After Sandeep Nailwal, newly appointed CEO of Polygon Basis, introduced a strategic shift towards PoS and AggLayer platforms and the discontinuation of zkEVM funding, Jordi Baylina took accountability for the way forward for the zkEVM venture.
Baylina stated that he’ll stay a co-founder and advisor to the Polygon Basis however will primarily work on the Swiss-based firm SilentSig GmbH, the place he’ll transfer along with seven zkEVM builders.
“I, along with the core team of seven developers, have just spun off from Polygon to continue the ZisK project as an independent initiative… Excited for this new era in the blockchain journey — we need this technology to bring truly decentralized values to mass adoption,” Baylina wrote on his X page.
Are Polygon co-Founders splitting up?
The zkVM stack was designed for real-time cryptographic proof and is entirely open for community adoption. ZisK aims to address scalability and privacy challenges in modern blockchain ecosystems. The team has positioned it as a foundational layer for next-generation decentralized applications.
However, after a one-year incubation period, the Polygon Foundation decided to discontinue its zkEVM chain due to $1 million in losses.
Current activity data reflect a drop in zkEVM adoption. As of June 2025, the network had only 1,030 active addresses and 3,480 daily transactions. Throughput declined to 0.01 Mgas/s from a peak of 0.30 Mgas/s in early 2023.
As a result, Polygon spun off ZisK into a separate entity and transferred all rights and intellectual property to the Swiss-registered company SilentSig GmbH.
As we wrote, Sandeep Nailwal leads Polygon Foundation, launches rebranding marketing campaign
