Polygon Pushes Into Regulated Payments With Open Money Stack

Remy: Polygon Labs is betting that the future of blockchain isn't just code and is rebooting as a regulated U.S. payments platform. Now, the pivot to the so-called open money stack does signal a shift. Polygon is no longer just building the plumbing for digital assets. That is now going head to head with the settlement reels traditionally dominated by global payments processors. Joining me this morning is Marc Boiron, CEO of Polygon Labs. Marc good morning. Thank you so much for joining us. Well Polygon is moving into regulated payments. So tell us why this is the right business play now.

Marc: Yeah. Thanks for having me. So I think this is really important for blockchains to recognize in general is that when you think about a blockchain it's really just another database. And database themselves are completely commoditized. What you want to do is actually create some value on top of that. And from our perspective, when we look at it and we see a blockchain, we don't see a blockchain that necessarily is great for payments. When we look at a blockchain in general. Instead, what you actually want to do is you want to create value. On top of that, you want to create services that are going to make it useful to actually move money. So from our perspective, when we look at whether it's stablecoins or tokenized deposits, what we want is we want the ability to not just move it on a blockchain easily, but also on-ramp it easily off-ramp and easily hold it in a wallet, easily burn off of it easily. All of these things end up being really important, and that's core to like the change that we're making at Polygon.

Remy: Yeah. And Mark, as you mentioned for years, you've been working on the plumbing side for other people's apps, and now you're spending to buy the cash machines as well as the digital wallets. So for our viewers, can you walk us through what it means to get into the regulated U.S. payment space in 2026, and what that looks like beyond this year?

Marc: Yeah, sure. So I think one of the big things with our acquisition of Coinme is that we also acquired licenses that allow us to do business in 48 different states. And the important thing here is that we are able to provide services that are very unique for a blockchain to provide. Usually when you think of a blockchain, you're very limited in what you can do because you're not regulated. And so when it comes to actually taking, you know, fiat, whether that's in physical or digital, and actually moving that onto the chain, which is where people want, you're limited in doing it. And usually you're doing integrations that don't actually get very deeply integrated into the chain with our acquisition of Coinme, now we have the flexibility to two really important things. One is bringing that digital money on-chain, but also bring that physical money on-chain. And in both of those cases, what that means is that, you know, any normal consumer, but also any business now has the ability to say, okay, I have money in a bank and I actually want to transfer it in a better way than currently exists. rather than needing to rely on like some, some app or, you know, the corresponding banking system, I'm instead going to rely on a blockchain.

And with this deep integration, you know, through the click of a button, I can both onboard and send my money anywhere around the world, rather than having it limited to certain regions or locales that that are being supported.

Remy: Yeah. So let's take a look at the competition. Does this pivot that you've made: does it mean you're no longer competing with, say, Solana but with Wall Street instead? And what is the outlook moving forward? And what about the landscape moving ahead compared to say, last year?

Marc: Yeah, sure. I think from a competitiveness perspective, you know, I think there's zero doubt that there is a new set of competitors that we're dealing with. But most importantly, my view is that stablecoins are going to eat up the existing payment ramps that exist. Right. And so when we fast forward five years from now, ten years from now, you're going to be moving, you know, quadrillions of dollars on-chain on a yearly basis. And really those existing rails that are being used are very inefficient, both from a cost opaqueness and speed perspective. And so really the question is who is being replaced when we move that money on-chain. And most importantly, it's not just about like replacing. It's all about working together. Because when you move the money on-chain, yes, there are some losers, but those losers have new opportunities. And what we're looking to do is actually partner with those who are going to be seeing the business model change and actually help them bring that money on-chain. So while there is a competitive nature to what we're doing, there's actually a lot of collaboration. And I think that's generally true in the payment space in general, and it's one that is going to be a big opportunity for us. So when we look at, you know, 2026 and forwards, it's really an opportunity to partner with, you know, existing institutions that exist as well as new players and help them bring money on-chain so that it can be transferred in a better way than it happens today. And that's going to create massive opportunities both for Polygon and for those existing players.

Remy: Yeah. And speaking of opportunity, as you mentioned here on Wall Street, all eyes are on institutional adoption. But large corporations do want that blockchain speed but need regulatory certainty as well as clarity. So how do you see progress in DC as we move forward into the rest of 2026?

Marc: I think the reality is that when dealing with payments, regulations are at the core of what you're doing, and that is true whether you're dealing with, you know, blockchains where you're dealing with stablecoins that have an off chain component or whether you're dealing with like ramps related to it. And so the regulations end up being very important. And we've seen this play out when we look at the GENIUS act, for example, the role that it played in making stablecoins proliferate the way that it has. I think that continues to be true both in DC and globally. And so there's opportunities both to restrict what is currently happening that could be harmful to the industry, but there's also opportunities to actually continue to help it grow. We're seeing this discussion in a meaningful way around the, you know, the ability of stablecoin issuers to actually share any kind of yields, for example, with holders of that token, you know, that that really changes the paradigm if that's something that is able to be done. Whereas today when you hold any money anywhere, you're not really burning on it. if you're holding in the form of a stablecoin and you could earn on it, that would completely change things.

Now a lot of discussion is whether that is actually necessary for stablecoins to thrive. And my perspective is it's not right. Any technology is something that will get adopted if it is better than what currently exists And I think stablecoins are a 10x better way of moving money around the world than the current money that we have. And so while I think the regulations are really important as an enabler, I think once we get to this point where stablecoins can be transferred and are understood to be something that is actually enabled by regulations, whether we add something on top in terms of of, you know, yield, being able to be shared, I think becomes less important.

Remy: Well,Marc, we will have to leave it there for today. But always great talking to you. Thank you so much for joining us. And thank you so much for all of your insights as well as perspective.

Marc: Thank you for having me.