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Coinme Acquired by Polygon Labs to Build its Open Money Stack
Coinme Acquired by Polygon Labs to Build its Open Money Stack

Transaction Overview
On January 13th, 2026, Polygon Labs announced it intends to acquire Coinme, a regulated crypto-as-a-service provider. Simultaneously, Polygon also announced the acquisition of Sequence, enabling payment flows across blockchain networks. Both acquisitions help build a fully integrated, rules-compliant stablecoin payments system – Poygon’s Open Money Stack.

Target: Coinme
Founded in 2014 and headquartered in Seattle, Coinme is a U.S.-regulated digital asset payments company offering crypto-as-a-service and stablecoin and crypto payment infrastructure for enterprises, fintechs, wallets, and payment applications.

Coinme is licensed and operates in 48 U.S. states, as well as Puerto Rico, and has built systems designed to handle fiat-to-crypto and stablecoin payments at scale while meeting U.S. regulatory requirements.

Coinme provides capabilities that partners integrate into their products. These capabilities, delivered as a set of APIs or SDKs, include KYC, payments by debit card, bank transfer, or cash, converting between fiat and crypto, trading, and custody, so partners can offer end-to-end crypto and stablecoin features embedded in their own applications.

Coinme also supports a large cash-to-crypto network through partnerships, providing the software and compliance layer that enables cash on-ramps and off-ramps at 50,000+ locations across the U.S.

Coinme serves more than one million users and has processed more than $1.3 billion in total transactions since it launched. Its enterprise customers include Coinstar, Exodus, Mercuryo, Baanx, and Breeze.

Coinme was co-founded by CEO Neil Bergquist and has raised $41M in equity funding from Pantera, Digital Currency Group, Coinstar, Circle, and MoneyGram.

Coinme competitors include: ZeroHash, MoonPay, Bridge | Stripe, Banxa | OSL, and Paxos.

Buyer: Polygon Labs
Polygon was founded in 2017 as Matic Network and is actively undergoing an evolution in its product offering. Polygon Labs, formed in 2023, is responsible for supporting the development of the Polygon ecosystem, with a focus on fast, low-cost blockchain infrastructure for payments.

Polygon is now building the Open Money Stack, an integrated set of services designed to move money instantly and reliably, globally. It combines blockchain settlement on the Polygon network with core payment components like wallets, stablecoin integrations, cross-chain connectivity, and compliance tooling, to keep funds on-chain so they can be used across on-chain financial applications.

To make this work across many different blockchains, Polygon Labs is building AggLayer, a settlement layer meant to help different blockchains connect and exchange value with each other quickly and at low cost, reducing the need for separate, disconnected systems.

Polygon is a listed token with a current fully diluted value of $1.6B. Polygonscan shows more than 6.2 billion total transactions on Polygon. Polygon’s website also points to scale indicators like billions of dollars of stablecoins on the network, millions of transactions per day on average, and monthly payment volume, and describes Polygon as infrastructure that can support “trillions” of value moving through it.

The company was co-founded by Jaynti Kanani, Sandeep Nailwal, Mihailo Bjelic, and Anurag Arjun, and is currently led by CEO Marc Boiron, who was appointed in 2023.

Historically, in 2021, Polygon acquired zero-knowledge cryptography companies Mir and Hermez for $400M and $250M, respectively, but these are no longer aligned with the company’s Open Money Stack vision.

Transaction Parameters
Polygon Labs is acquiring Coinme for an undisclosed amount. In combination with another acquisition, Sequence, simultaneously announced by Polygon today. The combined acquisition value is around $250M. This marks one of the first examples of a protocol acquiring an operating business. The Coinme transaction is expected to close in Q2 2026.

Architect Partners served as the exclusive financial advisor to Coinme.

Notable comparable transactions include OSL | Banxa for $62M (M&A Alert), Nuvei | Simplex for $250M (M&A Alert), Ripple | Rail for $200M (M&A Alert), Stripe | Bridge for $1.1B (M&A Alert), MoonPay | Iron for $100M (M&A Alert), and MoonPay | Helio for $175M (M&A Alert).

Strategic Rationale
Polygon is acquiring Coinme and Sequence to move from being a settlement rail to owning the full experience of how money comes on-chain, moves on-chain, and settles back into the real world. The combination of Coinme’s licensed payments offering with Sequence’s wallet and payments orchestration stack gives Polygon an end‑to‑end, regulated crypto payments platform that spans physical kiosks, embedded wallets, and cross‑chain routing.

On Day 1, Polygon can take this integrated “crypto‑as‑a‑service” solution to banks, PSPs, neobanks, and fintechs who want compliant, turnkey stablecoin and token payments without building their own licensing, infrastructure, or user experience.

Architect Partners’ Observations
This acquisition(s) underscores a broader inflection point in the blockchain protocol market: technological performance and scalability alone will not win. The integration of real-world rails and the ability to deliver end-to-end value for mainstream users are becoming table stakes. As the market matures, competitive advantage is shifting toward owning the commercialization layer, including regulated fiat access, compliance operations, distribution channels, partner integrations, and strong product integration.

Networks that rely entirely on third-party providers risk commoditization, margin leakage, inconsistent user experience, and strategic dependency, just as stablecoins and tokenized products begin to drive meaningful transaction volume and the corresponding revenue opportunities.
Polygon’s actions show they fully understand the importance of this approach.

Sources
Polygon Press Release
Architect Partner M&A Tracker
PitchBook

Alerts

Stablecoin payment infrastructure startup AlloyX Merges With Solowin For $350M

Eric Risley
September 7th, 2025
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Transaction Overview

On September 3rd, 2025,AlloyX announced it had reached a definitive merger agreement with Nasdaq-listed Solowin Holdings, at a valuation of $350M. 

