Polygon Labs Acquires ZK Research Firm

It's the startup's third major ZK acquisition in less than 3 years.

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Polygon Polygon Labs has acquired zero-knowledge research firm Toposware, marking its third major ZK acquisition in under three years.

What's the scoop?

  • Acquisition Details: Polygon Labs’s acquisition of Toposware marks its third major ZK acquisition in less than three years. In August 2021, they acquired the ZK scaling solution Hermez Network for $250M, followed by Mir Protocol for $400M a few months later.
  • All For AggLayer: The acquisition aims to enhance their zero-knowledge arsenal for AggLayer, a protocol for improving interoperability between L2s, to expand across ZK-powered L2s.
  • Corporate Changes: Toposware CEO Theo Gauthier will join Polygon Labs' engineering team. Previously, Polygon’s co-founder, Sandeep Nailwal, had invested in Toposware's $5M seed extension round in November 2023.

Bankless Take:

One of the most notable trends of the last bear market came from Polygon’s seemingly endless string of high-level corporate partnerships with entities like Reddit, Starbucks, and Meta. Since the new cycle started, though, the company seems to have doubled down on their zero-knowledge efforts. Nevertheless, while they have nearly 10M users, the rest of their network continues to hit speed bumps with DeFi activity, DEX volume, TVL, and revenue all down. Hopefully the development of AggLayer alongside ZK will give them the boost to jump back to the top. 


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David C

Written by David C

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David is a writer/analyst at Bankless. Prior to joining Bankless, he worked for a series of early-stage crypto startups and on grants from the Ethereum, Solana, and Urbit Foundations. He graduated from Skidmore College in New York. He currently lives in the Midwest and enjoys NFTs, but no longer participates in them.

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