Polygon Labs said to have laid off 60 staff following new $250 million acquisition

Polygon Labs, the firm behind the Ethereum scaling network Polygon, has laid off 60 staff after its acquisition of Coinme and Sequence for more than $250 million, a source familiar with the matter told CoinDesk.

The layoffs came as the company is pivoting to a payment-focused blockchain, the source said, noting that the changes affected teams across the organization rather than any one function.

The rumors of a new round of layoffs began swirling this week after several reports of a 30% workforce cut. A Polygon Labs spokesperson refuted the reported percentage, saying the firm did not downsize its payroll, as it still has nearly 200 people after integrating the new acquisitions. The layoffs were part of a restructuring following recent acquisitions, the spokesperson said, without commenting on how many people were affected.

“Ahead of integrating employees from Coinme and Sequence into Polygon Labs, we’ve made adjustments to keep our overall headcount consistent,” the spokesperson said. “These changes are intended to balance additions from recent acquisitions, not to reduce the size of the company.”

This is Polygon Labs’ third major round of layoffs in as many years. In early 2023, the company cut approximately 100 employees, representing 20% of its workforce at the time, as it consolidated multiple business units under a single entity. That was followed by another 60-person reduction in February 2024, accounting for 19% of staff, in what the company described as a move to improve operational efficiency and performance.

In a statement on social media platform, CEO Marc Boiron also acknowledged the layoffs, saying the restructuring was tied to overlapping roles created by recent acquisitions of Coinme and Sequence. The two teams are being integrated to support Polygon’s mission of “moving all money onchain,” he said.

“Our teammates who are departing are exceptional, and we’re deeply grateful for everything they’ve contributed to Polygon,” Boiran wrote on X. “We’re committed to actively supporting them through this transition.”

The company spokesperson said the firm remains well-funded, with over $200 million in treasury and more than 1.9 billion in MATIC tokens.

Polygon is a scaling solution for the Ethereum blockchain that aims to enable faster, cheaper transactions. The network uses a Proof-of-Stake consensus algorithm, and its native currency, MATIC, is used to pay transaction fees and can be staked to earn rewards. Polygon was first launched back in 2017 as the Matic Network by several Ethereum developers, and the network went live in 2020.

The MATIC token fell about 6% over the last 24 hours, according to CoinDesk data. Meanwhile, the broader crypto market gauge, the CoinDesk20 Index, declined about 1% over the same period, at the time of writing.