Stripe’s head of crypto has decided to lean even more into crypto. John Egan announced Monday that he will join Polygon Labs, a prominent blockchain developer, as chief product officer. The former Stripe executive will start on Tuesday, Egan told Fortune.
While he declined to specify exactly what he’ll tackle when he starts his new job, Egan said he will focus on improving payments across Polygon’s ecosystem, which includes a handful of blockchains built on top of the blockchain Ethereum.
Conversations between Egan and Polygon Labs began in early August, and quickly progressed from there, Marc Boiron, CEO of Polygon Labs, told Fortune. “He’s going to be, frankly, very, very impactful on all our payments efforts,” Boiron said.
Fintech to crypto
Stripe is a $91.5 billion payments behemoth whose products include online checkout services and billing software. Over the past year, the fintech giant has leaned heavily into crypto, an effort that Egan helped orchestrate.
In October, Stripe announced that it planned to acquire Bridge, a startup that specializes in stablecoins, or cryptocurrencies pegged to underlying assets like the U.S. dollar. The deal was for $1.1 billion and closed in February.
Then, in June, Stripe said it planned to acquire the crypto wallet company Privy for an undisclosed price. And, in September, the fintech said it was developing its own blockchain called Tempo in partnership with the crypto venture capital giant Paradigm.
Egan had a hand in all of Stripe’s biggest crypto moves. “My role as head of crypto crosses all of these actions: Overseeing product strategy, build, execution, executive relationship, external M&A decision making,” he said.
As Stripe’s crypto footprint grows, Egan’s decision to leave the fintech may prompt onlookers to ask why he’s jumping ship just as his role was rising in importance.
But the incoming chief product officer at Polygon Labs said he thinks “it’s not particularly unusual” for someone working on one segment within a larger corporation to want to dive even deeper into that vertical elsewhere. “It is important to remember at Stripe, there’s a $80-plus billion business that is not necessarily entirely focused here,” he said, referring to the world of blockchain. But he is “all in” on crypto, Egan said.
As for why he’s decided to join Polygon Labs, Egan pointed to Polygon’s position as a leader in stablecoin micropayments, or small transfers of money. About $2.9 billion in stablecoins circulated on Polygon’s payments-focused blockchain in July. That’s far below Ethereum’s $158 billion, according to blockchain data provider Artemis Analytics. But, that same month, 4.5 million active addresses in July (a rough measure for users) sent or received stablecoins on Polygon, outstripping Ethereum’s 2.9 million, per Artemis.
In other words, Egan said he believes the data shows that everyday users, not just deep-pocketed crypto traders, are transacting on Polygon. “I’m a really big fan of any technology layer, any platform that has like, immediate use, immediate developer attention,” he added.
A former engineer at Meta and graduate of the famed startup incubator Y Combinator, the incoming Polygon Labs executive plans to only take one day of vacation between his old and new job. “I’ve never been good at taking time off,” he conceded.
