Polygon CEO Sees Coinme Deal as Entry to Payments Business Led by Visa, Stripe

Polygon Labs CRYPTO:POL expects its regulated payments business to turn profitable in 2027, according to CEO Marc Boiron, as the Cayman Islands-based company moves from building blockchain infrastructure into payment processing, a field led by Visa and Stripe.The developer of the Polygon blockchain completed its acquisition of Coinme on Wednesday. Coinme is a U.S.-regulated crypto payments provider, and the deal lets Polygon convert between cryptocurrencies, stablecoins and traditional money using its own resources. The purchase, announced in January, forms part of a broader shift that includes the Open Money Stack, a framework for stablecoin-based payments and cross-border transfers.Boiron described the company as “a payments-focused company that just uses blockchains to move money,” adding that he no longer thinks of Polygon as competing with other blockchains. The Coinme purchase lets Polygon charge fees for converting and moving money, revenue that previously went to other businesses.Control over customers is the draw. Blockchains supply the technology behind transactions but often have little say over the companies generating them, and customers get handed to third parties whenever money enters or leaves a network. Boiron claimed that rival blockchains have offered payment companies financial incentives to steer their transactions away from Polygon. Running a regulated business, he argued, means no one can redirect those flows, because Polygon now holds the customer relationships.Unlike on-chain transaction fees, which can be fractions of a cent, payments fees scale with the value of the money transferred. Priority fees on the Polygon blockchain are separate and go to validators and stakers. Boiron said transaction fees already offset token emissions, and he estimated that millions of dollars in additional fees go to validators and stakers.The gap with the incumbents is wide. Visa’s payments volume topped $12.3 trillion in fiscal 2025, and Stripe’s reached $1.9 trillion. Competition is also arriving from the other direction. Stripe has been building out stablecoin payments, and Swift is developing blockchain infrastructure with major banks. Visa has added the Polygon blockchain to its stablecoin settlement network and launched a platform that lets banks and fintechs issue, manage and settle stablecoins.The platform’s early users include cross-border payments provider Tazapay, crypto payments network Mesh, payroll platform Toku and payments infrastructure firm Kira.