The Protocol: Polygon, Once a Scaling Leader, Eyes a Revamp

Welcome to The Protocol, CoinDesk's weekly wrap-up of the most important stories in cryptocurrency tech development. We’re Margaux Nijkerk and Sam Kessler, CoinDesk’s Tech & Protocols team.

In this issue:

• Sandeep Nailwal Takes Control of Polygon Foundation, Charts New Course, Retires ZkEVM
• Ethereum Foundation Unveils New Treasury Policy With 15% Opex Cap
• Bitcoin Core 30 to Increase OP_RETURN Data Limit After Developer Debate Concludes
• Plume Launches Genesis Mainnet to Bring Real-World Assets to DeFi

Network News

SANDEEP NAILWAL TAKES CONTROL OF POLYGON FOUNDATION, RETIRES ZKEVM: Polygon co-founder Sandeep Nailwal has officially assumed the role of CEO of the Polygon Foundation, marking a pivot in the organization’s leadership makeup and a sweeping overhaul of the network's longterm roadmap. Nailwal, who launched the project in 2017 when it was still called Matic Network, will consolidate control and reorient the team toward AggLayer — Polygon’s new cross-chain liquidity protocol that promises seamless interoperability across networks. The foundation will also retire zkEVM, Polygon's rollup network. "This renewed control marks the beginning of a strategic push for Polygon to reclaim its position at the forefront of Web3," the team wrote in a press release shared with CoinDesk — Marguax Nijkerk Read more.

ETHEREUM FOUNDATION’S NEW TREASURY POLICY: The Ethereum Foundation published an updated treasury policy, outlining a series of new plans around token sales, fiat purchases and transparency practices designed to ensure the organization's "long-term agency, sustainability, and legitimacy." The EF, a Swiss non-profit, plays a central role in the Ethereum blockchain ecosystem. In addition to employing researchers, builders and community liaisons, the foundation was granted a large trove of ether (ETH) tokens at Ethereum's genesis which it uses to fund its operations and support other projects in the ecosystem. In a blog post, the foundation stated it plans to annually designate 15% of its treasury to operational expenses ("opex"), with a 2.5-year buffer kept at all times in its reserves. "We intend to reduce annual opex roughly linearly over the next five years, ending at a long-term 5% baseline," the foundation wrote. "This policy reflects our conviction that 2025-26 are likely to be pivotal for Ethereum, warranting enhanced focus on critical deliverables.” — Margaux Nijkerk Read more.

BITCOIN CORE 30 TO INCREASE OP_RETURN DATA LIMIT: The developers of Bitcoin Core, the primary open-source software for connecting the blockchain behind the world's largest cryptocurrency, said October's version 30 release will increase the default limit for OP_RETURN data transactions from the current 80 bytes to nearly 4MB, a limit imposed by Bitcoin's block size. The proposal for the change, which was confirmed in an update on GitHub, had sparked debate within the Bitcoin community. Critics argued that removing the limit could encourage increased embedding of arbitrary data, potentially leading to network spam and a shift from bitcoin's primary function as a financial tool. — Sam Reynolds Read more.

PLUME MAINNET GOES LIVES: Plume, a blockchain network focused on real-world assets, announced the launch of its hotly anticipated Genesis mainnet.The launch, according to a statement shared by the Plume team, marks the "next generation" of asset-backed DeFi — tokenizing traditional financial instruments, or real-world assets (RWA), so they can interact with blockchain-based financial tools. RWAs have taken over the world of blockchain, as they are viewed as a market that could be worth trillions of dollars with traditional financial institutions steadily dipping into crypto. — Margaux Nijkerk Read more.

In Other News

• Safe, the popular multiparty crypto wallet previously called Gnosis Safe, has launched a new development unit, Safe Labs, in a move aimed at consolidating its operations and sharpening its product roadmap after it was targeted in February's $1.4 billion ByBit hack — the largest crypto heist to date. Along with the change, Safe is building a more "opinionated" V2 of its platform targeted at enterprise customers. — Sam Kessler Read more.
• Morpho, a permissionless cryptocurrency lending protocol, unveiled an update that seeks to further align decentralized finance (DeFi) with traditional lending by bringing more in the way of bespoke, predictable loan terms. Morpho V2 delivers market-driven fixed-rate, fixed-term loans with customizable terms, features previously unseen in DeFi, which are required to meet the demands of institutions and enterprises looking to build or migrate financial products on-chain, Morpho said in a press release on Thursday.— Ian Allison Read more.

Regulatory and Policy

• The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is working on policy to exempt decentralized finance (DeFi) platforms from regulatory barriers, said Chairman Paul Atkins. Software developers building DeFi tools have no business being blamed for how they're used, Atkins and other SEC Republicans contended at the final of five crypto roundtables that have been held at the agency since the leadership turnover under President Donald Trump.The chairman told a roundtable of DeFi experts that he's directed the SEC staff to look into changes to agency rules "to provide needed accommodation for issuers and intermediaries to seek to administer on-chain financial systems." Atkins called that potential exemptive relief "an innovation exemption" that would let entities under SEC jurisdiction bring on-chain products and services to market "expeditiously." — Jesse Hamilton Read more.
• The international unit of Alipay owner Ant Group plans to seek stablecoin licenses in Hong Kong and Singapore, Bloomberg reported on Thursday. Ant International will apply for a stablecoin issuer's license once the regulatory regime comes into effect in August, according to the report, citing people familiar with the matter. The firm is also planning to apply for a similar license in its native Singapore, as well as Luxembourg. — Jamie Crawley Read more.

Calendar

• June 8-22: Berlin Blockchain Week, Berlin
• June 24-26: Permissionless, Brooklyn
• June 30-July 3: EthCC, Cannes
• July 16-18: Web3 Summit, Berlin
• Sept. 22-28: Korea Blockchain Week, Seoul
• Oct. 1-2: Token2049, Singapore
• Nov. 17-22: Devconnect, Buenos Aires
• Dec. 11-13: Solana Breakpoint, Abu Dhabi
• Feb. 10-12, 2026: Consensus, Hong Kong
• May 5-7, 2026: Consensus, Miami