51 Insights – What Matters in Digital Assets Why Polygon chose payments, with Marc Boiron, CEO of Polygon Labs
Hi, it’s Marc. ✌️
“The idea of general purpose blockchains or blockchains where all block space is worth the same is going to go away. Within a year, maybe two years, you can guarantee they’re pretty much identical. In that world, we recognized a need to differentiate ourselves again.”
That’s Marc Boiron, the CEO of Polygon Labs, explaining why being just “another fast L2” is no longer a viable business model.
For years, Polygon owned DeFi. Fast, cheap transactions. $10 billion TVL at peak. Then FTX collapsed, enterprises fled, and competitors caught up on speed. Polygon faced a choice: become irrelevant or get ruthlessly focused.
The answer: Stop being everything to everyone. Start being the best at one thing.
And that one thing is payments.
About Marc: Marc Boiron is the Chief Executive Officer of Polygon Labs, a prominent developer of Ethereum scaling infrastructure. A lawyer by training, he has become a leading voice in the Web3 industry, overseeing the strategic development of the Polygon and AggLayer ecosystems. He’s the man tasked with navigating Polygon through its “rebuilding” phase, moving from the DeFi boom of 2021, surviving the enterprise exodus post-FTX, and now doubling down on ZK-tech and global money movement.
In our conversation, we explore why Polygon is betting on B2B2C, how they plan to out-distribute Fintech giants like Stripe, and why the “App Layer” (like Polymarket) is finally becoming more valuable than the “Infrastructure Layer.”
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🎧 Jump to the best parts
* (04:30) → The Death of General Purpose: Why block space is becoming a commodity and how Polygon is differentiating.
* (11:20) → The Institutional Reality: Do big banks care if you’re a Layer 2 or a Sidechain? (Spoiler: No).
* (16:18) → Competing with “Corporate” Chains: Marc’s take on ARK, Tempo, and the threat of Wall Street-backed blockchains.
* (21:40) → The Cross-Border Killer App: Why B2B treasury and creator payouts are the low-hanging fruit of 2026.
* (33:02) → The “Package” Strategy: How Polygon plans to simplify the “convoluted” onboarding process for enterprises in Q1.
* (43:40) → The Polymarket Effect: What happens when an app built on your chain becomes more valuable than the chain itself?
Important Links
* LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/marcboiron
* Polygon: https://polygon.technology/contact-us
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My biggest takeaways from this conversation: