Mihailo Bjelic, co-founder of Polygon, steps down, with three founders leaving in the past two years.

In the past two years, three founders have left, and internal changes at Polygon have drawn attention again. Following the departures of Jaynti Kanani and Anurag Arjun, the third co-founder, Mihailo Bjelic, has also announced his resignation from the board and will step down from the daily operations of Polygon Labs.

The third co-founder leaves: Bjelic announces his exit from core roles at Polygon

Mihailo Bjelic, co-founder of Polygon, officially announced on Friday that he will step down from his position on the board of the Polygon Foundation and gradually withdraw from the daily operations of the development entity Polygon Labs.

PSA: After much thought and reflection, I’ve decided to step down from the board of the Polygon Foundation, and wind down my day-to-day involvement with Polygon Labs.

I was introduced to crypto in 2013 (damn, time flies). By 2017, I was deep down the rabbit hole, fascinated by…

— Mihailo Bjelic (@MihailoBjelic) May 23, 2025

He posted on X saying:

As the project develops and matures, the vision may sometimes evolve and even diverge. In such cases, I can no longer contribute to Polygon to the best of my ability.

From whiteboards to late-night meetings: A look back at Bjelic's contribution journey.

Bjelic has been involved in cryptocurrency since 2013, deeply engaged in 2017, and co-founded Polygon (, originally named Matic Network), in 2019 with Jaynti Kanani, Sandeep Nailwal, and Anurag Arjun.

He witnessed the team's journey from nothing to becoming one of the most representative L2 scaling solutions in the Ethereum ecosystem, with technological breakthroughs covering zero-knowledge proofs, modularity, and multichain interoperability, attracting a vast ecosystem of global brands and developers.

( Blockchain empowers cultural heritage! Indian Railways launches NFT tickets and collaborates with Polygon to support the grand Kumbh Mela event )

Nailwal emotionally responded in the post: "You are not just a co-founder, but more like a brother."

From the earliest days: a whiteboard full of ideas, endless white papers, governance frameworks, and late-night strategy meetings that never seemed to end. You have always been a key force in driving Polygon to become what it is today.

The two founding members step down: Kanani and Arjun's new direction

However, in just two years, three of the four founders of Polygon have left their core positions.

One of the founders, Anurag Arjun, was the first to leave Polygon in March 2023 to focus on creating a modular blockchain project called Avail.

Avail was initially part of Polygon's internal incubation, but as the project direction gradually diverged from Polygon's main development, it was eventually spun off and led entirely by Arjun. This also symbolizes his belief in and technical vision for the modularization of on-chain infrastructure.

( Modular Blockchain Project Avail Secures $27 Million in Seed Round Funding Led by Dragonfly Capital )

Another founder, Jaynti Kanani, withdrew in October of the same year, stating that he would support Polygon from the sidelines. Subsequently, he also established a generative AI-based image production company, Morphic, aimed at providing more control and consistency for animators and creators.

From MATIC to POL: The transformation to Polygon 2.0 is still ongoing.

Even though the founders have gradually left, the Polygon team continues to advance the technology and token upgrade plans. This includes a major token upgrade proposal named "Polygon 2.0," which will exchange MATIC tokens on a 1:1 basis for a new token, POL, expanding its application scenarios in areas such as Gas fee, staking, and infrastructure like AggLayer.

( Polygon 2.0 Token Upgrade Proposal｜MATIC Upgraded to POL! 2% Annual Inflation, Adding More Staking Rewards )

However, the situation where three co-founders exited within two years inevitably raises external doubts about the consistency of the Polygon team's vision and governance methods. In response, Bjelic still emphasized that he remains passionate about the future of Polygon and will continue to support this ecosystem in other forms.

In this article, Polygon co-founder Mihailo Bjelic has stepped down, with three founders leaving within two years, first reported by Chain News ABMedia.