Why Polygon is buying its way into payments: the Coinme and Sequence deals behind Open Money Stack

Polygon Labs said on October 7 that its Open Money Stack now supports TRON, giving payment companies a licensed bridge between US bank accounts and the largest pool of circulating USDT anywhere on a chain, more than $94 billion in TRC-20 tokens on TRON, by the company’s own count.

The addition is the most visible step so far in a quiet strategy shift: Polygon, the network that says it has processed more than $3 trillion in payments volume as of September 21, is repositioning from a scaling layer into a payments and stablecoin platform, and it is assembling that platform largely by acquisition rather than by building.

Polygon Labs said it began putting the Open Money Stack together through its pending acquisition of Coinme, the licensed fiat ramp operator, and its completed acquisition of Sequence, an enterprise wallet infrastructure firm. Coinme brings the regulated dollar access: fiat on- and off-ramps backed by money-transmitter licenses and compliance infrastructure across 48 US states. Sequence brings the wallet layer and the cross-chain orchestration that lets one integration route USDT between TRON and EVM networks such as Polygon Chain. A business can also create and manage TRON wallets through the same integration, rather than contracting a separate wallet provider for each network.

Dollars can enter through bank transfer, debit card or cash at a retail counter, move into virtual accounts that hold real balances, and settle on-chain under rules the business itself defines, Polygon Labs said. It is the kind of plumbing fintechs previously assembled piecemeal, sponsor bank by sponsor bank, bridge by bridge, and that Polygon now sells as one API.

For a company in that position, the licensed on-ramp is the scarce part. Marc Boiron, CEO of Polygon Labs, framed the TRON addition as a liquidity play: “Polygon Open Money Stack was built so a payment company can plug in once and move money wherever it needs to go. Adding TRON brings one of the deepest pools of USDT liquidity into that same integration, so businesses can move those dollars onto US banking rails or across chains with the licensing and orchestration already handled underneath.”

Justin Sun, founder of TRON, said stablecoins are becoming infrastructure for real-world financial activity, from payments and remittances to treasury management.

Polygon calls TRON support the first phase, with additional assets, markets and payment capabilities expected over time. The Coinme acquisition remains pending, and a closing date has not been announced.