, I think still around 80 to 90 percent of all the value created in crypto exists on Ethereum,' he added. 'Ethereum powers the settlement for the security and the subvention for hundreds and hundreds of these layer-1 chains.' Nailwal acknowledged that questions remain about how ETH as an asset accrues value, but emphasized the broader ecosystem remains robust. While Polygon is open to re-evaluating its ETF stance depending on macroeconomic changes, Nailwal said it will take more than market noise to move the needle. 'If the Fed pivots and the rates start going down… and then we start seeing a lot of demand on the ETF side. Sure, we might look into that,' he said. 'But as of now, [we] will be completely focused on our products.' Exclusive: Polygon co-founder Sandeep Nailwal says 'no plans' for ETF, slams premature filings first appeared on TheStreet on Jun 2, 2025 This story was originally reported by TheStreet on Jun 2, 2025, where it first appeared.
Yahoo
31-03-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Crypto Market Cycle Permanently Shifted, Says Polygon Founder Sandeep Nailwal
The traditional four-year crypto market cycle, once closely tied to Bitcoin halving events, is no longer as predictable as it once was. According to Sandeep Nailwal, co-founder of Polygon, the cycle has shifted due to the growing maturity of the cryptocurrency market and the increasing involvement of institutional investors. Nailwal noted that although Bitcoin's halving events still influence the market, their effect has become less pronounced. He explained that speculative activity has slowed due to high interest rates and low liquidity conditions, but once those factors change, a market rebound could occur. However, he expects the market to behave in a more stable manner, with corrections being less severe than in previous cycles, where drops of up to 90% were typical. Instead, he predicts that drawdowns will be around 30-40%. While the Bitcoin halving remains a significant event, its influence on the market has become less mechanical. Nailwal highlighted that market corrections in the past often followed predictable patterns, but the current cycle is evolving due to factors like institutional adoption and macroeconomic pressures. The increase in institutional investment has helped reduce volatility in the crypto market, aided additionally by new financial products like Bitcoin ETFs. These ETFs, which allow investors to gain exposure to Bitcoin without actually holding the cryptocurrency, have also played a part in disrupting the traditional market cycle. By restricting the flow of capital to the underlying assets, these products prevent funds from rotating freely within the broader crypto ecosystem. This has altered the usual dynamics, with larger-cap assets like Bitcoin and Ethereum absorbing most of the capital, leaving smaller-cap assets with less attention. Geopolitical events and macroeconomic factors have also contributed to the shifting landscape of the crypto market. U.S. government policies, including President Trump's executive order to create a Bitcoin strategic reserve, have legitimized the crypto space in the eyes of institutional investors. As a result, capital has flowed into established assets, contributing to a concentration of wealth in Bitcoin and Ethereum. Analysts have noted that Bitcoin's dominance has risen, now nearing 54%, a level not seen since 2021. Despite these changes, some analysts, including Miles Deutscher, argue that the classic four-year cycle still has relevance, though it may no longer follow the same pattern. Deutscher pointed out that while the market is less volatile, the typical sequence of accumulation, rise, distribution, and fall is becoming less predictable. He suggested that market behavior is becoming more desynchronized, with Bitcoin and Ethereum leading the charge before altcoins see any significant gains. This shift, combined with the broader economic environment, suggests that the crypto market is entering a new phase where older cycles may no longer be as reliable a guide for investors.
