Mihailo Bjelic is best known for co-founding Polygon, a leading Ethereum scaling solution. Led by Bjelic along with Jaynti Kanani, Anurag Arjun, and Sandeep Nailwal, the Polygon ecosystem expanded from $26 million in market capitalization in 2019 to over $14 billion in 2021. ^{[1] [8]}

Background

Mihailo Bjelic recognized the necessity for an alternative to a standard monetary system at an early age while growing up in the Balkans during a period of acute financial instability and social turmoil. ^[2] Around the time he turned 4, the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia saw the second-longest stretch of hyperinflation in economic history.^[3]

"For all families, it was very hard to have a normal, decent life that every human should have," he said. "You basically received your salary, and then you would run to convert that fiat currency, which is losing value every single hour, to convert it to a more stable currency."

During an interview, Bjelic explained that his background and lifelong interests in technology and mathematics naturally drew him to the cryptocurrency sector.^[4]

Education

Bjelic graduated from the University of Belgrade with a Degree in Information Systems.^[8]

Career

Mihailo Bjelic has over a decade of experience in the IT engineering field, where he specializes in creating technology products and platforms. Additionally, he has also started several companies, both alone and with partners.^[9]

Polygon

After working at a startup with a focus on the automotive industry and being involved with a few other tech-related businesses, Bjelic made the decision to join Web3 full-time in 2017. His research in Ethereum led him to discover that blockchains had adoption challenges, such as a lack of core and scalable infrastructure.

He initially began developing scaling options for Ethereum alone. In a discussion room called ethresear.ch, "where the geeks interested in blockchain scaling generally hang around," he eventually met Polygon cofounders Sandeep Nailwal, Jaynti Kanani, and Anurag Arjun.Previously called Matic Network, Polygon went live in 2019. After numerous conversations and meetings, the four decided to work together to officially launch Polygon.^[5]

"Starting a company together is like a marriage. It's a very important decision. During conversations, they really started ticking off all the important boxes. They were very committed," Bjelic said.

Uninitiated users should be aware that Polygon is a blockchain development platform with a number of scalability options. Developers can create a decentralized program, on the startup's network using a sidechain scaling solution for Ethereum. In addition to creating non-fungible currencies and blockchain games, Polygon is constantly expanding its use cases. Immutable X, xDai Chain, Optimism, Arbitrum, LoopRing, and more layer-2 scaling techniques are also available.^[6]

According to data from Polygon, it was used by more than 37,000 DApps, handled 1.94 billion transactions, collected 154 million unique user addresses, and secured $5 billion in assets. In February 2022, the team announced a $450 million fundraising round from Sequoia Capital India, Tiger Global, SoftBank, and Galaxy Interactive among other investors. The platform has also partnered with the NFL, Meta, Stripe, and other organizations since its inception.^[7]

Mihailo Steps Down from Polygon

On May 23, 2025, Mihailo Bjelic, co-founder of Polygon, announced his decision to step down from the board of the Polygon Foundation and reduce his day-to-day involvement with Polygon Labs. In a statement shared on X (formerly Twitter), Bjelic explained;

"After much thought and reflection, I’ve decided to step down from the board of the Polygon Foundation and wind down my day-to-day involvement with Polygon Labs." He added, "I’ll always be cheering from the sidelines and supporting however and whenever I can." ^[10]

Bjelic cited evolving visions within the project as a reason for his departure, stating;

"As projects evolve and mature, it is natural for visions to evolve, and sometimes diverge. With this in mind, I can no longer contribute to Polygon to the best of my abilities." Despite stepping back, he emphasized his continued passion for the crypto industry, noting, "You will likely still see me around." ^[11]

His departure follows those of fellow co-founders Jaynti Kanani and Anurag Arjun, who also stepped away from active roles in the company.

The Polygon community and broader crypto industry acknowledged Bjelic's contributions, with co-founder Sandeep Nailwal remarking that Bjelic has always been "a force behind so much of what makes Polygon what it is today." ^[12]