Polygon co-founder steps down, will be 'cheering from the sidelines'

Mihailo Bjelic, co-founder of Ethereum layer-2 scaling solution Polygon, has stepped down from his role at Polygon but suggests he will stay active in the crypto industry in some capacity.His resignation drew reactions across Polygon and the wider crypto community, with several seeing it as a loss for Polygon, which has been tied to several major developments in recent months.Bjelic winds down ‘day-to-day involvement’“After much thought and reflection, I’ve decided to step down from the board of the Polygon Foundation and wind down my day-to-day involvement with Polygon Labs,” Bjelic said in a May 23 X post.“I’ll always be cheering from the sidelines and supporting however and whenever I can,” Bjelic added.“As projects evolve and mature, it is natural for visions to evolve, and sometimes diverge. With this in mind, I can no longer contribute to Polygon to the best of my abilities.”Fellow Polygon co-founder, Sandeep Nailwal, commended Bjelic’s contributions over the years, adding that Bjelic has always been “a force behind so much of what makes Polygon what it is today.”Bjelic said that he remains “as passionate as ever” about crypto, and suggested he will stay active in the crypto industry.“You will likely still see me around,” Bjelic said.Aave-chan Initiative founder Marc Zella said it was a “Big L for Polygon.” Polygon’s head of marketing Leon Stern said the company is going to miss Bjelic. “Thanks for everything you’ve done for Polygon, and best of luck,” Stern said. Meanwhile, Skale Network CEO Jack O’Holleran said Bjelic should “be very proud” of all he has accomplished at Polygon and is excited to see what he does next.Over the past two years, two of Polygon Labs’ early founders, Jaynti Kanani and Anurag Arjun, also stepped away from the company. Arjun’s departure coincided with the Polygon spin-off Avail, a Web3 data availability and consensus layer, becoming an independent entity, with Arjun taking the lead.Bjelic has yet to reveal his next plans.Bjelic’s resignation follows several major announcements tied to Polygon this year.On March 25, Real-world asset (RWA) tokenization platform DigiShares announced it would bring tokenized real estate trading to Polygon with the launch of RealEstate.Exchange, also known as REX.Just two months before, on Jan. 16, Jio Platforms, an Indian mobile network operator owned by Asia’s richest person, Mukesh Ambani, partnered with Polygon Labs to upgrade some of its existing offerings with Web3 and blockchain capabilities.