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Polygon Labs has cut 20% of its workforce, accounting for 100 positions at the layer 2 blockchain.
A blog post on Tuesday titled "Consolidating Teams Within Polygon Labs" announced the layoffs as a "hard but necessary" decision.
Polygon stated that their treasury "remains healthy" and has a balance of over US$250 million and more than 1.9 billion MATIC.
"Our departing teammates have played an historic part in building the Polygon technology and ecosystem to be the globally recognized blockchain that it is today," Polygon said.
"These individuals will always be a part of the 0xPolygon community and we sincerely thank each and every one of them."
Those laid off will receive three months of severance pay.
Immediate lock-out
According to a source close to Blockhead, Polygon implemented their job cuts rather brutally. A former Polygon employee who wishes to remain anonymous said the firm had a "lack of compassion in how they manage people."
Whilst Polygon had initially emphasised how their employees were "a family,", the sentiment quickly sours upon being let go. "The moment [Polygon] decides to kick someone out, it's an immediate lock-out and one email form HR with no warning or face to face chat."
The ex-Polygon employee said they were only made aware of the decision when they could not access their work email or their Slack. Instead, they were informed through their personal email from HR.
It's a largely different sentiment from Polygon's official statement, which claimed, "Our departing teammates have played an historic part in building the Polygon technology and ecosystem to be the globally recognized blockchain that it is today. These individuals will always be a part of the 0xPolygon community and we sincerely thank each and every one of them."
Industry layoffs
Polygon's announcement comes on the back of other crypto firms cutting staff amid the ongoing crypto winter.
Earlier this month, Filecoin developer Protocol Labs fired 21% of its staff whilst in January, Crypto.com slashed its global workforce by 20%.
Read more: Crypto.com Slashes Jobs as Industry Struggles Continue
Consensys is also letting go of 100 employees, while Coinbase is axing 20% of its workforce, or about 950 staff. Around 29,000 jobs have been cut in the crypto industry since April 2022, according to Coindesk's estimates.
