John Egan, Stripe’s head of crypto, is joining Polygon Labs as chief product officer, he announced Monday. He will start on Tuesday and says he will focus on improving payments across Polygon’s ecosystem.
Conversations with Polygon began in early August and moved quickly, according to Marc Boiron, Polygon Labs’ CEO. The move is meant to push payments and stablecoin use on Polygon, a network of blockchains built on Ethereum.
From fintech to blockchain
Stripe is a major payments firm valued at $91.5 billion. Over the past year, it has moved deeper into crypto. We reported, the company bought Bridge, a stablecoin startup, in a $1.1 billion deal that closed in February.
Stripe also agreed to buy the wallet firm Privy in June, and the company has discussed building its own chain, Tempo, with Paradigm. Egan helped guide many of those efforts. He said his role covered product strategy, building teams, execution, and M&A work tied to crypto.
Egan’s work at Stripe raised his profile, and still, he said he wanted to focus even more narrowly on blockchain payments. He noted that Stripe’s core business is large and broad, which can limit how deep one team can go. At Polygon, he told reporters he can concentrate fully on crypto products.
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Why Polygon?
Egan pointed to Polygon’s traction in stablecoin micropayments, and he said real people, not just big traders, are moving money on Polygon. In July, about $2.9 billion in stablecoins moved on Polygon’s payments-focused chain.
By comparison, Ethereum saw about $158 billion, and Polygon recorded roughly 4.5 million active addresses that sent or received stablecoins in July, while Ethereum had about 2.9 million, according to Artemis Analytics. Egan said those numbers show strong day-to-day use and developer interest.
Marc Boiron said the hire will help Polygon scale its payments work, and he described Egan as someone who will make a big difference for the team.
Polygon has been building tools and chains that aim to make small payments fast and cheap. Adding product leadership from a payments giant fits that goal.
Role and goals
Egan did not detail every task he will take on, and he said improving payments is a priority. He also said he prefers platforms that show immediate use and draw active developers. Those are the kinds of signals he sees in Polygon.
Egan has a technical background, having once worked as an engineer at Meta and being an alumnus of Y Combinator. He said he plans to take only one day off between jobs. He added he has never been good at taking long breaks.
Governance move at Polygon
In related news, Polygon co-founder Sandeep Nailwal said he will become chief executive officer of the Polygon Foundation. He announced the change on Twitter, stating that he now holds unilateral control of the nonprofit.
Nailwal outlined his vision and plans for POL token stakers in a long post. The shift may reshape how the network steers funds and supports developers.
Egan’s jump from Stripe to Polygon signals an appetite within fintech for deeper crypto work. It also shows that blockchain projects are now able to hire senior talent from large payment firms. For Polygon, the hire brings payments know-how and product leadership.
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