Polygon Labs announces second round of layoffs in 2026 as firm looks to finalize Coinme acquisition

Polygon Labs CEO Marc Boiron announced layoffs on Thursday as the firm moves to complete its acquisition of Coinme, which will grow the company and help transition the “blockchain foundation” into a “blockchain-enabled payments company.”

"We are in the final stages of completing the Coinme acquisition, which will involve integrating that team into Polygon Labs, a move that will grow our organization as part of a broader merger exercise to position Polygon Labs to be profitable in 2027," Boiron wrote on X.

"As part of that process, this morning we made the difficult, but necessary, decision to say goodbye to many of our colleagues as we complete our transformation from operating as a blockchain foundation into operating as a blockchain-enabled payments company," he added.

For the past several months, Polygon Labs has been in the process of refocusing the blockchain’s attention on payments. In January, the firm spent about $250 million to acquire Coinme, a crypto exchange founded in 2014, and Sequence, a wallet infrastructure firm founded in 2017, which were envisioned as core parts of the Polygon Open Money Stack.

The Polygon Open Money Stack is a vertically integrated infrastructure platform designed to make global, blockchain-based payments as seamless as traditional money transfers, while reducing the need for multiple service providers.

Polygon, an Ethereum scaling solution, is not accustomed to sweeping strategic shifts. In mid-2025, Polygon co-founder Sandeep Nailwal took over as CEO of the Polygon Foundation and announced plans to deprecate the Polygon zkEVM chain, which was built on acquired tech from Hermez Network and Mir Protocol.

The company has also announced several waves of reductions, including about a 20% cut impacting about 100 employees in February 2023, a 19% reduction affecting 60 in 2024, and another 60 employees in January this year, reportedly tied to the Coinme and Sequence acquisition plans.

A Polygon Labs representative declined to share specific figures regarding Thursday’s cuts. The firm is offering severance and support, while some employees have been asked to stay on temporarily during a transition period.

"Today's changes were not made lightly," according to an internal message Boiron sent to staff. "We chose to act decisively because building our company the right way in a competitive environment takes time. We are in a strong position to build on this momentum for years to come. We are building for the long term, not the next milestone, and it gives us the financial foundation to grow on our own terms."

"Two rounds of changes in one year is a lot to ask of a team, and I understand it is hard to manage. But I would rather make the right call now than delay it and retain an organization structure that puts our ability to execute well at risk," Boiron added.

A Polygon spokesperson noted that Polygon Labs remains legally and structurally distinct from Polygon Foundation, which is focused on stewarding the network, treasury, and ecosystem, and releasing protocol upgrades.

According to the spokesperson, Polygon's stablecoin supply stands at $3.37 billion, "making it the eighth-largest stablecoin ecosystem across all blockchains," while volume hit a record $9.12 billion in June.