Crypto Hiring: Polygon co-founder now has larger role

Polygon Labs executive Chair Sandeep Nailwal to focus more on zero-knowledge solutions as chief business officer

article-image

Polygon co-founder and chief business officer Sandeep Nailwal | DAS 2022 New York by Blockworks

share

Polygon’s co-founder is now also the company’s chief business officer.

Sandeep Nailwal, an original founder of what was in 2017 called the MATIC network, has been executive chairman of Polygon Labs, and will continue to be. 

But under a new expanded role, Nailwal is set to focus more on Polygon’s zero-knowledge solutions, like Polygon CDK — an open-source software toolkit for developers to create layer-2s on Ethereum.

“Polygon Labs is in the midst of building incredible, transformational technology that will provide developers and enterprises with countless opportunities to scale quickly and securely while having access to liquidity,” Nailwal said in a statement.

Read more: Polygon zkEVM prover reaches Type 1 status

Beyond the additional responsibilities for Nailwal, two crypto-focused companies fresh off of fundraises have also named new leaders.

Tokenized asset platform Centrifuge added a chief operating officer and a head of product as the on-chain asset management space gains momentum.

Centrifuge’s new COO, Julia Merkel, was previously the chief financial officer at venture capital firm BlueYard Capital.

The company has also tapped Sonam Joshi — a former pro at UBS, Google and Amazon — to lead its product unit. Joshi was also previously a director of product at Abra.

Centrifuge facilitates pools of tokenized real-world assets (RWAs), including assets like loans, credit and real estate. Centrifuge has roughly $280 million worth of assets in its liquidity pools.

“They join at a perfect time as Centrifuge looks to scale to meet the widespread, increasing demand for tokenized real-world assets,” Centrifuge co-founder Lucas Vogelsang said in a statement. 

Read more: Anchorage, Arca Labs link up in bid to advance tokenization adoption

The hires come after Centrifuge raised $15 million in April as part of a funding round co-led by ParaFi Capital and Greenfield.

Also raising money in April was Movement Labs. PolyChain Capital led the blockchain company’s $38 million Series A round. 

Now, Movement Labs welcomes Franck Cassez as its head of research. 

A former researcher at Consensys and a blockchain research lead at Windranger Labs, Cassez looks to help the startup bring Facebook’s Move Virtual Machine to Ethereum. 

Other notable hires

  • LMAX Group appointed Chris Knight as a managing director — a role he will step into this summer. A former executive at XTX Markets and Standard Chartered Bank, he will first oversee LMAX’s institutional crypto exchange.
  • Ross O’Leary has joined Coinbase’s global communications team as an associate manager.

Start your day with top crypto insights from David Canellis and Katherine Ross. Subscribe to the Empire newsletter.

Explore the growing intersection between crypto, macroeconomics, policy and finance with Ben Strack, Casey Wagner and Felix Jauvin. Subscribe to the Forward Guidance newsletter.

Get alpha directly in your inbox with the 0xResearch newsletter — market highlights, charts, degen trade ideas, governance updates, and more.

The Lightspeed newsletter is all things Solana, in your inbox, every day. Subscribe to daily Solana news from Jack Kubinec and Jeff Albus.

Tags

Upcoming Events

Javits Center North | 445 11th Ave

Tues - Thurs, March 18 - 20, 2025

Blockworks’ Digital Asset Summit (DAS) will feature conversations between the builders, allocators, and legislators who will shape the trajectory of the digital asset ecosystem in the US and abroad.

recent research

kamino cover.jpg

Research

Kamino has solidified its position as the leading money market on Solana and is emerging as a DeFi bluechip. Although DeFi competition is fierce, Kamino has kept iterating on its product to provide the best-in-class UX, paired with a robust risk management framework and battle-tested infrastructure. Given the rollout of Kamino Lend V2, the protocol may scale aggressively over the coming months, penetrating previously untapped markets in Solana DeFi.

article-image

Also in the tokenized fund space, Franklin Templeton launches on Base and Securitize hits $1 billion in tokenized RWA onchain

article-image

It turns out that bitcoin never actually hit an all-time high in March. Thanks a lot, inflation.

article-image

Spire, Citrea and Nillion also announced raises this week

article-image

The latest recipient of an SEC Wells notice is a Web3 gaming company

article-image

Thursday’s selloff was led by tech stocks, triggered by disappointing outlooks from giants Meta and Microsoft

article-image

Historically, positive returns have been a bit more of a toss-up during the year’s 11th month