Polygon CEO: There are already more blockchains than the world has use for

​The hype around blockchain has long faded, and the crypto industry is increasingly focused on practical uses of the technology. Instead of bold promises, the market is looking at what already works. In an interview with Traders Union, Polygon Labs CEO Marc Boiron explained why the world no longer needs more blockchains, how stablecoins are changing payments and what role AI could play in this shift.

Blockchain has moved beyond the hype era

Around 10 years ago, blockchain was presented as a universal solution for almost every industry. Some companies even added the word “blockchain” to their names in an effort to attract investors.

Since then, much of the noise surrounding that wave has faded, and the market has become much better at separating working products from compelling stories.

“The companies that added blockchain to their names were looking for short-term bumps by selling a story, and the ones still standing today have been focused on long-term value, including use cases like payments.”

Boiron sees stablecoins as the most useful result the industry has produced so far. In his view, payments are where blockchain’s practical value is now most visible.

“Once the hype cleared, what remained was a settlement system that can move a dollar across the internet the way an email moves, at any hour and at very low cost.”

Memecoins do not define the market

Even after tighter regulation, crypto remains a market where new tokens can appear almost instantly. Platforms such as Pump.fun allow hundreds of memecoins to be launched in a short period of time.

Boiron does not see this as evidence that the crypto industry has failed to mature. He compares such projects with spam websites from the early days of the internet: their existence did not stop more useful services from developing.

“You could always register a website in a few minutes, and nobody took the spam sites as proof the internet never grew up.”

In his view, simple and speculative products often attract users during the early stages of a new technology. Over time, however, more practical applications account for a greater share of meaningful economic activity.

“In 2017 people bet on white papers turning into something real, but today there are clear use cases driving value, like onchain money movement.”

The market does not need more blockchains

Polygon has increasingly focused on payments and stablecoins rather than expanding blockchain infrastructure. Boiron believes the market has reached a point where simply adding more networks changes very little.

“There are already more blockchains than the world has use for, while sending a dollar across a border still takes days and costs far too much.”

Demand for better payments existed long before crypto, he says. The main challenge today is not moving a token itself, but connecting onchain money with the traditional banking system.

This is the role Polygon sees for Open Money Stack, infrastructure designed to bring together wallets, compliance, public blockchains and connections to the fiat banking system.

“Moving a token is easy, but moving a token in the form of onchain money in a way that is useful when interacting with traditional money is difficult.”

Why Polygon wants Coinme

In early 2026, Polygon Labs agreed to acquire U.S.-based Coinme. The deal is still awaiting regulatory approval, so Boiron is primarily assessing it in terms of its future potential.

Coinme’s main asset is its licenses and access to the traditional U.S. financial system. Boiron says technology can be built relatively quickly, while securing the permissions needed to handle people’s money takes much longer.

“You can write better code in a few months, and it takes years to earn the licenses that let you touch people's dollars.”

For Polygon, the deal primarily means that this infrastructure would not have to be built from scratch. The company would be able to combine its own blockchain technology with Coinme’s existing connections to the banking system.

“Every onchain payment eventually has to land in someone's bank account, and Coinme has spent years building licensed connections into the United States financial system.”

Tokenization starts with money

Tokenizing stocks, bonds and real estate has become one of the most widely discussed themes in the industry. However, Boiron believes the market will move gradually, and tokenization by itself does not automatically create demand for an asset.

“Putting a building on a blockchain does not create a single new buyer for the building as a practical matter but some assets like stocks could expand buyers into new markets that otherwise do not have access to it.”

For some assets, such as stocks, tokenization could expand access for investors in countries and regions where traditional markets remain difficult to reach.

Boiron believes money has already gone through the first stage of tokenization through stablecoins. The next step could involve instruments where fast settlement and the ability to use assets as collateral are especially important.

“Stablecoins and tokenized money market funds are working because institutions need cash and collateral that move at any hour, and tokenized securities become far more useful once they can settle against tokenized dollars in the same moment.”

Blockchain should become invisible to users

Complex wallets, different networks and transaction fees remain among the main obstacles to mass crypto adoption. But Boiron believes users should not have to understand any of that infrastructure.

He draws a parallel with the banking system, where most people do not know how payments actually move between banks.

“Nobody thinks about the ACH system when they pay their rent, and nobody should have to think about a blockchain when they send money home.”

The same principle, Boiron believes, should apply to blockchain technology inside familiar financial services.

“The best blockchain payment experience will look like an ordinary banking app, because in most cases it will be one.”

Boiron compares this with the internet: billions of people use email and shop online without understanding the protocols that make those services work.

Bitcoin and stablecoins have taken different roles

Bitcoin is often described as a future form of money, but in practice it is now used much more often as a store of value. Boiron believes that role has largely become established.

“Bitcoin is the asset people hold, and it is now known for being digital gold. Stablecoins are the money people move.”

Bitcoin’s main weakness as a payment tool is volatility. The value of a purchase can change sharply over a short period, which is why users tend to prefer assets linked to the dollar or euro for everyday spending.

Stablecoins, meanwhile, are already particularly useful in places where traditional cross-border transfers remain expensive or slow.

“Blockchain money is already everyday money for a freelancer in Lagos paid by a client in London, and the rest of the world will get there through the banks it already uses as they plug stablecoin rails in underneath their products.”

The next stage, in his view, will not involve people moving en masse to standalone crypto wallets, but banks themselves beginning to use stablecoins inside their existing products.

AI agents could move to stablecoins

Another area where blockchain could find practical use is AI agents. Such systems can already pay for services, computing and data on their own, while traditional payment infrastructure was built primarily for people.

Boiron believes this could become a new source of demand for stablecoins.

“The most lasting convergence will be in payments, with stablecoins becoming the money AI agents use to transact.”

AI agents can carry out large numbers of transactions around the clock, while card networks often rely on batch settlement and were designed around normal human purchasing patterns.

“An agent paying for compute and data around the clock needs funds that are always available and payments that stream in real time, and stablecoins deliver both.”

At the same time, Boiron does not believe every crypto company adding AI to its product is creating something genuinely new. He sees similarities with the previous wave of blockchain hype.

“As for crypto companies adding AI, many are attaching it to their names the way others once attached blockchain, and the value will go to the ones with a real need to move money.”

Ultimately, Boiron sees the next stage of blockchain development not in the creation of more networks, but in how seamlessly the technology can become part of familiar financial services. Payments, stablecoins and transactions involving AI agents are, in his view, areas where that transition is already beginning.