Polygon’s Mihailo Bjelic Exits Leadership—But Not the Crypto Game

Another day, another crypto founder ’stepping back’—just in time to dodge the next regulatory grenade. Bjelic’s departure follows the classic Web3 playbook: bow out gracefully, keep your bags packed, and stay close enough to smell the next bull run.

Polygon’s ’Ethereum’s sidekick’ narrative takes a hit as co-founder Bjelic joins the growing list of blockchain builders pivoting to ’advisor’ roles. The timing? Impeccable—right as institutional money starts treating layer-2 solutions like a drunk tourist at a crypto casino.

One less captain on the ship, but don’t worry—the exit package probably got converted to stablecoins before the announcement.

Bjelic Says He Remains Committed to Crypto

While Bjelic did not provide a roadmap for his next steps, he made it clear that he remains committed to the broader crypto industry.

“You will likely still see me around,” he said, signaling continued interest in blockchain development beyond Polygon.

His departure drew responses from across the crypto space. Fellow co-founder Sandeep Nailwal praised Bjelic’s role in shaping the protocol, saying he was “a force behind so much of what makes Polygon what it is today.”

Leon Stern, Polygon’s head of marketing, added, “Thanks for everything you’ve done for Polygon, and best of luck.”

Industry peers weighed in as well. Aave-chan Initiative founder Marc Zella called the move a “Big L for Polygon,” while Skale Network CEO Jack O’Holleran applauded Bjelic’s impact and expressed Optimism about his future endeavors.

Bjelic’s resignation marks the third high-profile exit from the company in two years, following earlier departures by Polygon Labs’ Jaynti Kanani and Anurag Arjun.

Arjun’s exit coincided with the launch of Avail, a data availability and consensus LAYER that now operates as a standalone entity under his leadership.

Despite the leadership changes, Polygon has remained active in onboarding new use cases.

In January, Jio Platforms—owned by Mukesh Ambani—teamed up with Polygon Labs to integrate Web3 capabilities into its services.

In March, RWA platform DigiShares launched RealEstate.Exchange (REX) on Polygon, aiming to tokenize real estate trading.

Polygon Introduces the Agglayer Breakout Program

Last month, the team behind the Polygon blockchain announced the Agglayer Breakout Program to launch high-value chains that will contribute to Agglayer’s network effects.

The aggregation layer, or AggLayer, is a cross-chain settlement layer developed by Polygon Labs and its collaborators, launched in early 2024, followed by v0.2 in early 2025.

Polygon Foundation and Polygon Labs are backing the novel program. The goal is to launch “high-impact projects that drive significant activity” to Agglayer and Polygon PoS, its proof-of-stake sidechain for Ethereum.