Polygon Cuts 30% Workforce, Acquires Coinme for Stablecoin Platform

Polygon Labs is undergoing a significant restructuring, cutting its workforce by 30% while investing over $250 million to acquire Coinme and Sequence. This strategic shift aims to transition from general-purpose scaling to a regulated stablecoin payments platform.

POL is trading at $0.14, down 6% following the announcement.
Coinme operates as a licensed crypto cash exchange with a wide physical presence through 50,000+ retail locations.
Sequence provides wallet and cross-chain orchestration infrastructure to reduce user friction.
The acquisition's combined value exceeds $250 million.
The company sees this move as clearing the way for new teams and focusing on becoming a regulated payments platform for stablecoin transactions.

Polygon is shifting its focus away from competing on speed and liquidity against other Layer 2 solutions like Base and Arbitrum. Instead, it aims to become the "Stripe of Web3" by leveraging regulatory licenses and physical distribution channels for remittances and settlements.

This strategic change may lead to short-term selling pressure on POL as it transitions from a technology-driven valuation to a utility-based model.