Polygon Labs has trimmed its workforce as it pivots more aggressively to a payments-first strategy built around stablecoin rails and what it calls an "Open Money Stack." The restructuring comes just days after announcing a deal worth as much as $250 million to acquire US crypto ATM and payments company Coinme and wallet developer platform Sequence.
Multiple sources on social media platforms like X have linked a reported 30% staff reduction to the post-acquisition integration. Polygon did not publicly disclose how many roles were eliminated.
Polygon CEO Marc Boiron framed the recent acquisitions as part of a longer-running effort to narrow the company's mandate. In a post on X, he said, "Over the past few months, we've sharpened Polygon Labs' focus around one mission: moving all money onchain." He added that the Coinme and Sequence deals brought "deep expertise across regulated payments, wallets, and interop."
As those teams are integrated into a combined organization, Boiron said Polygon "had to make the difficult decision to consolidate some overlapping roles," with the goal of becoming the leading payments-focused blockchain company. He emphasized that total headcount would be similar after the changes and described the shift as "about structure, not performance."
Boiron called the departing staff "exceptional" and said the company was committed to actively supporting them through the transition, acknowledging that "this is one of the hardest parts of building a company and accelerating the growth of a protocol."
Former employees publicly confirmed they had been let go, but many struck an upbeat tone about Polygon's trajectory. One wrote that their "time at Polygon came to an end today – hell of a ride," while another said they were wildly proud and optimistic about what's next for Polygon, adding that "there has never been a better time to be a builder."
The latest cuts follow a series of restructurings at Polygon over the past two years, including a 19% workforce reduction and spin-offs of its Polygon Ventures and Polygon ID units in early 2024. Other big crypto companies have taken similar steps over the years, with Coinbase executing multiple job cut rounds and Binance reducing its headcount by 1,000 employees in 2023. This week, real-world asset-focused protocol Mantra also announced layoffs tied to a restructuring push, highlighting continued cost discipline and consolidation across the sector.
