The blockchain developer Polygon Labs has finalized deals to purchase the crypto startups Coinme and Sequence. The combined purchase price for the two startups exceeded $250 million, yet Polygon Labs declined to reveal how much it paid for each, nor whether the deals were in cash, equity, or a combination of both.
The acquisitions are intended to assist the blockchain network’s stablecoin strategy, stated Polygon Labs CEO Marc Boiron and Polygon Foundation founder Sandeep Nailwal in an interview. Seattle-based Coinme, which specializes in converting cash to crypto and is renowned for its work with crypto ATMs, holds a set of money transmitter licenses in the U.S. Meanwhile, New York-based Sequence develops blockchain infrastructure, including crypto wallets.
Polygon Labs’ acquisitions of the two startups places it in competition with the fintech giant, said Nailwal. Over the past year, the payments giant acquired a, a, and its own blockchain focused on payments. The Stripe acquisitions indicated an intention to own every layer of the stablecoin stack, from the servers that process payments to the accounts where users store crypto.
“In a way, it’s a reverse Stripe,” Nailwal said regarding Polygon’s stablecoin move. Stripe first acquired its stablecoin startups and then built its own blockchain. In contrast, Polygon already has a long-established network of blockchains and is bringing in startups to build on top of it. “Polygon Labs is becoming a full-fledged fintech company,” said Nailwal.
Stablecoin shift
The push by Polygon Labs into payments comes amidst a wave of hype for stablecoins, or cryptocurrencies pegged to real-world assets such as the U.S. dollar. Especially after President Donald Trump signed into law in July a new bill regulating the tokens, even banks have said they’ll develop their own stablecoins, which proponents claim are an improvement over decades-old financial infrastructure.
Polygon Labs, whose blockchain network sits atop Ethereum, aims to ride this wave of enthusiasm. Best known for its prominence during the NFT boom of 2021 and 2022, Polygon has made substantial investments in payments over the past year, even hiring Stripe’s head of crypto, John Egan.
The deal for Coinme, its latest payments venture, was between $100 and $125 million, according to CoinDesk, which implies the price for Sequence was between $125 and $150 million. However, Boiron, the CEO of Polygon Labs, disputed the reporting. “Almost everything CoinDesk wrote in that article is incorrect,” he said.
He also stated that he wasn’t concerned about Coinme’s legal issues. In 2025, regulators in and targeted the crypto company for violations including a failure to prevent customers from withdrawing more than $1,000 a day from the firm’s affiliated crypto ATMs. Washington regulators sought to stay a cease-and-desist order against Coinme a month after going after the startup.
“I think they go well beyond what is necessary,” said Boiron, referring to Coinme’s compliance regime. “On the back end, the way they handle limiting risk to users, I think is top-notch.”