Polygon announces job cuts amid restructuring plans – What now?

• Polygon laid off a large part of its workforce.
• Activity on the network and revenue generated declined.

Polygon [MATIC], in a blog post authored by CEO Marc Boiron on 1st February, revealed the decision to lay off 19% of its workforce, equivalent to 60 employees.

Boiron clarified that the move was part of the company’s strategy to optimize operations for enhanced performance, emphasizing a need for a more agile and ownership-driven team.

Comments from the management

The CEO stated that impacted employees will receive a two-month severance package and health benefits through February.

The company also plans to retroactively increase total compensation by at least 15% for existing staff from 1st January, 2024, with new employees receiving a 5% increase.

Sandeep Nailwal, the company’s founder, shared on Twitter that bidding farewell to friends and colleagues was a painful yet essential step to return Polygon Labs to its ‘underdog’ roots, aiming for a more streamlined and mission-focused organization.

The strategic changes include the spin-off of Polygon Ventures, the future establishment of PolygonID as a separate entity, and the departure of 60 teammates from Polygon Labs.

Post spin-offs and headcount reduction, Polygon Labs will now operate with approximately 220 team members.

Saying goodbye to friends and colleagues is always very painful, but this was a necessary step to take Polygon Labs back to its ‘underdog’ roots. This makes us lighter, nimbler and more mission focused.

Our relentless focus is to build the Planetary scale blockchain network for…

— Sandeep Nailwal | sandeep. polygon 💜 (@sandeepnailwal) February 1, 2024

State of Polygon

The new developments could impact sentiment around Polygon.

In terms of activity, it was seen that the number of daily active addresses on the network had seen growth over the last few months. However, there was a discrepancy between the number of daily transactions occurring on the network and daily activity on the protocol.

AMBCrypto’s analysis of Artemis’ data showed that the number of transactions on the network had declined from 16.3 million to 3.51 million over the last 3 months.

Source: Artemis

Read Polygon’s [MATIC] Price Prediction 2024-25

Due to this, the overall fees and revenue generated by Polygon also declined. Over the last 3 months, the daily revenue generated by the network fell from $171,000 to $16,000.

Source: Artemis

Even though Polygon has not been seeing much activity, initiatives like the zkEVM and other developments may help turn the tides in its favor.