Polygon CEO Sandeep Nailwal Questions Loyalty to Ethereum, Criticizes Foundation Leadership Amid Rising Internal Tensions.
Sandeep Nailwal, the Polygon CEO is questioning his loyalty to Ethereum as tensions rise within the blockchain community.
Nailwal, who co-founded Polygon and leads the Polygon Foundation, says the Ethereum ecosystem has failed to recognise his platform’s contributions. His remarks have created a fresh debate about Ethereum’s treatment of its partners and the morale within its ranks.
Polygon’s Growing Frustration with Ethereum Foundation
Sandeep Nailwal wrote on X that he has always viewed Ethereum as the foundation of his blockchain journey. But recent behaviour from the Ethereum Foundation (EF) and its community has made him doubt that loyalty.
“I’ve always felt moral loyalty toward Ethereum even if it costs me billions in Polygon’s valuation,” he said.
According to Nailwal, Polygon has received little to no direct support from the EF, and instead, has often faced the opposite.
Read this from Peter and realized that it's time for me to also speak up.
NGL, I’ve started questioning my loyalty toward Ethereum. I did not come into crypto because of Bitcoin but because of Ethereum. I also have a lot of gratitude toward @VitalikButerin — someone I looked up… https://t.co/yrcrGEwXs8
— Sandeep | CEO, Polygon Foundation (※,※) (@sandeepnailwal) October 20, 2025
He added that despite Polygon’s close alignment with Ethereum, the community continues to treat it as an outsider.
“The Ethereum community as a whole has been a mess for quite some time,” Nailwal said, calling on its leaders to “take a hard look” at themselves.
Ethereum Foundation Faces Internal Discontent
Nailwal’s criticism of Ethereum comes at a time when several long-standing Ethereum contributors are voicing their own frustrations. Nailwal’s comments came after Péter Szilágyi, a Geth core developer, published a letter describing what he saw as poor leadership within the EF.
Szilágyi’s letter, which was written more than a year ago, resurfaced this week. He said he had often felt unappreciated and disconnected from the foundation’s leadership. His note accused EF of taking advantage of developers who worked out of principle rather than profit.
He also criticised how the organisation handles pay and recognition, and said that those who have stayed loyal to Ethereum often earn less than their value. “Almost all the early employees have left because that was the only reasonable way to get compensated fairly,” he wrote.
Szilágyi even quoted Vitalik Buterin’s past remark that “if someone’s not complaining that they are paid too little, then they are paid too much.” He argued that this mindset discourages serious contributors from staying long-term.
A Question of Recognition and Value
Nailwal says this problem goes beyond personal frustration. He believes the Ethereum Foundation has failed to support teams that have expanded Ethereum’s reach. Polygon, for example, has helped scale the network’s transaction capacity while being compatible with Ethereum tools and wallets.
He claims this alignment has come at a financial cost. “If we had branded Polygon as a layer 1, we’d likely be valued two to five times higher,” he said.
Nailwal compared Polygon’s valuation to smaller independent chains like Hedera Hashgraph, which are currently worth more despite smaller ecosystems.
Polygon’s PoS chain, he added, runs effectively on Ethereum while its other projects like Katana and XLayer operate as true layer 2 solutions.
Yet, the Ethereum community often excludes Polygon from its “official” layer 2 conversations. “When Polymarket wins, it’s ‘Ethereum,’ but when Polygon delivers, it’s something else,” he said.
Vitalik Buterin Responds to the Controversy
Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin later responded to Nailwal’s post. He praised Polygon for its work on zkEVM technology and its role in hosting projects like Polymarket.
I really appreciate both @sandeepnailwal's personal contributions and @0xPolygon's immensely valuable role in the ethereum ecosystem.
To recap:
* Polygon hosts @Polymarket, which is probably the single most successful example of a "not just boring finance" app that has actually…
— vitalik.eth (@VitalikButerin) October 21, 2025
He also pointed out Nailwal’s humanitarian contributions through CryptoRelief, which funds health research and infrastructure in India.
However, Buterin clarified that Polygon still lacks the proof system that defines a true Ethereum layer 2. “Polygon could easily integrate a ZK tech stack to achieve full proof security,” he said.
According to Buterin, advances in zero-knowledge technology now make this affordable with proving costs as low as $0.0001 per transaction.
Nailwal has yet to respond publicly to Buterin’s remarks.
A Strain That Shows Ethereum’s Identity Crisis
The disagreement between Nailwal and the EF shows Ethereum’s rising identity problem. As the network matures, it has attracted hundreds of new developers and scaling projects.
However, this expansion has also led to questions about who truly represents ETH and how the ecosystem distributes credit.
Analysts note that Ethereum’s decentralised governance structure often leaves contributors feeling disconnected. “It’s hard to tell who speaks for Ethereum anymore,” said one blockchain researcher.
“That creates friction when builders expect recognition from a foundation that no longer directly manages most of the innovation.”
