Polygon Labs has completed its acquisition of Coinme, a U.S.-regulated cryptocurrency payments provider, as the blockchain company attempts to move deeper into payment processing and build a business that it expects to become profitable in 2027.
The deal gives Polygon control over more of the process linking cryptocurrencies, stablecoins and traditional currencies. Chief Executive Marc Boiron told CoinDesk that the acquisition should allow Polygon to retain customer relationships and collect payment fees that previously went to intermediaries.
The move marks a change in how Polygon describes its business. Rather than focusing only on providing blockchain infrastructure, the company now wants to offer a broader payments service that uses blockchain technology to transfer money. Its ambition puts it in an industry where established companies such as Visa and Stripe process payment volumes that are far larger than Polygon’s current activity.
Coinme expands Polygon’s role
Polygon Labs, the developer of the Polygon blockchain, said it had completed the purchase of Coinme on Wednesday. Coinme is regulated in the United States and provides crypto-payment services, giving Polygon an existing capability to manage conversions between digital assets and government-issued currencies.
That capability addresses a structural limitation faced by blockchain networks. A blockchain can provide the underlying infrastructure for a transaction, but the network itself may not control the businesses that bring customers into the system or take them out of it. When funds move between a blockchain and the traditional financial system, customers may instead be handed to a separate payments provider.
Boiron said Polygon previously had limited control over those customer relationships and over what happened to payment flows. With Coinme operating as part of the group, Polygon can handle more of the conversion and transfer process itself. The company also expects to capture fees tied to the value of money moving through the system, rather than relying only on the much smaller fees generated by blockchain transactions.
Polygon introduced its Open Money Stack in January. The framework is intended to support stablecoin-based payments and make cross-border transfers more streamlined. The Coinme acquisition adds a regulated payments business to that broader effort.
A small entrant in a huge market
Polygon expects its regulated payments business to become profitable next year, in 2027. However, the company is entering a market dominated by large and established payment networks.
Visa recorded more than $12.3 trillion in payments volume during fiscal 2025, according to the source material, while Stripe processed $1.9 trillion. Those figures illustrate the scale of the businesses Polygon would be challenging as it expands beyond blockchain infrastructure.
The competitive pressure also runs in the opposite direction. Traditional payment companies are developing their own blockchain and stablecoin capabilities. Stripe has been expanding its stablecoin payments activities. Swift, the global interbank messaging service, is working on blockchain infrastructure with major banks. Visa has expanded its stablecoin settlement network to include Polygon and other blockchains, while also launching a platform for banks and fintech companies to issue, manage and settle stablecoins.
That means Polygon’s challenge is no longer limited to persuading companies to use its blockchain. It must also persuade them to use Polygon Labs as the provider that manages their money transfers and related payment services.
Platform remains in technical preview
Polygon’s unified payments platform is not yet generally available. It remains in technical preview and is being used by a small group of early customers.
Those users include Tazapay, a cross-border payments provider; Mesh, a crypto payments network; Toku, a global payroll platform; and Kira, a payments infrastructure company. Their participation gives Polygon early users for its integrated service, but the platform’s limited availability shows that the business is still at an early stage.
Revenue from this operation would be distinct from transaction fees on the Polygon blockchain. The source material says blockchain priority fees are distributed to validators and stakers, and Boiron said those fees already offset Polygon’s token emissions. He also estimated that millions of dollars in additional fees go to validators and token stakers.
Payment-processing fees work differently because they can be calculated from the value transferred, rather than being limited to the fractions-of-a-cent fees that can apply to blockchain transactions. Polygon’s strategy is therefore to add a higher-value service around the network it already operates.
Moneyiar market picture
Moneyiar data at 21:28-21:29 on Oct. 17, 2026, showed Polygon’s former MATIC token, now listed as POL, at $0.0926538227. POL was down 2% over 24 hours and 8.61% over seven days.
Other assets in the supplied market snapshot were also weaker over the seven-day period: Aptos stood at $0.7997279839, down 5.17% in 24 hours and 7.85% over seven days, while Cap was $0.0737314393, up 1.51% over 24 hours but down 18.96% over seven days. The market data does not provide a price for the separate Polygon/MATIC listing.
