Polygon Labs lays off 20% of staff

On Tuesday, Polygon Labs, which operates a protocol used by developers to facilitate faster and cheaper Ethereum transactions, announced that it has let go of 20% of its workforce, amounting to around 100 employees, joining the growing list of digital asset firms that have executed job cuts.

The company, which originally had 500 full-time employees, stated in a blog post that all impacted employees, regardless of their level or tenure, will receive three months of severance pay.

Despite the layoffs, the company’s treasury remains strong, with a balance sheet valued at over $250 million.
The job cuts are part of a consolidation process that began when Polygon Labs combined multiple business units earlier this year, and the restructuring resulted in all employees being unified under a group of companies known as Polygon Labs. Polygon Studios, the NFT, gaming, and metaverse arm of the company, was also discontinued under the new structure, and the newly created Polygon Labs will be entirely owned by the Polygon Foundation, based in the Cayman Islands.

Polygon, an open-source blockchain, was founded in 2017 as Matic and was rebranded to Polygon in February 2021. It raised $450 million in a private token sale in 2022 and has since been expanding and partnering with global conglomerates on various web3-related projects while also attracting developers from its competitors.