Polygon Labs has acquired Coinme and Sequence in a major deal announced on January 13, 2026. The transactions, valued at more than $250 million combined, position Polygon to become a regulated U.S. payments platform focused on stablecoin-based transactions and global money movement.
Key Details of the Acquisition
Coinme, a crypto payments firm known for its bitcoin ATMs via partnerships like Coinstar and fiat-to-crypto on/off-ramps. It holds money transmitter licenses in 48 U.S. states, serves over 1 million users, and operates in more than 50,000 retail locations. Coinme will become a wholly owned subsidiary of Polygon Labs after regulatory approvals, with the deal expected to close in Q2 2026.
Sequence, a wallet infrastructure and developer tools provider offering enterprise smart wallets, cross-chain orchestration via its Trails platform for 1-click transfers, and intents-based routing. It supports networks like Polygon, Arbitrum, Immutable, and others, with backers including Coinbase, Polychain, and Ubisoft. This deal is expected to close in January 2026 potentially already or imminently.
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These acquisitions form core components of Polygon’s Open Money Stack launched and announced around early 2026, an integrated, open platform combining. Regulated fiat on/off-ramps from Coinme Wallet infrastructure and cross-chain payment flows from Sequence. Polygon’s high-throughput blockchain rails for settlement.
The goal is seamless, compliant bridging between traditional finance and on-chain systems, enabling instant global payments, lower fees, and programmable money use cases for banks, fintechs, remittances, merchants.
Polygon Labs CEO Marc Boiron described payments as the “killer use case” and the aim to become a regulated U.S. payments player. Co-founder Sandeep Nailwal called it a “reverse Stripe” strategy—building on existing blockchain infrastructure while adding regulated fiat access to compete with traditional fintech giants like Stripe which has made its own crypto acquisitions.
Combined, the entities have processed over $1 billion in off-chain sales and $2 trillion in on-chain value transfers. Polygon reported ~$3.3 billion in on-chain stablecoin supply at the end of 2025 (a 3-year high), and the moves target unlocking >$100 million in annual revenue from fees and scaled adoption.
This marks Polygon’s shift from primarily a low-cost Ethereum scaling solution to a vertically integrated, revenue-focused payments company emphasizing real-world utility amid growing stablecoin demand boosted by U.S. regulatory progress like the 2025 GENIUS Act.
The announcement aligns closely with your statement—Polygon is leveraging these buys to establish itself as a regulated U.S. payments platform via stablecoins and compliant infrastructure.
The Open Money Stack is Polygon’s ambitious vision and integrated infrastructure platform, designed to make money movement instant, reliable, global, borderless, and programmable—essentially turning stablecoins and on-chain assets into seamless, everyday money.
At its core, it’s an open, modular, vertically integrated stack of services and technologies that bridges traditional finance (TradFi) with blockchain rails.
The goal is to move “all money onchain,” where funds flow like information on the internet: fast (seconds instead of days), cheap (fractions of traditional fees), always available (24/7, no banking hours), and productive (idle funds can earn yield automatically via on-chain opportunities like staking or lending).
Why Polygon is Building This
Traditional global payments suffer from high costs, delays e.g., wire transfers take days with correspondent banking, intermediaries, and friction. Stablecoins solve much of this on-chain, but the ecosystem has been fragmented: poor fiat access, complex wallets, cross-chain hassles, and compliance gaps.
Polygon aims to fix that by providing a single, developer-friendly integration point for banks, fintechs, remittance providers, merchants, enterprises, and payout platforms. It’s positioned as a “reverse Stripe” strategy—starting from blockchain infrastructure and adding regulated fiat layers, rather than the other way around.
The stack combines several layers for end-to-end money movement: Blockchain Rails ? Polygon’s high-throughput chain (fast settlement, low fees, ~$3.3B+ stablecoin supply as of late 2025, >$2T in historical on-chain value transferred). Fiat On/Off-Ramps ? Licensed access to convert cash/fiat to/from stablecoins (physical cash via retail networks and digital fiat).
Wallet Infrastructure ? Enterprise-grade smart wallets for seamless, secure management, embedded wallets, recovery options, one-tap sending. Tools for 1-click transfers across networks (hides bridging, swaps, gas fees; uses intents-based routing so money reaches its destination automatically).
Money transmitter licenses and frameworks for regulated operations especially in the U.S.. Programmable features like on-chain identity for KYC/compliance and automatic yield on holdings so money “works” instead of sitting idle. Interoperability ? Powered by tech like AggLayer, making chains feel unified/invisible to users.
These components abstract complexity—users don’t need to understand chains, bridges, or wallets; it just works like modern fintech apps.
The January 2026 acquisitions of Coinme for regulated U.S. fiat on/off-ramps in 48 states, physical cash-to-crypto via 50,000+ locations like Coinstar kiosks, serving 1M+ users and Sequence for smart wallet infrastructure and cross-chain orchestration via Trails for 1-click intents-based transfers are foundational.
They deliver three core pillars: fiat ramps, wallets, and orchestration. Combined deals >$250M; they enable compliant, real-world bridging to on-chain settlement. Together with Polygon, these entities have handled >$1B off-chain sales and >$2T on-chain transfers.
Instant global payments/remittances, lower fees, funds earn yield by default, seamless UX (one-tap, recoverable wallets). For Businesses and institutions ? Real-time settlements, reduced correspondent banking risks, predictable costs, easy integration for payments/lending/remittances.
Unlocks programmable money e.g., automated payouts, tokenized assets, supports stablecoin adoption as real settlement layers. The stack is rolling out in phases, early access for design partners via Polygon’s site. It’s a shift for Polygon from pure scaling solution to a revenue-focused, regulated payments player amid growing stablecoin momentum.
In short, Open Money Stack aims to make on-chain money as easy and ubiquitous as the internet made information—borderless, instant, and always productive. If you’re building in payments, fintech, or stablecoins, it’s worth watching closely.