- Stripe's crypto head John Egan joins Polygon Labs.
- The move comes as Stripe prepares to launch its own blockchain called Tempo.
- Polygon and Tempo will compete in the stablecoin payments sector.
Stripe’s head of crypto John Egan has jumped ship for Polygon Labs, less than a month after the payments giant announced its highly-anticipated Tempo blockchain.
Egan joins the firm as its first chief product officer, where he will work directly under CEO Marc Boiron. In the new role he will advance Polygon’s capacity as a stablecoin payments blockchain, helping increase adoption, scalability, and interoperability, according to information shared with DL News.
It’s not clear why Egan decided to leave Stripe just as the firm prepares to launch Tempo, which will compete with Polygon in the stablecoin payments sector.
Egan said in a statement that he and Polygon Labs have “a clear opportunity to make Polygon the leader in global blockchain payments.”
Egan did not respond to a request for comment.
Stablecoin payments
His move comes at a crucial time for the crypto industry.
The Trump administration’s pro-industry tilt has incentivised both native firms and traditional financial firms to ramp up their digital asset strategies.
Stablecoins play a key role in those efforts after President Donald Trump signed the Genius Act into law in July and legitimised crypto tokens designed to trade at parity with the dollar after years of uncertainty.
Not only are blockchain protocols like Hyperliquid working on their own stablecoins, but banking giants like Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase, and Wells Fargo are also reportedly exploring launching their own stablecoins.
Enter Tempo. Unveiled on September 4, it is a new blockchain specifically designed for stablecoin payments. It is incubated by Stripe and crypto venture firm Paradigm but will operate as a standalone company.
Polygon was originally launched in 2020 as a way to scale the Ethereum blockchain. It initially soared in popularity but has since been eclipsed by other Ethereum-compatible blockchains, such as Arbitrum and Coinbase’s Base.
In recent months, Polygon has found a new lease of life in stablecoin payments. Since the start of the year, the monthly volume of peer-to-peer stablecoin transactions on the blockchain has grown almost 40%.
There are almost $3 billion stablecoins on Polygon, close to the record for the blockchain, according to DefiLlama data.
‘Rare leader’
Egan joined Stripe in 2023, and was key to the firm’s push to integrate blockchain technology into its payments infrastructure.
He oversaw the firm’s $1.1 billion February acquisition of Bridge, a stablecoin infrastructure platform, and the acquisition of crypto wallet provider Privy in June.
Before joining Stripe, Egan spent several years at Meta, formerly Facebook, and also founded multiple companies, including Caffeinated Mind, which was acquired by Facebook, blockchain art platform Editional, and incident management company Kintaba.
“As we push Polygon to become the foundation for digital payments, we need someone who’s proven they can bridge between what’s technically possible and what users most need,” Marc Boiron, CEO of Polygon Labs, said in a statement.
“John’s that rare leader who’s done it repeatedly,” he said.
Tim Craig is DL News’ Edinburgh-based DeFi Correspondent. Reach out with tips at tim@dlnews.com.
