Polygon’s zkEVM: The $1M Annual Loss That Nobody Saw Coming! 😂

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In the dusty corners of the blockchain world, where dreams of zero-knowledge chains once danced like fireflies, there lies the tale of Polygon’s zkEVM. Acquired for a princely sum of $250 million back in the golden days of 2021, it now seems to be more of a ghost than a glorious venture.

According to the wise sage of research, Lorenz Lehmann from GrowThePie, this zkEVM has been about as productive as a cat in a dog show. Since its grand rebranding, it has made little more than a ripple in the vast ocean of progress, now staggering under the weight of an annual loss that exceeds a million dollars. Ouch! 💸

“Development Quietly Abandoned”

Lehmann, with a tone that drips with the sweetness of sarcasm, claims that development on this chain has been “quietly discontinued.” It seems it never even bothered to upgrade to Ethereum’s Blob data structure, which, let’s be honest, is like refusing to upgrade from a flip phone to a smartphone. The Polygon Foundation is undergoing a makeover, with co-founder Sandeep Nailwal stepping into the CEO shoes, while Mihailo Bjelic has made a quiet exit, leaving Nailwal as the last man standing. Talk about a game of musical chairs! 🎶

With two other co-founders, Jaynti Kanani and Anurag Arjun, having left the operational stage in 2022, Nailwal is now the captain of this sinking ship, steering it towards a more focused future. Or at least, that’s the plan.

While the official word is that zkEVM will be given a graceful exit by 2026, Lehmann’s whispers suggest that the shutdown is already in the works, like a magician’s trick gone wrong. The narrative from Polygon might just be a tad optimistic, glossing over the fact that this product has been tossed aside like last week’s leftovers.

Once hailed as a beacon of hope for zero-knowledge scaling, zkEVM now finds itself in the shadows, overshadowed by the more glamorous proof-of-stake chain and shiny new initiatives like AggLayer. It’s like being the last kid picked for the team—awkward and a little sad.

TVL Down By 80%

In its heyday, Polygon zkEVM’s total value locked (TVL) soared to a dizzying $187 million in March 2024, according to the oracle known as L2Beat. But like a balloon losing air, it briefly bounced back to $111 million before plummeting downwards.

By 2025, the decline has been as swift as a rabbit on a caffeine high, with the TVL nosediving nearly 80%, from $80.2 million to a mere $16.25 million. It’s a tragic comedy, really. 🎭

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2025-06-17 22:40