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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

Ecosystem Thoughts

Q2 2025 Crypto M&A and Financing Report

Eric F. Risley
July 8, 2025
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Download the full report above.

MACRO ECONOMIC SENTIMENT

 

The last few quarters have been a sentiment roller coaster. Post-US election, crypto enthusiasm reined. That shifted in February with worry about US-driven tariffs and equity, bond and crypto markets declining through early April. Since then, markets have recovered, in some cases, back to previous highs.

 

CRYPTO INDUSTRY SENTIMENT

 

Bitcoin hit an all-time high (+30% for the quarter), ETH performed even better (+39%), stablecoin legislation in the US advanced, the blockbuster IPO of Circle and the emergence of “treasury strategies” have all bolstered crypto sentiment in Q2. 

 

However, Ethereum and Solana are 48% and 45% below all time highs, respectively. Similarly, the Defi Pulse Index is 90% below its highs.

 

While both winners and losers appear to be emerging, overall sentiment is very good, which is reflected in the M&A, financing and public markets data for Q2 2025. 

 

Q2 2025 CRYPTO HIGHLIGHTS

 

M&A: Exceptional Q2 2025: resoundingly the best quarter ever

M&A deal activity and consideration paid in Q2 2025 far exceeded Q1, setting new all-time records. Crypto native businesses are increasingly turning to M&A as an important growth strategy. The far bigger news is that traditional financial services players are beginning to demonstrate increasing commitment to crypto and digital assets. Architect Partners anticipates both groups will become increasingly active in the ensuing quarters.

 

Private Financing: remains steady

Slightly slower pace but beginning to skew toward larger and later stage. Architect Partners believe the return of the later-stage financing markets is an important indicator of crypto industry health.

 

Public Markets: record valuations

After a challenging Q1, the Architect Partners Crypto Index was up 48% this quarter. Looking from a longer term perspective, Coinbase, the standard bearer of our industry, is now trading 7% above its all time closing high.

 

Interestingly, spot trading volume, the lifeblood of many in our index, declined 31% in Q2 2025, and is 44% below the last peak levels in this cycle. We believe this indicates the diversification of revenues streams that many have pursued, a very healthy signal. Lastly but not least, Circle’s IPO certainly acted as a positive catalyst as well as $66.5 billion being invested in 82 public “crypto treasury strategy” initiatives.

 

STRATEGIC THEMES ARCHITECT PARTNERS IS TRACKING

 

To keep us honest let’s continue our assessment of important crypto industry themes

 

Crypto Has Delivered Exceptional Value Creation

  • Q4 Statement: Crypto has attracted $130B of risk capital which today represents $3.4T in value and 25x returns, much better than traditional venture investing. This far outpaces the Internet at the same point in market development. 
  • Q1 Progress: Our 2025 update to Family Ties was published on February 13th. Q2 2025 ended with $2.8T in value (vs. $3.4T in Q4) but the fundamental point remains: crypto investment returns have been exceptional.
  • Q2 Progress: $3.8 trillion as of June 30, again in record territory.

 

Initial Public Offerings are Coming

  • Q4 Statement: Numerous companies are on that track but 2026 may be stronger than 2025.
  • Q1 Progress: Circle just released their S-1 and Amber Group debuted on the NASDAQ.
  • Q2 Progress: Circle’s exceptional debut and the unexpected rise of the treasury strategy.

 

Leverage Is Quickly Returning

  • Q4 Statement: Is leverage friend or foe this time? 
  • Q1 Progress: Friend so far, with risk management high priority. Data is difficult to compile but we see significant growth in both collateralized and uncollateralized lending.
  • Q2 Progress: Q1 trend continuing.

 

Mergers & Acquisitions – It’s Time for Urgency

  • Q4 Statement: Traditional financial services companies are entering crypto, a potentially existential competitive threat to some crypto-native players. Both will be spurred into action.
  • Q1 Progress: Legislation is important for action but traditional financial services players are already re-engaging in preparation.
  • Q2 Progress: Record quarter with participation by both leading crypto natives and the beginning of the long-term trend of traditional financial services embracing crypto and digital assets.

 

Moving Beyond Speculation – An Important Next Step

  • Q4 Statement: Stablecoins are proving to be a real-world use case, with businesses and consumers partaking. Other use cases with both viability and scalability remain unclear.
  • Q1 Progress: The payments use case is also taking root.
  • Q2 Progress: Payments, often using stablecoins, are tracking at $100 – $300 billion annually and growing quickly. See Architect Partners: Crypto Payments & Payment Infrastructure: The Strategic Opportunity (Part I: Why Crypto Payments). Under the same theme, US stablecoin legislation continues to advance in the US Senate

 

Eric F Risley

Founder & Managing Partner

July 8, 2025