 

Target: AlloyX

AlloyX is a Hong Kong–based stablecoin payments and tokenization infrastructure platform that merges traditional banking with blockchain to support compliant, 24/7 cross-border money movement for businesses.

 

Key offerings include embedded wallet services; fiat-to-stablecoin on/off-ramps; merchant stablecoin acceptance with end-to-end settlement and FX; and tools for issuance and custody of real-world-asset (RWA) tokens, including a tokenized US dollar money-market fund. These services are built to integrate across multiple blockchains and payment channels for fintechs, exchanges, payment providers, and enterprises.

 

AlloyX reports platform coverage for businesses in 70+ countries and is expanding its ecosystem through programs and partnerships such as the Circle Alliance Program and security partners like Safeheron.

 

AlloyX operates via licensed affiliates—U.S. MSB; Hong Kong MSO, Money Lender, and TCSP; Australia DCE and AFSL—backed by SOC 2–attested controls. Client assets are segregated with policy-based approvals and full audit trails, and fiat/stablecoin flows pass through regulated banks, trusts, and qualified custodians with KYB/KYC, sanctions screening, and (where applicable) travel-rule messaging, providing compliant 24/7 payment and tokenization rails from onboarding through settlement.

 

AlloyX is a privately held company, so detailed financial metrics have not been made public. In January 2025, AlloyX raised $10M in seed round financing in a round led by Solowin Holdings with participation from Arbitrum Foundation, Offchain Labs, PMT Capital, Ming Capital, Fern Win Capital, Whitecove Capital and Kiln. 

 

AlloyX’s main competitors include other payment infrastructure platforms such as Circle, Ripple, Rail, BVNK, Conduit, Zero Hash, Transak, Stripe, Coinbase Commerce and Bitso Business, plus tokenized-cash/RWA alternatives like Lynq, Ondo, OpenEden, Matrixdock and Libeara/Standard Chartered.

 

Buyer: Solowin

Solowin Holdings is a Hong Kong–based, Nasdaq-listed financial services group that blends traditional brokerage and corporate finance with regulated digital-asset access. The business operates primarily through Solomon JFZ, its SFC-licensed platform, using that regulatory core to provide seamless access to Hong Kong, U.S., and Mainland China markets while building bridges into Web3.

 

Solomon JFZ holds SFC Type 1, 4, 6, and 9 licenses and is a participant of the Stock Exchange of Hong Kong with direct HKSCC clearing and China Connect participation. These capabilities support equities trading, IPO subscriptions, and mandate management, and also enable participation in Hong Kong’s spot crypto ETFs as a participating dealer; in partnership with OSL, Solowin has facilitated in-kind subscriptions and redemptions that connect ETF flows to the underlying BTC and ETH.

 

On the tokenization side, Solowin has launched a tokenized US dollar money-market strategy (Real Yield Token), live on Arbitrum and Polygon with Chainlink Proof of Reserve and NAVLink for ongoing, on-chain verification. This brings production-grade transparency to an RWA fund within a compliance-first perimeter.

 

As a public company, Solowin pairs this infrastructure with listed-company visibility and access to capital. In 2025 it co-led AlloyX’s US$10M round and then completed a US$350M acquisition of AlloyX, integrating stablecoin payment rails and tokenization middleware into its regulated stack. The platform can scale from traditional securities to stablecoin-native payments without changing the governance backbone clients already rely on.

 

Transaction Parameters

The deal is structured entirely in stock, with AlloyX’s founding team and strategic investors locked into a 12-month commitment to remain aligned with Solowin’s long-term goals. It is understood that AlloyX is an “early-stage company with limited history” that has “yet to generate revenue.”

 

If the business is able to achieve a $600M valuation within 24 months of closing, the AlloyX team will receive a $5M payout with an additional $5M payout at a $1B valuation. 

 

Previous comparable transactions include: Banxa | OSL (M&A Alert), Rail | Ripple for $200M (M&A Alert), Iron.xyz | MoonPay for $100M (M&A Alert), Helio | MoonPay for $175M (M&A Alert), and Bridge.xyz | Stripe for $1,100M (M&A Alert). 

 

Strategic Rationale

Before acquiring AlloyX, Solowin built the foundation. It secured SFC Types 1, 4, 6, and 9 licenses and became an HKEX participant, listed on Nasdaq on September 7, 2023, acted as a participating dealer for Hong Kong’s first spot BTC and ETH ETFs, launched Real Yield Token with Chainlink Proof of Reserve and NAVLink on Arbitrum and Polygon, and pursued a U.S. bank license. These steps created a regulated base, partner trust, faster settlement workflows, and transparent on-chain reporting, all necessary for payment rails.

 

The missing piece was a ready-to-use stablecoin payments stack, which AlloyX supplied with enterprise wallets and accounts, a unified API, corridor orchestration, compliant pay-ins and pay-outs with FX, and treasury automation.

 

With the closing of this acquisition, Solowin’s vision for a new financial ecosystem centered on stablecoins is now taking shape. AlloyX’s core capabilities, including its enterprise-grade compliant stablecoin application platform, Real-World Asset (RWA) tokenization technology, and 7×24 global payment network, will be deeply integrated with Solowin’s network of financial service and compliance licenses to build a unified stablecoin financial ecosystem.

 

Architect Partners’ Observations

Crypto payments are in the earliest stages of scaling, as shown in our three recent reports titled “Crypto Payments & Infrastructure: The Strategic Opportunity.” The past nine months have shown that M&A will play an important role in assembling the pieces required for companies to reshape payments. This is the sixth material transaction in this area.

 

Sources 

PitchBook, AlloyX Press Release, Coindesk, Solowin Press Release