coindesk.com
Polygon and Solana have competed for years for developers, users and transaction volumes. Now, the two blockchain networks are joining forces to make it easier for businesses to move money between cryptocurrencies and traditional bank accounts.
Polygon Labs is bringing its Open Money Stack payments infrastructure to Solana, allowing businesses on the rival network to access bank funding, digital wallets, cross-chain transfers and payouts through a single integration.
Banks and payment companies are increasingly using stablecoins for transfers and settlement. Meanwhile, Polygon and Solana have spent years competing for blockchain activity. Their agreement gives their customers, mostly businesses, access to both networks without needing to choose one over the other.
“Polygon and Solana may compete in certain areas, but Polygon has expanded beyond providing only a chain into broader payments infrastructure,” Aishwary Gupta, global head of business at Polygon Labs, told CoinDesk. “Businesses shouldn’t have to rebuild their payments infrastructure for every network,” he added.
In 2022, Polygon co-founder Sandeep Nailwal challenged claims that Solana had attracted more users, arguing that Polygon had more active users and developers. In 2023, Polygon paid $3 million to bring two prominent Solana NFT projects, DeGods and y00ts, onto its network.
The partnership agreement does not merge the two blockchains. Instead, it lets businesses continue using Solana to transfer stablecoins while relying on Polygon’s infrastructure for transfers to bank accounts and other payment services.
Jamal Raees, general manager of payments at Solana Foundation, said the partnership gives companies access to Polygon’s regulated payment services without leaving Solana.
“Our focus is to make it easier for payment and stablecoin activity to continue to scale on the network,” Raees told CoinDesk.
From rivalry to partnership
Solana has recorded more than $5.7 trillion in stablecoin transfers so far this year, Raees said.
Polygon has recorded more than $3 trillion in total transfers since launch. The figures include transfers between wallets, not just payments for goods and services.
Gupta said the two companies see an advantage in working together as traditional financial institutions enter the stablecoin market.
“As more banks and payment companies start using stablecoins, they’ll want access to the networks where their customers already hold funds,” he said. “They don’t want to rebuild their payments setup for each one.”
Businesses using Open Money Stack can accept bank transfers, card payments and cash through supported providers, create customer wallets, move assets between blockchains and send money to bank accounts.
