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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

UK-Based IG Group Acquires Independent Reserve

Eric Risley
September 26th, 2025
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Transaction Overview

On September 19th, 2025, IG Group, a UK-based trading platform specializing in leveraged trading, acquired a 70% stake in Independent Reserve, an Australian cryptocurrency exchange for A$109.6 million ($72.5 million) in upfront consideration and A$15 million ($9.9 million) in contingent consideration. 

 

Target: Independent Reserve

Independent Reserve is a Sydney-based cryptocurrency exchange founded in 2013 that serves retail, self-managed super funds, and institutional clients in Australia and Singapore.

 

Key offerings include spot trading in 30+ digital assets, multi-currency funding and trading (AUD, SGD, NZD, USD), an OTC desk for large orders, and APIs and workflows tailored to institutions. The firm also touts its ability to be the sole custodian of client’s crypto assets, utilizes cold storage, maintaining  asset segregation and and no rehypothecate. 

 

Independent Reserve’s revenue for the 12 months ended June 30, 2025 was A$35.3 million ($23.2 million), which is up 88% year over year. Furthermore, Independent Reserve custodies A$1.7 billion ($1.1 billion) in assets and has 129,400 funded accounts and 11,600 monthly active customers.

 

Competitors are Caleb & Brown, Swyftx, BTC Markets and Coinspot, all based in Australia,  Coinhako Privé and QCP Trading for regional institutional flow and Coinhako, Crypto.com, and Coinbase in Singapore.

 

Independent Reserves sold a 25% stake in the business to Mike Tilley and KTM Ventures / Capital in 2018.

 

Buyer: IG Group

IG Group is a London-headquartered FTSE 250 online trading and investments company founded in 1974. Through the IG and tastytrade brands it allows its clients to trade via spread betting, contracts for difference, options, forex, and share dealing across roughly 19,000 markets. It broadened its direct-to-consumer reach with the ~$1B tastytrade acquisition in 2021 and a January 2025 agreement to acquire Freetrade for an enterprise value of £160 million ($196 million) funded from existing cash.

 

Clients trade and invest on IG’s own web and mobile platforms, which bundle real-time data, research tools, structured education, and daily tastylive programming to keep users learning and engaged. This content-led approach supports client retention and helps investors progress from basic to advanced strategies. The company operates under local regulation in 16 countries, enabling consistent service with jurisdiction-specific protections and product availability.

 

In 2025 it launched crypto trading in the UK in partnership with Uphold, while in the U.S. tastytrade provides crypto access and custody infrastructure through Zero Hash, including 24/7 stablecoin account funding. The Freetrade transaction completed on 1 April 2025, the UK crypto launch went live in June 2025, and tastytrade’s stablecoin funding capability rolled out in July 2025.

 

For FY25, the year ended 31 May 2025, IG reported total revenue of £1,075.9 million ($1,448.2 million), up 9% year over year, and adjusted profit before tax of £535.8 million ($721.2 million). 

 

Transaction Parameters

IG Group will be acquiring 70% of Independent Reserve, paying A$109.6 million ($72.5 million) upfront, with A$15 million ($9.9 million) being contingent upon performance on June 30th, 2026, for a total of A$124.6 million ($82.5 million). 

 

Finally, IG group has the option to acquire the remaining 30% stake in the future, with valuation being determined by 2027 and 2028 financial performance. The firm, however, has put a maximum cap on the value of the 30% stake of A$160.5 million ($106.2 million). Meaning at most, IG Group would have to pay A$285.1 million ($188.7 million). However, as it stands today, the multiple on the consideration paid upfront, A$109.6 million ($72.5 million) is 3.1x. Finally, the transaction is expected to be cash-EPS accretive in the first full year post-close and to exceed WACC on a three-to-five-year view.

 

Notable similar transactions include Figure Markets | Figure Technology (M&A Alert) Caleb & Brown | Swyftx for $100 – $200M (M&A Alert), WonderFi | Robinhood for $179M (M&A Alert) 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

The deal closes a product gap in a priority region by giving it immediate, licensed exchange and OTC presence in Australia and Singapore, with optionality to expand across Asia Pacific and the Middle East; it keeps Independent Reserve’s leadership and brand, and plans to integrate its product into IG’s trading platforms starting in Australia and Singapore. 

 

Architect Partners’ Observations

While headlines are great, the details matter more. In this case, IG Group is acquiring only 70% of Independent Reserve, and a portion of the closing consideration is being held back and is contingent upon performance in the fiscal year ending June 30, 2026. IG Group has the option to acquire the remaining 30% stake in the future, with the purchase price dependent on financial performance in fiscal years 2027 and 2028.

 

The bottom line: the actual consideration at closing is $72.5 million for control of a business that generated $23.2 million in revenue over the past twelve months, a modest 3.1x revenue multiple. Yes, the structure allows for future payments, the amount of which will depend on future performance. This may result in a higher valuation multiple in retrospect.

 

Why this structure? Almost certainly to bridge a gap between the valuation expectations of the acquirer and the seller. In M&A, there are many ways to create structures that can be win-win if certain future events unfold. In this case, IG Group can acquire the remaining 30% ownership stake at pre-negotiated values that vary with financial performance over the next three years. The shareholders of Independent Reserve are effectively putting that future consideration at risk because they believe they can perform well and “earn” an even better outcome. The nuances here are only partially disclosed, so it’s impossible for an outsider to assess the specifics. However, these types of structures, and the required leap of faith, can be an effective mechanism to align buyer and seller needs.

 

Sources 

PitchBook, IG Group Press Release, Architect Partners Insights.