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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

Robinhood acquires BitStamp

Michael Klena
June 7, 2024
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Robinhood Acquires Bitstamp for $200 Million in Cash Consideration

Transaction Overview

On June 6, 2024, Robinhood (NASDAQ: HOOD), a multi-asset retail brokerage, announced its acquisition of Bitstamp, a European crypto exchange, for $200M in cash. The deal is expected to close in the first half of 2025.

 

Target: Bitstamp

Bitstamp is one of the oldest crypto exchanges, founded in 2011. Their key offerings include crypto trading for retail and institutional investors, staking and lending, and advanced trading tools.

 

The company has a global licensing regime that includes 50 active licenses and registrations across Canada, Italy, France, Luxembourg, Spain, The Netherlands, the US (New York BitLicense 40 state  MTLs), the UK, and Singapore. 

 

According to FCA filings, Bitstamp’s UK entity has delivered estimated revenue in line with other large exchanges of $55M, $58M, and $118M in 2019, 2020, and 2021 respectively. In 2022 the firm estimated $31M in revenue with a  $7.5M loss.

 

Founded in 2011 by Nejc Kodrič and Damijan Merlak, Bitstamp now has over 350 employees. The company had raised $19.4M over three funding rounds. In 2018, Belgian private equity firm NXMH acquired an 80% stake in the company at a $500M valuation. Other minority shareholders were Ripple, Pantera, Broslyn Capital, VironIT, and MV Global.

 

Buyer: Robinhood (NASDAQ: HOOD)

Robinhood is an online retail broker that revolutionized the brokerage industry with their commission-free model. Today, they have expanded their offering to include stocks, options, crypto, and a subscription service that offers enhanced features. 

 

In 2021, Robinhood expanded its crypto trading capabilities by acquiring Cove Markets. In 2022, the company partnered with Circle to offer USDC stablecoin within the Robinhood ecosystem.

 

In the last twelve months, Robinhood has done $2.04B in revenue and $668M in normalized EBITDA. The firm currently has 23.9M funded customers and 13.7M monthly active users. Q1 2024 crypto revenues were $126M, up 232% year-over-year. As of March 31, 2024, Robinhood custodies $26.2B in crypto assets, an increase of $11.5B since December 31, 2023. 

 

Founded in 2013 by Vladimir Tenev and Baiju Bhatt, Robinhood now has over 3,800 employees. The company has raised over $7.5B through 11 equity funding rounds, with key investors including Sequoia Capital, Andreessen Horowitz, Google Ventures, D1 Capital Partners, and DST Global. In July 2021, Robinhood went public via an initial public offering (IPO), valuing the company at approximately $32B. Today the company has a market cap of $20.2B and trades at an EV / LTM revenue multiple of 7.4x and an EV / LTM normalized EBITDA multiple of 22.6x. The stock is currently up 85% YTD in 2024. 

 

Transaction Parameters

Robinhood acquired Bitstamp for $200M in an all-cash deal. The deal is subject to regulatory approval and is expected to close in the first half of 2025. 

 

In FCA filings, Bitstamp’s UK entity revenue was $31M in 2022.  We estimate the last twelve months’ revenue of approximately $25M using a trading volume / revenue ratio from historical reported periods.  This results in an EV/revenue multiple of 8x.  This compares to Robinhood’s current equivalent valuation multiple of 7.4x, as highlighted above.

 

This is the middle of the pack for their comparables, but nearly half of Coinbase’s revenue multiple: 

 

        Coinbase: 14.7x Enterprise Value / LTM Revenue Multiple

        Bakkt: 4.6x Enterprise Value / LTM Net Revenue Multiple

        Galaxy: 6.9x Enterprise Value / LTM Revenue Multiple

 

We will update EV / revenue multiple as Robinhood publishes their relevant public filing. The deal represents a significant discount from the $500M valuation in the 2018 majority investment.  

 

Strategic Rationale

Crypto continues to take an increasingly important role in Robinhood’s business, accounting for 20% of total revenue in Q1 2024. Despite receiving a Wells notice from the SEC in May 2024, the company continues to expand its crypto business.  This acquisition instantly expands global reach to ensure participation regardless of US actions. It also expands the institutional offering, which positions Robinhood as one of the few publicly traded crypto-influenced companies that will be able to serve institutions as they come into the digital asset space.

 

Architect Partners’ Observations

Bitstamp is a prime asset due to its long operating history and global licensing reach. We feel Robinhood valued the global reach and the institutional business the most and acquired at a reasonable price.  The stock market reaction was positive as well, trading up 7% on the news.

 

On valuation, this deal is an important marker of the current market, albeit with a small sample size.  Valuations have right-sized again and parties on both sides are beginning to bridge the recent gap in expectations.  The deal also shows the value of cash as a form of consideration to allow the facilitation of transactions.  Often, in today’s M&A market, equity is offered as a large component of consideration, creating a myriad of challenges to transaction completion.

 

For the industry, we view bridge transactions – where traditional finance acquires a crypto-native – as a strongly positive indicator.  Consolidation will continue for crypto exchanges and more traditional finance participants will broaden the potential acquirer universe.  

 

Sources 

PitchBook, Bitstamp Website, Robinhood Website, FCA Filings