John Egan announced on Sept. 15, 2025, that he was leaving Stripe to become Polygon Labs' first chief product officer, with Fortune reporting he would start the next day12. “I'm excited to announce that I'm joining @0xPolygon as Polygon Labs' first Chief Product Officer,” Egan wrote on X. Polygon's own account confirmed the hire the same day, writing that Egan would "lead Polygon's product vision"3.
The second executive hire at Polygon Labs on the record since 2023
Leadership moves CryptoLately has verified at Polygon Labs, by year
- 2025: 1
- 2023, 2024, 2026
Moves: The Moves Ledger, CryptoLately's record of verified leadership moves, Oct. 3, 2016 to Oct. 2, 2026.
Read the chart as a table
| Item | Value |
|---|---|
| 2023 | 5 |
| 2024 | 0 |
| 2025 | 1 |
| 2026 | 2 |
59 executive hires on the record in 2025, the most of any year
Executive hires CryptoLately has verified, by year; 2026 through Oct. 2, 2026
- 2025: 59
- 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024, 2026
Moves: The Moves Ledger, CryptoLately's record of verified leadership moves, Oct. 3, 2016 to Oct. 2, 2026.
Read the chart as a table
| Item | Value |
|---|---|
| 2019 | 11 |
| 2020 | 12 |
| 2021 | 27 |
| 2022 | 37 |
| 2023 | 20 |
| 2024 | 39 |
| 2025 | 59 |
| 2026 | 45 |
The move
Egan spent his final Stripe years building its crypto strategy. “My role as head of crypto crosses all of these actions: Overseeing product strategy, build, execution, executive relationship, external M&A decision making,” he told Fortune2. Marc Boiron, chief executive of Polygon Labs, said conversations with Egan began in early August 2025 and moved quickly. “He's going to be, frankly, very, very impactful on all our payments efforts,” Boiron told Fortune. Egan pointed to Polygon's stablecoin usage as his reason for joining, citing data from Artemis Analytics showing 4.5 million active addresses sent or received stablecoins on Polygon in July 2025, against 2.9 million on Ethereum.
Stripe and Polygon Labs, before and after
At Stripe, Egan helped orchestrate a run of crypto deals. Fortune reported that Stripe agreed to buy the stablecoin startup Bridge for $1.1 billion in October 2024, a deal that closed in February 2025, then agreed in June 2025 to acquire the crypto wallet company Privy2. In September 2025, Fortune reported, Stripe said it was building its own blockchain, called Tempo, with the venture firm Paradigm. Egan told Fortune he considered his exit ordinary, even as his old role grew in scope. “It is important to remember at Stripe, there's a $80-plus billion business that is not necessarily entirely focused here,” he said, naming crypto as the smaller piece. At Polygon Labs, Egan became the company's first product chief, a role Boiron created to drive what he called the payments effort3.
What came next
Egan's own X bio still reads "CPO @ Polygon" as of Oct. 3, 2026, confirming he remained in the role he took that September4. Polygon's post named three Polygon Labs leaders, Sandeep Nailwal, Marc Boiron and Mudit Gupta, as the team Egan said he was "especially excited to work with" on his first day1.
Sources
- John Egan, post announcing his move to Polygon Labs, X, Sept. 15, 2025, https://x.com/john3gan/status/1967561538669269313
- Ben Weiss, "Exclusive: Stripe's head of crypto departs to join Polygon Labs as chief product officer," Fortune, Sept. 15, 2025, https://fortune.com/crypto/2025/09/15/stripe-head-of-crypto-john-egan-polygon-labs-chief-product-officer/
- Polygon Labs, announcement of John Egan's hire, X, Sept. 15, 2025, https://x.com/0xPolygon/status/1967562331618943131
- John Egan, X profile, read Oct. 3, 2026, https://api.fxtwitter.com/john3gan