Linea’s growth lead Marco Monaco has stepped down from his role, citing misalignment in vision with the project’s future direction.

Marco Monaco, the growth lead for Linea, the zk-rollup developed by Consensys, has left the project, citing a misalignment in vision as the primary reason for his departure.

In an announcement made via X on Sept. 11, Monaco, who had been a key figure in driving Linea’s growth, disclosed that he is “no longer working on Linea in any capacity,” explaining that his resignation follows a period of decreased engagement over the past few months after previously resigning from Consensys.

Throughout his two-year tenure, Monaco says he devoted “nearly 20 hours a day” to developing Linea’s business vision, emphasizing his efforts to “build a vibrant ecosystem” and leverage tech stack by Consensys to advance the platform. Despite his achievements, Monaco expressed a desire to shift the network’s perception from “just farming” to a focus on community engagement and organic growth.

As Linea undergoes a significant transition, Monaco noted that the review process and vision discussions led to a mutual agreement with Consensys leadership that his continued involvement was no longer aligned with the project’s future direction.

“[…] Consensys leadership and I agreed that the best path forward for Linea does not involve me personally as our visions are not aligned anymore.”

Marco Monaco

However, he did not elaborate on the specific points of disagreement with Consensys.

Monaco’s departure comes a few months after Linea faced scrutiny for pausing its entire network to block an address associated with a hacker who exploited the Velocore decentralized exchange, built on Linea, for $7 million. In June, Linea confirmed it had suspended block production to prevent the hacker from selling a large sum of stolen tokens, a move that drew criticism from the broader crypto community.

The pause, which spanned one hour, allowed Linea to assess the situation and coordinate with the Velocore team and centralized exchanges to freeze the hacker’s funds. However, the decision raised concerns about the project’s centralization, with some criticizing the ability to stop the entire network, which at the time held over $1.2 billion in locked value, according to L2Beat data.

Linea acknowledged that its reliance on centralized operations was a vulnerability, but reiterated its commitment to transitioning toward a decentralized, censorship-resistant network.