Polygon co-founder Sandeep Nailwal is drawing a new course for the network to support its crucial single leadership model for the future.
Nailwal said in an interview with Cointelegraph that the shift from board-led governance is not only a structural change, but also a strategic response to the inefficient efficiency of slowing down the multilateral momentum.
On June 11, he announced that he would take over as CEO of the Polygon Foundation and described the decision as bringing “clear instructions and centralized execution” to the next chapter of the project.
Now, under his sole leadership, the Ethereum Zoom Project will sunset its ZKEVM chain, focusing on real-world assets (RWAS) and payments through Polygon Pos, while using its Agglayer to pursue the dream of building a blockchain internet.
Nails with “slavery mindset” driving polygons
In January, Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin sparked debate Announce the only authority About the decision of the Ethereum Foundation leadership.
“It’s exactly the same, except that I say I’m the director,” Naival told Cointelegraph, referring to his own role.
After the polygons rose in 2021 and 2022, the project attempted to “institutionalize” by reflecting the structure of large companies. The Polygon Foundation is supervised by the board of directors, which has now been dissolved, with Nailwal as its sole decision maker.
“Things must have taken a lot of time. Decisions that should be made in two weeks sometimes take two months,” he said.
Nailwal said simplifying decisions does not mean giving up empathy. He still has what he calls a “slavery mentality,” a leadership style shaped by his upbringing. Both of his grandfathers were servants in a wealthy family where they met and arranged their parents’ marriages.
“I think history has given me this ingrained tendency to make everyone happy and I still feel that way. When someone is happy, you get hit with dopamine – everyone gets hit – but in my case, it goes deeper.”
He attributes this instinct to the early community that helped build polygons. Nailwal is one of the few founders of the top deals to be engaged to retail users in person, often responding to messages on the telegram. Until recently, he had put a guardrail on his personal account.
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“With retail, they’re happy if the tokens rise. If that’s not the case, they’re angry.” “It took me two to three cycles to realize that I can’t pour all my energy into it.”
According to Nailwal, the cryptocurrency industry is also evolving – away from assessment theoretical research, such as early zero-knowledge proof development and rewarding real-world appeal and revenue.
“Everyone thinks it will happen eventually, but I think it’s happening more lately than before,” he said.
Zkevm Sunset and RWA Drive from Polygon
Following the Nailwal announcement, concerns about ZKEVM’s health status will be phased out in 2026. Once known as Hermez Network and get 250 million McGrath (pol) (POL at the time, worth about $250 million), Zkevm was Polygon’s bid for Ethereum equivalent.
“It comes out in a hype way because all the research loves, ‘It’s pretty.’ Vitalik (Buterin), everyone says it’s amazing,” Nailwal said.
He added: “But when the end user starts using it, it has no expectations as far as experience goes. We are not motivating ZKEVM’s massive user growth for the longest time.”
Assets locked on ZKEVM have dropped from $35 million in July 2023 to just $2.75 million. According to Defilama, the chain has been working hard to incur expenses and lose money.
As ZKEVM fades, polygons’ attention turns to its POS chain and Agglayer infrastructure. pos still host The total value of over $1 billion is locked in Top Chain for Non-Bactericidal Token (NFT) Transactions In USDC, everyone has about $1 billion in residence (USDC) and USDT of tether (USDT).
Despite the collapse of the NFT market, Nailwal said meaningful NFTs will continue to last. He compared speculative NFTs to Memecoins, saying the “hype phase” has passed, clearing space for high-quality projects. He added that the underlying NFT technology remains a key player in token assets, which may be substitutable or non-killable.
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“NFT technology will definitely be used in tokenization and wider RWA applications,” he said.
“We are focusing on actual NFTs, not speculative fakes – which have already paid off. Now it’s clear that Stablecoin payments and tokenization will be two big use cases.”
Polygon bets on these two blockchain use cases align with global trends. As global discussions on regulation intensify, the U.S. Senate passed the Genius Stable Act on June 17. Meanwhile, RWA is attracting interest from institutions, including BlackRock, which is Run its tokenized money market funds across multiple chainsincluding polygons.
Polygon’s road leads to 100,000 TPS
Polygons try to adapt to institutional trends by establishing a board of directors Raised $450 million in 2022 investment round These include Sequoia Capital, SoftBank and Tiger Global.
But now it’s back to zero-to-one startup phase. Nailwal demolished the board in pursuit of streamlined execution. But with Zkevm’s way out and industry attention is fast, the burden of proof is now entirely dependent on whether strange leadership can lead to real-world outcomes.
“We need to go back to the actual product building. Your product has to be good and people should be willing to pay for it,” Nailwal said.
For him, it also means his evolution as a leader – from keeping everyone happy to seek the best interests of polygons.
He added: “This will make some people unhappy in our community and outside. But we have no choice.”
Nailwal and Polygon both bet on their “Gigagas” roadmap, which aims to expand their network to 100,000 transactions per second. This matches modern competitors who are expanding the network or launching faster blockchains.
So far, the community’s reaction to nail claims that polygon’s only leadership has been mixed together. Some praised his wartime CEO stance, while others pointed to the expensive ZKEVM detour.
Still, Nailwal believes that a faster decision-making process was the demand of the time: “Life gives me the opportunity to play globally. I have to be the 25-year-old who is ready to go all out again.”
Whether your bets on yourself will be rewarded as network competition reaches TPS milestones and demonstrates its relevance in a mature crypto ecosystem.
