Mihailo Bjelic, co-founder of the Ethereum Layer 2 scaling solution Polygon, has stepped down from his position at Polygon but stated that he will remain active in the crypto industry.
His resignation has sparked reactions in the Polygon and broader crypto community, with many considering it a significant loss for Polygon, which has recently made several major advancements.
Bjelic ends "daily involvement"
"After careful consideration, I have decided to resign from the board of the Polygon Foundation and end my daily involvement with Polygon Labs," Bjelic said in a social media post on May 23.
"I will always be cheering from the sidelines and will provide help when I can," Bjelic added.
Polygon's other co-founder Sandeep Nailwal praised Bjelic's contributions over the years, stating that Bjelic has always been a crucial force behind Polygon's achievements today.
Bjelic expressed that he remains passionate about cryptocurrency and will continue to be active in the industry. "You may still see me from time to time," Bjelic said.
Marc Zella, founder of the Aave-chan Initiative, described this as a "significant loss" for Polygon. Polygon's marketing head Leon Stern stated that the company would miss Bjelic, "Thank you for everything you have done for Polygon, and good luck to you." Skale Network's CEO Jack O’Holleran remarked that Bjelic should be proud of his achievements at Polygon and looks forward to his next moves.
In the past two years, two early founders of Polygon Labs, Jaynti Kanani and Anurag Arjun, have also left the company.
Arjun's departure coincided with the spin-off of Avail from Polygon into a standalone entity, where Arjun took a leading role.
Bjelic has not disclosed his next steps.
Bjelic's resignation comes shortly after several significant announcements from Polygon this year.
On March 25, real-world asset (RWA) tokenization platform DigiShares announced it would launch RealEstate.Exchange to conduct tokenized real estate transactions on Polygon.
Just two months ago, on January 16, India's richest man Mukesh Ambani's telecom operator Jio Platforms collaborated with Polygon Labs to upgrade some of its existing services to Web3 and blockchain capabilities.
