Polygon Labs Acquires Coinme & Sequence for $250M Payments Push

Polygon Labs, the entity behind the established Ethereum scaling network, announced on Tuesday its acquisition of two crypto firms for a combined $250 million. The move signals a fundamental strategic pivot: the company is positioning itself as a regulated payments entity. In an interview with Decrypt, CEO Marc Boiron framed the acquisitions not merely as corporate purchases but as foundational steps to build “regulated middleware.” The goal is to provide businesses with a single, simplified API to manage digital assets, enabling on-ramps, off-ramps, wallets, and cross-chain fund reception. “We give one API, you plug it in, and now you have a blockchain that you can on-ramp and off-ramp to,” Boiron explained.

This vision is directly tied to the company’s recently launched Open Money Stack, an all-in-one toolkit designed for integration into existing financial applications. The system emphasizes interoperability and user experience, supporting services like payments, lending, remittances, yield generation, and swaps. By acquiring Coinme and Sequence, Polygon Labs is effectively acquiring the critical, regulated components to power this ambitious stack, moving beyond its historical role as a passive infrastructure provider to become an active facilitator in the financial system.

The two acquired companies bring distinct, complementary capabilities. Coinme, founded in 2014 and registered as a money services business with the U.S. Treasury Department’s FinCEN, provides a crucial physical bridge to the crypto economy. It powers over 6,000 Coinstar kiosks and, more significantly, enables cash-to-crypto purchases at approximately 50,000 locations across the U.S., including major retailers like Walmart. Boiron described this network as a “Trojan horse,” representing one of the easiest ways to onboard new users. “You can go to a grocery store, have the barcode scanned by a cashier, give them cash, and then you have the crypto,” he said.

Sequence, previously known as Horizon Blockchain Games, contributes enterprise-grade technology. The firm develops “enterprise smart wallets” and specializes in routing payments across different blockchains, a key capability for solving interoperability challenges. Its technology is designed to tackle the very friction points Polygon’s Open Money Stack aims to eliminate. While Coinme handles the regulated fiat entry point, Sequence provides the sophisticated backend infrastructure to manage and move assets seamlessly once they are on-chain.

Beyond product expansion, these acquisitions represent a major financial shift for Polygon Labs. Historically, the company’s focus was on driving “value” to its native token, POL (formerly MATIC), which is used for transaction fees and staking. However, Boiron explicitly stated the company is now focused on generating revenue. This will be achieved through the “basis points” that Coinme charges on transactions, such as swaps and on-ramping services. Through its partner Coinstar, fees can reach up to 12.9% plus a $0.99 transaction charge.

Boiron directly linked this new revenue stream to the health of the Polygon ecosystem. “One thing that we realized is that it’s actually revenue generating businesses that give us an opportunity to drive even more volume on the chain,” he said. “With this on-chain business, we’re actually able to drive even more revenue to POL stakers.” This model aims to create a virtuous cycle where transaction fees from real-world services bolster the utility and rewards for the network’s core participants, even as the POL token itself has faced market headwinds, falling 66% over the past year to around $0.15.

The acquisitions also signal an effort to recapture enterprise momentum. During the last crypto boom, Polygon became synonymous with high-profile consumer integrations from companies like Starbucks, Reddit, and DraftKings. However, those partnerships have since been shuttered. The new strategy, centered on regulated payments and enterprise tooling, represents a more durable and compliance-focused approach to the business market.

Boiron acknowledged this evolution, noting that Polygon previously relied on other businesses to bring users to its network. “Polygon might be the best place for payments, but that’s still something where you’re relying on another party to do it,” he said. By owning key infrastructure like Coinme’s on-ramps and Sequence’s wallets, Polygon Labs seeks to control those critical end-user relationships. “Building on top of Polygon, it allows us to have those end-user relationships and continue to bring people there,” Boiron concluded, outlining a future where the company is not just the highway, but also the on-ramps and the vehicles traveling on it.