Polygon Labs CEO: Racial bias against co-founder Sandeep Nailwal is hindering the development of the Internet

Polygon Labs CEO Marc Boiron has blamed the Polygon network’s difficulty in gaining wider adoption on racial bias against its co-founder Sandeep Nailwal. Boiron suggested in a post on X yesterday that Nailwal’s Indian ancestry led to bias and hindered its acceptance, despite Polygon’s widespread use in the blockchain industry. “If Sandeep wasn’t Indian, Web3 would have embraced Polygon on a large scale, rather than treating it as a ‘second-class citizen’ even when Polygon PoS is more commonly used than all blockchains combined,” he wrote. When a user in the crypto community suggested that Indians have achieved prominence in major global tech companies, Boiron responded that geography plays a role. He pointed out that Indians in Western countries, such as EigenLayer’s Sreeram Kannan, face less bias than those working in India. He also pointed to discriminatory comments, including racial ones, as evidence of underlying problems. “You only need to see all the ‘brown’ comments to know there’s a problem,” Boiron said. Meanwhile, the broader Web3 community remains divided on the issue. Some users attribute Polygon’s challenges to competition from newer Ethereum L2 networks or network strategies rather than bias. Despite Boiron’s claims, Polygon remains a well-known player in the industry, with its POL token being the 30th-largest digital asset by market cap. However, Polygon’s popularity has waned compared to newer L2 networks like the Base network. (CryptoSlate)