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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 Acquiring WonderFi for C$250M

John Kennick
May 15th, 2025
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Transaction Overview

On May 13th, 2025, Robinhood, a leading online brokerage platform, announced a definitive agreement to acquire WonderFi Technologies, a Canada-based owner and operator of several regulated cryptocurrency platforms. The deal is valued at C$250M (US$179M) and is expected to close in the second half of 2025.

 

Target: WonderFi Technologies

WonderFi, founded in 2021 and headquartered in Toronto, Canada, is a regulated digital asset platform that owns, operates, develops, and invests in blockchain-based financial products. The firm offers access to cryptocurrency trading, staking, and decentralized finance solutions for both retail and institutional clients. WonderFi’s core products include: 1) Bitbuy, a Canadian cryptocurrency trading platform offering trading, staking, and OTC services to advanced traders and corporate clients; 2) Coinsquare, a cryptocurrency trading platform catered more directly to retail investors; 3) SmartPay, a payment solution enabling businesses to accept crypto payments and convert them to fiat currency; and 4) WonderFi Labs, the company’s development arm focused on building future applications and expanding offerings, including Wonder, a layer 2 blockchain built on Ethereum, and WonderFiWallet, a non-custodial wallet that will connect to WonderL2.

 

Since 2021, WonderFi Technologies has raised a total of C$114.1M through both public offerings and private placements. WonderFi is 78% publicly owned, with Mogo Inc., the largest single active investor, owning 13% of the company.

 

Buyer: Robinhood

Robinhood, founded in 2013, is a publicly listed brokerage platform headquartered in Menlo Park, CA. The platform has grown from allowing individuals to trade stocks and ETFs to stock options, index options, futures contracts, and cryptocurrency. Robinhood also offers cash management services such as direct deposit capabilities and debit cards.

 

In 2018, Robinhood established Robinhood Crypto, which enabled users to trade various cryptocurrencies on the exchange. Since then, Robinhood has steadily increased the number of cryptocurrencies and stablecoins available for trading on its platform, both in the US and abroad, a goal made evident by its June 2024 acquisition of Bitstamp, a European crypto exchange, for $200M.

 

Robinhood currently has a $46B enterprise value, with $3.26B in trailing twelve-month revenue ended March 2025 (14.1× EV / Revenue multiple) and $1.35B in trailing twelve-month EBITDA (34.1× EV / EBITDA multiple).

 

Transaction Parameters

The acquisition will be an all-cash buyout valued at US$179M. Shareholders will receive C$0.36 per share, representing a 41% premium on WonderFi’s May 12 closing price and a 4.0x valuation/revenue multiple based on ~C$62.1M in revenue following FY 2024, and a 20.8x EBITDA multiple based on ~C$12M in FY 2024 Adjusted EBITDA.

 

Notable similar transactions include Coinbase | Deribit for $2.9B (M&A Alert),  Hidden Road | Ripple (M&A Alert), NinjaTrader | Kraken for $1.5B (M&A Alert), FairX | Coinbase (M&A Alert), and

Robinhood | Bitstamp for $200M (M&A Alert). 

 

Strategic Rationale

This transaction offers Robinhood entry into the Canadian cryptocurrency market by leveraging WonderFi’s established user base, regulatory licenses, and platforms such as Bitbuy and Coinsquare, which collectively hold C$2.1B in assets under custody. Additionally, Robinhood’s revenue streams will likely be bolstered and diversified by WonderFi’s growth in crypto trading volumes, which increased by 28% in FY 2024. Finally, the acquisition allows Robinhood to enhance its crypto offerings by gaining advanced infrastructure in staking and wallet services, supporting Robinhood’s goal of becoming a comprehensive financial services platform.

 

Architect Partners’ Observations

The move is part of a larger “growth via acquisition” strategy that we’re seeing larger players enact, partly due to increased cash generation over the past several quarters and regulatory optimism.

 

Robinhood has been farther on the risk spectrum for crypto trading and is cementing its lead against TradFi brokerages (several large players do not offer crypto trading yet). While crypto is being treated as just another asset to trade, the volatility and the lighter regulatory best-execution frameworks mean it can be a more profitable segment for trading firms.

 

For Robinhood, it not only gives access to Canada as a market but can also boost its “share of wallet.” They can cross-sell trading in other assets to WonderFi clients, further eroding competitors that are slow to react. The price of the deal is a bit low at 4X; but considering it’s an all-cash deal, the premium can quickly decrease. It is at a 71% premium over the 30 VWAP (volume-weighted average).

 

Firms approach consolidation on an account basis, and Robinhood is paying ~$105 per account (regardless of activity) or ~$1,400 per active account. Coinbase, based on 2024 numbers, is roughly $550 per active account. So, considering lifetime value, this is a reasonable deal for Robinhood.

 

Stepping back and widening the aperture, we see larger players continuing to look for consolidation opportunities. Even though Coinbase, Kraken, and Robinhood have recently announced acquisitions, we feel there are more consolidation plays to come this year.

 

Sources

Robinhood Press Release, WonderFi, WonderFi Investor Deck,  2024 Q4 Report, Pitchbook, Factset