Protocols & Policy · Payments licensing
Polygon Labs says it has closed its acquisition of Coinme, a U.S.-licensed crypto payments company, months after the Q2 2026 target it set in January, when it priced the Coinme and Sequence deals together at more than $250 million, a week after state regulators ordered Coinme to pay $2.5 million and approved the change of control.
Polygon Labs, which describes itself as "a core developer of Polygon", says it has completed its acquisition of Coinme, giving it a U.S. payments business licensed to move customer money in most states. "Today, we're excited to announce that Polygon Labs has completed its acquisition of Coinme," the company wrote in a blog post dated Oct. 14 (source 1).
A money transmitter licence is the state-level permission a company needs to hold and send customers' funds. Crypto firms that convert dollars to stablecoins and back typically need one in each state they serve, or an exemption from it.
The close matters because it moves a blockchain developer onto the regulated side of U.S. payments. Polygon's pitch is that owning the licensed on-ramp, rather than renting one, will win it business from fintechs that want stablecoin payments without building the compliance stack themselves.
The licence count comes from Polygon's own post. "Through its U.S. payments business, Polygon now has coverage across 48 states, with 37 state money transmitter licenses and 11 applicable exemptions," it says. "The business is also registered with FinCEN as a money services business" (source 1).
The two numbers add up to the 48 states: 37 licences plus 11 exemptions. Polygon does not list which states fall into which group, and the post does not name the two states it does not cover.
In January, Polygon described the same reach in Coinme's terms. Coinme "brings money-transmitter licenses and compliance infrastructure that enable operations in 48 U.S. states," the deal release said, along with "a physical fiat-to-crypto network spanning more than 50,000 retail locations" (source 2). Coinme has agreed to shut its crypto kiosks in 34 jurisdictions by Jan. 1, 2027 (source 4). Coinme was founded in 2014, and the release said it "will operate as a wholly owned subsidiary following the close" (source 2).
The deal was announced on Jan. 13, 2026. Polygon Labs said then that it had signed "definitive agreements to acquire Coinme and Sequence for more than $250 million" (source 2). That figure covers both companies. Sequence makes smart wallets and a cross-chain routing engine. Neither the January release nor Polygon's Oct. 14 post gives a price for Coinme alone.
The January release set a timetable: "The Sequence transaction is expected to close this month, with the Coinme transaction expected to close in Q2 2026, subject to customary regulatory approvals and closing conditions" (source 2). The Coinme close announced on Oct. 14 came more than three months after that target window closed on June 30.
Polygon's post gives no reason for the delay. State regulators supplied part of the answer a week earlier. A consent order between Coinme and 34 state agencies, effective Oct. 7, approved the change-of-control notice that Coinme and Polygon Labs Holdings had filed (source 3). The same order requires Coinme to pay $2.5 million, including a $2.2 million penalty, over anti-money-laundering and other compliance failures found in a multistate examination, and requires it to shut its crypto kiosks in the participating states by Jan. 1, 2027, or pay a further $4 million (sources 3 and 4).
Polygon is folding Coinme into what it calls Open Money Stack, a set of payment services: "dollars coming in through banks, cards, or cash deposits, value moving onchain, and funds reaching people where they can use them" (source 1).
The post names four early customers. "Tazapay, Mesh, Toku and Kira are among the first to adopt Polygon OMS for cross-border business payments, account funding, global payroll and U.S. dollar access" (source 1). Tazapay uses its on- and off-ramps and wallets, Mesh adds its on-ramps to its network, Toku uses wallets and payouts for stablecoin payroll, and Kira uses it "to expand the stablecoin options available to its clients" (source 1). The post gives no volumes or revenue for any of them.
Le Coin's view: the licences are the asset, and the customer list is the test. A 37-licence footprint is costly and slow to build, and Coinme's took nine months to change hands, with an enforcement settlement attached. Whether it pays off shows up in volume through those four customers, which Polygon has not yet disclosed.
The checkable next step is disclosure. Polygon has not published the state-by-state split of licences and exemptions or any Open Money Stack volume figures. The consent order says the approval will be reflected in the NMLS within five business days of Oct. 7 (source 3).
Holding the Corner.
Not financial advice.