Key takeaways:
- Polygon Labs announcement impacted around 100 workers, reducing its headcount by 20% to merge many business segments.
- The company claimed that the layoffs resulted from its consolidation earlier this year.
In a statement on February 21, Polygon (MATIC), the layer two protocol for Ethereum (ETH), disclosed that it had let go of around 20% of its workforce.
In 2023, cryptocurrency prices got off to a better start as most experienced double-digit growth. Yet, most internet giants and cryptocurrency businesses began laying off staff, anticipating a coming recession.
Major corporations, including Spotify, the parent company of Google, Capital One, Microsoft, Amazon, Crypto.com, BlackRock, Coinbase, Goldman Sachs, Genesis Trading, and others, will lay off employees as soon as 2023. Joining the list is Polygon Labs, which also reduces its personnel by 20%.
In one of its most recent formal statements, Polygon made the news of the layoff official. The company’s fundamental justification for the choice is the unification of many businesses under Polygon Labs. The layoffs occur while the cryptocurrency market is still reeling from the effects of the FTX collapse and subsequent decline. In a release, the firm declared:
“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,”
The team justified eliminating 100 employees (20% of its staff) as a necessary action. The company stated:
“Our departing teammates have played a historic part in building the Polygon technology and ecosystem to be the globally recognized blockchain that it is today.”
A three-month severance payment will also be given to the laid-off workers. Co-founder of Polygon Sandeep Nailwal also commented on the choice via Twitter. According to Sandeep, the treasury is still in good shape, with a balance of over $250,000,000 and more than 1.9 billion MATIC.
Users had moved funds before FTX’s collapse, which contributed in part to the enormous swings in daily transactions on Polygon throughout the fourth quarter. At the time, Polygon saw a significant increase in daily addresses, partly because of the rollout of its zero-knowledge EVM (zkEVM) public testnet. According to a recent release, the zkEVM beta main network is scheduled to go live on March 27.
