Talking Tokens Building Payment Rails That Banks & Fintech Actually Want to Use | Marc Boiron
In this episode of Talking Tokens, Jacquelyn Melinek speaks with Marc Boiron, CEO of Polygon Labs, about the company's expansion into payments through its new Open Money Stack and why connecting onchain systems to real world finance is critical for keeping capital onchain. Marc explains why blockchains, stablecoins, and wallets are converging to make payments easier than traditional correspondent banking networks, and how Polygon's acquisitions of Coinme and Sequence can create a unified API for enterprises.
He walks through why general purpose blockchains can't excel at everything, how Polygon is doubling down on its payments reputation, and why the next inflection point happens when merchants, businesses, and developing countries adopt stablecoins at scale. The conversation covers cross-border payments, FX markets, enterprise treasury strategies, the future of Visa and SWIFT, and why blockchain infrastructure will capture hundreds of billions in network value over the next decade.
TIMESTAMPS
(00:00) – Intro
(01:17) – Why payments are finally having its moment
(02:24) – Banking networks and their unanswered questions
(03:40) – Stablecoins providing certainty on fees, arrival time and transaction visibility
(04:05) – How banks view stablecoins as risk vs opportunity
(05:20) – Timeline for bank adoption: JPMorgan's Kinexys and chains in 2026
(06:39) – Stablecoins growing beyond trading to cross-border payments and dollar access
(07:42) – Why Venmo still beats USDC for domestic payments
(08:28) – What's driving stablecoin growth from $300 billion market cap
(10:01) – Whether stablecoins replace traditional rails or just upgrade infrastructure underneath
(11:19) – Users will know they're using stablecoins for the next 3 to 5 years
(12:14) – When stablecoins become ubiquitous with national currencies
(13:15) – Polygon's shift from a general purpose chain to payments specialization
(15:06) – Blockspace commoditization and why differentiation matters
(16:24) – Doubling down on payments through simplified integrations
(17:05) – How the Open Money Stack solves the 5 to 10 vendor problem
(18:30) – One API for on-ramps and off-ramps, wallets, chains and interoperability
(19:07) – Making payments fade into the background and eliminating cross-border friction
(20:11) – Keeping money onchain instead of continuous on- ramp and off- ramp cycles
(21:16) – Creating an onchain world with DeFi, tokenized bonds and ZK identity
(22:03) – What's available today: Morpho, Franklin Templeton and merchant acceptance
(23:24) – Enterprises keeping 1 to 3% of capital onchain and that increasing over time
(25:05) – Why 2026 is the year enterprises implement stablecoin strategies at scale
(27:14) – Consolidation trends and how Polygon's Open Money Stack remains open
(28:49) – Its Coinme and Sequence acquisitions for better payments infra
(30:06) – Integration timeline:one API in six months
(31:02) – FX markets as the dark horse opportunity in onchain payments
(33:00) – Japan, Brazil and Singapore leading non- dollar stablecoin growth
(34:33) – Polygon's mission to move all money onchain within ten years
(35:45) – SWIFT, Visa and the trillion dollars in network value being disrupted
(37:09) – How Agglayer and Trails capture cross-chain payment value
(37:31) – Where stablecoins show up in everyday life over the next 3 to 5 years
(39:23) – Final advice: don't bet against blockchains
ESSENTIALS
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