Polygon Labs is making a major bet on the future of blockchain-based payments. The research and development arm behind the Polygon network has agreed to spend more than $250 million to acquire two crypto firms, Coinme and Sequence, positioning them as core building blocks of its newly announced Open Money Stack.
The acquisitions mark a notable expansion of Polygon Labs’ focus, shifting from pure scaling technology toward global value transfers and payments infrastructure. Both deals are subject to regulatory approval, with Coinme expected to close in the second quarter and Sequence set to finalize later this month. Coinme will continue operating as a wholly owned subsidiary once the transaction is complete.
Bringing payments infrastructure in-house
Coinme, founded in 2014, is one of the longest-running crypto exchanges in the United States. It holds money transmitter licenses in 48 states and operates a large physical fiat-to-crypto network across more than 50,000 retail locations. Sequence, launched in 2017, provides wallet infrastructure and cross-chain transaction tooling designed to make crypto payments simpler and more seamless for users and developers.
Polygon Labs said the two companies will together deliver essential components of the Open Money Stack, including fiat on- and off-ramps, wallet technology, and cross-chain orchestration. The goal is to reduce the complexity developers face when building payment products by offering a single, integrated platform rather than a patchwork of third-party services.
According to a Polygon spokesperson, bringing wallet and onramping capabilities in-house allows developers to build, scale, and remain compliant using one consistent API. This, the firm says, should lead to smoother onboarding, better reliability, and faster ecosystem growth.
A strategic shift for Polygon Labs
While Polygon Labs has made acquisitions before, the move represents a shift in approach. Historically, the organization has favored building technology internally or spinning out independent projects when work was exploratory or research-heavy. In this case, the company opted to buy existing firms to accelerate its roadmap, particularly where regulatory licensing and mature technology were already in place.
Since rebranding from Matic to Polygon in 2020, the company has completed several notable acquisitions, including Hermez Network and Mir Protocol in 2021 and Toposware in 2024. These deals strengthened Polygon’s zero-knowledge capabilities. At the same time, Polygon Labs has spun out projects such as Avail, Miden, Privado ID, and ZisK, reflecting a hybrid strategy of internal development, acquisitions, and independent offshoots.
That strategy has evolved further under Polygon co-founder Sandeep Nailwal, who became CEO of the Polygon Foundation in mid-2025. Since then, Polygon has deprecated its zkEVM chain, redirected resources to Polygon PoS and the Agglayer cross-chain aggregator, and rolled out major upgrades aimed at improving performance and payments use cases.
Building the Open Money Stack
The Open Money Stack, unveiled last week and expected to launch by the end of the year, is designed as an open, modular middleware layer for moving money globally. It will support identity, compliance, transaction routing, fiat onboarding, and multiple forms of onchain money, including stablecoins and tokenized deposits.
Polygon’s leadership has described an ambition to make the network a leading avenue for stablecoin-based payments worldwide. Coinme’s regulatory framework and retail footprint are expected to make it easier for traditional institutions to build compliant payment solutions on Polygon, while Sequence’s smart wallet and intents engine aims to reduce friction across fragmented blockchain networks.
Sequence’s technology allows users to complete transactions across different chains without manually bridging assets or swapping tokens. Its backers include major names from both crypto and traditional finance, reflecting growing interest in infrastructure that can make blockchain payments feel familiar to mainstream users.
Looking ahead
Polygon Labs says Coinme and Sequence will play foundational roles in turning the Open Money Stack into a practical, scalable payments platform. By combining regulated fiat access, wallet infrastructure, and cross-chain orchestration, the company hopes to bridge traditional financial systems with onchain rails in a way that meets global compliance and reliability standards.
As blockchain adoption continues to be driven by real-world payments and stablecoin usage, Polygon’s $250 million investment signals a clear direction. The company is no longer positioning itself solely as a scaling solution, but as a payments-focused blockchain aiming to simplify how money moves across borders and networks.
