Polygon and Sonic Labs Co-Founders Accuse Ethereum Foundation of Neglecting Layer-2 Developers

Rabat – The co-founders of two major Layer-2 builders have publicly voiced frustration with the Ethereum Foundation’s (EF) role in its developer ecosystem. Sandeep Nailwal from Polygon and Andre Cronje from Sonic Labs both say that even though they tried to scale Ethereum with Layer-2 solutions, they received little to no direct aid or recognition from the foundation.

“NGL, I’ve started questioning my loyalty toward Ethereum,” said Nailwal on X. He then explained that Polygon has received “no direct support” from the Ethereum Foundation even as it has worked alongside the base chain to drive adoption and scalability.

“I’m going to give this a final push that might just revive the entire L2 narrative,” he added.

In a repost of Sandeep’s post, Cronje stated, “while building on ETH I have burned over 700 ETH on deployments and ETH infra.” He tried to get in touch with the foundation but never heard back: “no BD outreach, no grants, 0 support, not even a retweet.”
“But if it isn’t the core builders, Peter & Geth, and it isn’t the loudest L2 supporters (Sandeep and Polygon), where is it going?” he said, questioning EF’s support.

Foundations of the criticism

Both builders argue that core infrastructure and scaling work on Ethereum have been performed by outside networks—particularly Layer-2s—but that the foundation has not matched that with commensurate support, funding, or recognition. Nailwal said that Polygon may have lost billions of dollars in market value by sticking with the Ethereum ecosystem instead of changing its name to a standalone Layer-1.

Cronje’s criticism was more focused on EF not giving him enough funding or help with business growth. This was different from what he saw in the Sonic environment, where teams got help with business development, audits, and incentives.

Ethereum responds

As a response, Vitalik Buterin, co-founder of Ethereum, thanked Polygon and Nailwal for their efforts. He praised Polygon for its work on zero-knowledge (ZK) proof technology and for hosting the platform Polymarket, among other things.

At the same time, Buterin stated that Polygon doesn’t satisfy the strict definition of an Ethereum Layer-2 right now because it doesn’t have a comprehensive proof system that makes sure its transactions are as secure as Ethereum’s base layer. He suggested that available ZK-tech stacks now make this achievable.

Notably, the Ethereum Foundation did not give an official response, nor did the board or funding arm. The public call-out from two prominent builders raises questions about how support, recognition, and resource allocation are handled in the larger Ethereum ecosystem.