Polygon $250 million dual acquisition: from payment gateway to experience upgrade, a full-chain layout

January 13, 2024, Polygon Labs announced the completion of a dual acquisition of payment infrastructure Coinme and development platform Sequence, totaling over $250 million. This seemingly simple capital operation actually reflects deeper changes in the competition within the L2 track—shifting from focusing on underlying technical parameters to emphasizing ecosystem completeness.

Completing the Payment Loop: How Coinme Changes Polygon’s Ambitions

Founded in 2014, Coinme is the “hidden champion” of compliant crypto payments in the United States. The company was among the first to launch licensed Bitcoin ATMs in the U.S., collaborating deeply with traditional retail giants like Coinstar and MoneyGram, establishing over 50,000 cash exchange networks across 48 states.

What does this mean? It means Polygon instantly gained a nationwide fiat on/off ramp. Coinme’s remittance license (regulated by NMLS) allows Polygon to convert real-world dollars and cash into on-chain assets within a compliant framework, and vice versa. In 2024, Coinme’s transaction volume exceeded $1 billion and turned profitable for the first time, demonstrating that this compliant payment model has genuine demand.

For Polygon, this solves the last mile of its stablecoin strategy—users no longer need to rely on centralized exchanges to complete the full process of “fiat → stablecoin → on-chain application.”

Simplifying On-Chain Experience: Sequence Makes Blockchain “Invisible”

If Coinme addresses “how to get in,” then Sequence addresses “how to use after entering.”

The core innovation of Sequence is Account Abstraction, making wallet behavior more akin to Web2 applications. Specifically: users don’t need to remember lengthy private keys and can use social recovery; users don’t need to worry about Gas fees, as the system automatically pays; users also don’t need to manually switch chains—one account can interact across multiple chains.

The key technology here is called Trails, which is Sequence’s cross-chain orchestration engine. Users only need to express their intent, such as “I want to transfer assets from Chain A to Chain B,” and Trails will automatically scan all possible paths, compare costs, and find the optimal solution, all without user awareness.

Combined with Polygon’s network infrastructure, the end-user experience becomes: one account, one identity, one click, crossing multiple chains, protocols, and assets. This is Polygon’s direct response to Coinbase Wallet’s user experience.

Open Money Stack: From Loosely Connected to Tight Integration

Polygon Labs CEO Marc Boiron and Foundation founder Sandeep Nailwal revealed that the ultimate goal of this acquisition is the Open Money Stack strategy—a four-layer complete architecture:

Deposit/Withdrawal Layer: Coinme’s compliant network handles bidirectional conversion between cash and on-chain assets, seamlessly integrating ATM withdrawals and bank transfers.

Wallet Layer: Sequence’s smart wallet and account abstraction technology bring user experience back to internet-level simplicity, enabling transactions without needing blockchain knowledge.

Cross-Chain Layer: Trails engine + Polygon’s interoperability protocol make value flow completely transparent to users, supporting transactions across any chain and token.

Settlement Layer: Polygon’s network and scalability solutions provide efficient, low-cost on-chain settlement infrastructure, supporting commercial-scale payments and fund management.

Additionally, modules like stablecoin orchestration, compliance review, and identity verification will be integrated, forming a complete “open financial stack.”

The Focus of L2 Competition Has Shifted: Full-Stack Integration as New Competitiveness

This $250 million investment sends an important signal: The competition in the L2 space has long gone beyond underlying technical parameters.

As TPS, cost, and security metrics of mainstream L2s like Arbitrum, Optimism, and Polygon gradually converge, the decisive factor is ecosystem completeness—how well you can provide users with a comprehensive one-stop service.

Polygon’s move aligns with Coinbase’s support for Base: Coinbase leverages its exchange advantages and Wallet ecosystem to build a complete “on/off ramp → wallet → interaction” chain for Base; Polygon, through acquiring Coinme and Sequence, reproduces this closed loop within an independent ecosystem.

Ecosystems with compliant channels are more attractive to traditional financial users, while ecosystems with low-threshold experiences are more effective at onboarding Web2 users. Combining both creates an unstoppable growth flywheel. Polygon is building its own moat through this series of strategic acquisitions, competing with centralized exchanges like Base.

This is no longer a race of “whose technology is faster,” but a contest of “who can offer the most complete on-chain lifestyle.”