Polygon Labs is making one of its biggest “real-world payments” moves yet, signing definitive agreements to acquire Coinme and Sequence in deals valued at more than $250 million. The goal: bring key pieces of stablecoin payment infrastructure in-house—regulated fiat rails, enterprise wallets, and cross-chain “orchestration”—as the company tries to turn blockchain usage into something closer to everyday money movement.
The acquisitions, first reported by CoinDesk and confirmed through Polygon’s own announcement, come as stablecoins keep pushing beyond trading and into payments, settlement, and treasury workflows. Polygon CEO Marc Boiron told Reuters the company’s ambition is to become “a regulated U.S. payments player,” starting with business-to-business (B2B) transactions and expanding toward consumer use later.
Why Polygon is buying now?
Stablecoins—digital tokens pegged to assets like the U.S. dollar—are increasingly explored for payments and settlement, but the tools to move between cash, bank rails, and onchain transfers are still fragmented. Reuters framed Polygon’s strategy as a response to exactly that: bringing “key pieces in-house” to scale stablecoin payments more reliably.
Boiron also suggested Polygon doesn’t plan to go head-to-head with legacy card networks right away. Instead, Polygon’s near-term approach is partnership-driven, with a longer-term question lingering in the background: whether card-based payments remain the default interface in a world where stablecoins can settle nearly instantly.
That’s the big bet behind this deal: stablecoins don’t just need blockspace—they need compliant ramps, wallets people can actually use, and seamless movement across chains.
What Polygon gets from Coinme?
Coinme is a U.S.-based crypto payments and exchange company founded in 2014 that focuses on connecting traditional money (including cash) with crypto rails. Polygon says Coinme adds licensed U.S. fiat on- and off-ramps and “more than a million existing users.”
In Polygon’s PRNewswire release, Coinme is described as one of the first licensed digital currency exchanges in the U.S., with money transmitter coverage enabling operations in 48 U.S. states, plus compliance infrastructure and a white-label “crypto-as-a-service” offering for fintechs and enterprises. The same release also highlights Coinme’s physical cash network spanning 50,000+ retail locations.
For Polygon’s stablecoin payments narrative, this matters because regulated on/off ramps are often the bottleneck. You can build the fastest chain in the world, but if users and businesses can’t move dollars in and out smoothly—legally and at scale—payments adoption stays stuck in pilot mode.
What Polygon gets from Sequence?
If Coinme is the fiat bridge, Sequence is the user and developer layer: smart wallets, cross-chain execution, and tooling to reduce the friction that usually comes with moving assets across networks.
Polygon’s announcement says Sequence brings enterprise wallet infrastructure and “1-click cross-chain transactions.” The PRNewswire release goes deeper, describing Sequence as adding smart wallets and a cross-chain orchestration and intents engine designed to abstract the annoying parts—bridging, swaps, gas—so users don’t have to think about them during payment flows.
Sequence’s own statement echoes that positioning: it says Polygon is acquiring Sequence to power the Open Money Stack, using its wallet infrastructure and its Trails cross-chain orchestration/intents engine so developers can build apps where users don’t have to worry about bridging or token compatibility.
In plain terms: Polygon is trying to make stablecoin payments feel like “tap-to-pay,” not “copy address, bridge assets, pray you chose the right network.”
Polygon’s new full-stack payments pitch
Polygon is branding the combined effort as the Polygon Open Money Stack—a vertically integrated bundle that includes:
- regulated fiat on/off ramps (Coinme),
- wallet infrastructure (Sequence),
- and cross-chain orchestration via intents (Sequence + Polygon).
Polygon’s PRNewswire release claims the combined businesses have processed $1B+ in offchain sales and $2T+ in onchain value transfers—figures Polygon is using to argue the stack is already battle-tested enough to scale into mainstream payments corridors.
Fintech Futures also reports different closing timelines: Polygon expects the Sequence transaction to close in January, while the Coinme acquisition is targeted for Q2 2026, subject to customary approvals and closing conditions.
Competitive backdrop
Polygon isn’t the only one circling this opportunity. Reuters notes established payments giants like Visa and Mastercard are also vying for stablecoin payments dominance, making differentiation harder in a market that’s quickly filling up.
Polygon’s counter-position is basically: instead of being a single app, it wants to be the rails + tools that banks, fintechs, and enterprises can plug into. The company says its focus begins with B2B payments, which tend to care more about compliance, predictable pricing, and settlement speed than flashy consumer UX.
What to watch next
The headline number—$250 million-plus—grabs attention, but the more important question is execution:
- Regulatory path: Polygon is explicitly talking about becoming a regulated U.S. payments player, which means licensing, compliance operations, and partner integrations will matter as much as chain metrics.
- Product integration: Can Polygon stitch Coinme’s regulated access and Sequence’s wallet/orchestration into a “single flow” that developers actually adopt?
- Real payment volume: Polygon is selling a stablecoin payments story; the market will want evidence that the Open Money Stack converts into sustained transaction growth, not just announcements.
Conclusion
For now, Polygon’s message is clear: stablecoin payments are moving from buzzword to battleground, and Polygon wants to own more of the stack—from cash on-ramps to cross-chain execution—rather than just providing the blockchain underneath.