Original | Odaily Planet Daily (@OdailyChina)
Author | DingDang (@XiaMiPP)
On January 13, Polygon Labs announced the completion of its acquisition of cryptocurrency startups Coinme and Sequence, with a total acquisition price exceeding $250 million. However, Polygon Labs declined to disclose the specific purchase price for each company and did not specify whether the transactions were conducted in cash, equity, or a combination of both. Based on the information currently disclosed, the deals will be executed in phases: the Sequence-related transaction is expected to be finalized within this month, while the Coinme acquisition awaits regulatory approval and is projected to be completed by the second quarter of 2026 at the earliest.
"Counter-Cyclical Moves" During a Downturn
Polygon Labs CEO Marc Boiron and Polygon Foundation founder Sandeep Nailwal stated that these acquisitions aim to support the network's stablecoin strategy. Specifically, Polygon has been actively promoting the adoption of stablecoins but lacks localized regulatory infrastructure. The acquisition of Coinme is intended to fill this gap. As a U.S.-based crypto financial company, Coinme holds money transmitter licenses across multiple states and operates a Bitcoin ATM network. This means Polygon can leverage Coinme's existing compliance framework to bypass lengthy approval processes and directly enter the highly regulated U.S. market. Coinme will continue to operate its existing businesses, including its crypto exchange, wallet, and Crypto-as-a-Service offerings, as a wholly-owned subsidiary of Polygon Labs.
The value of Sequence lies more in blockchain wallet and developer infrastructure. In the Web3 context, wallets are not just asset storage tools but also the gateway for users to enter the entire on-chain world. Their security, usability, and scalability directly determine whether the network can support larger-scale users and capital. Polygon's acquisition of Sequence is, in a way, pre-building the "user-side" infrastructure for its stablecoin strategy.
From this perspective, these two acquisitions by Polygon represent upstream and downstream布局布局 (bùjú - layout/arrangement)围绕 the same goal: one end is the compliance channel, and the other is the user entry point.
Zooming out to the broader industry, amidst the continued contraction of the L2 ecosystem and a sluggish market, Polygon has chosen to be proactive and self-rescue, continuously investing resources in integration and expansion. Behind these counter-cyclical moves lies a core principle of "compliance first," attempting to complete the transition from "crypto infrastructure" to "financial infrastructure" ahead of others in the increasingly stringent global regulatory environment, thereby attracting more traditional capital and institutional users and solidifying its moat.
On-Chain Data: Not All L2s Are in Decline
Beyond strategic布局布局 (bùjú - layout/arrangement), Polygon's on-chain data performance is also strong. According to defillama.com's public chain revenue data for the past 30 days, Polygon ranks seventh, maintaining a certain resilience in the fiercely competitive public chain赛道 (sàidào - track/field).
Of course, the overall gap remains significant. Top-ranked Tron has a monthly revenue of $27.9 million, while tenth-ranked Sui has only $360,000—a difference of over 77 times. Reality is quickly淘汰 (táotài - eliminating) public chain projects that "tell stories but lack real demand." Even Zero Network, an L2 network incubated by Web3 wallet company Zerion which raised $22.5 million, has stopped producing blocks for over 3 weeks.
In this context, Polygon is at least still "active at the table."
The Truth Behind the Revenue Surge: Polymarket's Short-Term Push
However, it must be noted that the significant growth in Polygon's fee revenue only became apparent starting in early 2026. According to data disclosed by Castle Labs on January 13, Polygon's current monthly revenue is接近 (jiējìn - approaching) $1.7 million.
The main driver of this revenue growth comes from Polymarket. Since its 15-minute price prediction market (where users bet on whether the price of mainstream coins like BTC, ETH, SOL, XRP will rise or fall in the next 15 minutes, settling every 15 minutes) started charging fees, the Polygon network's daily revenue once reached $100,000.
More importantly, Polygon employs a fee-burning mechanism typical of PoS networks: the higher the transaction volume, the more tokens are burned, creating a deflationary effect. Since the beginning of the year, Polygon has burned approximately 12.5 million POL tokens, worth about $1.5 million, representing roughly 0.12% of the total supply.
Projecting based on the current pace, if this trend continues, the burn rate for 2026 could reach about 3.5%, significantly higher than the staking reward annual issuance rate of about 1.5%. The burn volume is already more than twice the staking rewards distributed, resulting in a net supply reduction.
Although Polymarket confirmed via its Discord community in late December 2025 that it would migrate to its own built Ethereum Layer 2 (named POLY), the migration is not immediate. In the short term, Polygon will still benefit from Polymarket's high activity, accelerating the deflationary effect and thus benefiting the POL price.
For further analysis of the correlation between the two, see: 《The Economic Calculus Behind Polymarket's Exit from Polygon》.
Conclusion
Overall, Polygon's current surge in transaction fees and token burning still largely relies on the阶段性 (jiēduàn xìng - phased/periodic) prosperity brought by Polymarket. However, its long-term strategy focused on stablecoin payments and real-world financial infrastructure is also gradually being implemented.
This is perhaps the most noteworthy aspect of Polygon at this moment: short-term data provides market confidence, while long-term布局布局 (bùjú - layout/strategy) determines whether it can remain in the next round of competition.
