Polygon Labs Finalizes Coinme Deal for US Stablecoin Payments

TLDR

• Polygon Labs completed its acquisition of Coinme, a licensed crypto exchange and cash-to-crypto platform.
• The deal gives Polygon’s US payments business coverage in 48 states through 37 money transmitter licenses and 11 exemptions.
• The business is also registered with FinCEN as a money services business.
• Polygon agreed in January to buy Coinme and Sequence for more than $250 million combined.
• Tazapay, Mesh, Toku and Kira are among the first companies using Polygon’s Open Money Stack.

Polygon Labs has completed its purchase of Coinme. The deal gives the blockchain company a regulated way to move money between US dollars and digital assets.

Polygon announced the news on Wednesday, Oct. 14. The company said its US payments business now has regulatory coverage across 48 states.

That coverage comes through 37 state money transmitter licenses and 11 state exemptions. The business is also registered with the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, known as FinCEN, as a money services business.

What Polygon Gets From Coinme

Coinme is a licensed crypto exchange and cash-to-crypto platform. It lets users buy and sell digital assets using cash, debit cards and bank transfers.

When the deal was first announced, Coinme had more than one million users. Its retail network covered about 50,000 locations, according to Polygon.

Polygon first revealed plans to buy Coinme in January. At the same time, it agreed to buy Sequence, a wallet infrastructure provider. The two deals were worth more than $250 million combined.

Polygon also cut some roles at Polygon Labs at that time. CEO Marc Boiron said the company needed its team to become a “leading payments-focused blockchain company.”

Polygon is an Ethereum scaling network. The Coinme licenses now support its payments platform, called Open Money Stack.

How the Open Money Stack Works

Open Money Stack combines digital wallets, payment routing, blockchain settlement and banking connections. Polygon says businesses can use it to handle the full life of a payment.

That process can start with a business accepting dollars through bank transfers, cards or cash deposits. The payment can then settle on the blockchain and be paid out in local currencies.

Polygon says businesses can do all of this through a single connection. This replaces the need to work with several separate infrastructure providers.

Four companies are among the first to use the platform. They are Tazapay, Mesh, Toku and Kira.

Tazapay is a cross-border payments company. It serves more than 1,000 businesses and fintech firms in over 30 countries and is adding Polygon’s wallet and currency conversion tools.

Mesh is a crypto payments network linking more than 300 wallets, exchanges and financial services. It is adding Polygon’s tools that let users fund crypto transactions with regular money.

Toku is a global payroll provider. It is using Polygon’s wallet and payout tools so workers can receive stablecoin pay and turn it into local currency.

Kira is an AI-powered financial services platform. It is using Open Money Stack to offer stablecoins alongside US banking services, including ACH, Fedwire and FedNow payments.

Rahul Shinghal, co-founder and CEO of Tazapay, said Open Money Stack gives businesses “a more direct route between stablecoins and local currency.”

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