From Chain to Card: COCA & Polygon AMA Recap

What happens when the team building your crypto card sits down with the infrastructure powering it? 

Last week, COCA and Polygon came together on X Spaces for a conversation about the things that actually matter: how COCA 3.0 keeps your funds truly yours, how you can earn yield on a balance you can still spend tomorrow, and what it's really going to take to bring the next billion people into crypto. 

The session featured Vasili Paulau, CEO of COCA, and Jia-Tern (JT), Strategic Partnerships and DeFi at Polygon. 

Missed it? Here are the key takeaways 👇

🔎 COCA’s Vision: A New Generation of Self-Custodial Banking

Vasili opened the AMA by explaining what COCA is building: a new generation of challenger banking powered by blockchain infrastructure.

The idea is simple: users should fully own their money at all times, while the app gives them access to familiar financial tools — cards, accounts, payments, rewards, and yield.

COCA is not trying to make users think more about crypto. It is trying to make crypto work more like everyday banking, while keeping self-custody under the hood.

In Vasili’s words, COCA is building for regular people, including those who are not familiar with crypto. The goal is a product that feels simple, fast, and familiar, while preserving user control.

🚀 Polygon’s Role: More Than a Blockchain

JT described Polygon as more than just a blockchain. Today, Polygon is also building a broader payments infrastructure stack (Polygon Open Money Stack) that supports on-ramps, off-ramps, wallets, and cross-chain orchestration.

This matters because consumer crypto apps need more than low fees. They need infrastructure that can support real payments, multi-chain movement, stablecoin liquidity, and onchain financial access in a way that does not overwhelm the user.

Polygon’s direction is closely aligned with COCA’s: making stablecoins and blockchain-based financial tools usable inside fintech, neobank, and payment apps.

💳 Why Payments Matter for Crypto Adoption

Both COCA and Polygon see payments as one of the clearest real-world use cases for crypto.

For users, the value is practical:

1. You can spend stablecoins with a card.

2. You can earn yield on balances that remain available for spending.

3. You can move value across borders faster.

4. You can access financial tools without needing to understand every blockchain detail.

For the industry, this is where crypto starts to converge with traditional finance. As JT noted, stablecoin payments may be one of crypto’s strongest product-market-fit moments.

🆕 What Changed with COCA 3.0

A major part of the discussion focused on COCA’s latest product direction.

COCA 3.0 moved the product much closer to a full self-custodial fintech experience. The biggest change is the shift to self-custody: COCA, its team, and its providers do not have access to user funds. Users remain in control, while providers are authorized only for specific payment actions.

Other key updates include:

Self-Custody by Design

COCA’s banking balance is based on smart account infrastructure. Funds remain in the user’s wallet, while the app enables card payments and banking-like functionality on top.

The important distinction is between where money is stored and who processes a specific transaction. A card provider may process an authorized payment, but it does not control the user’s entire balance.

Spendable APY

COCA introduced APY on card balances, starting with USDC. Unlike traditional models where funds are locked to earn rewards, COCA’s model allows users to keep balances available for spending while still earning yield through DeFi infrastructure such as Morpho.

EURC APY is also planned.

Banking Features

COCA has introduced international banking accounts for European citizens and is working toward USD accounts, ACH transfers, and broader banking functionality.

The long-term goal is for COCA to feel closer to a neobank experience while preserving self-custody as the foundation.

👍 Making Crypto Feel Like Web2

One of the biggest challenges in crypto is user experience.

Seed phrases, gas fees, wrong networks, bridges, and private keys are still major barriers for mainstream users. COCA’s approach is to remove as much of that friction as possible.

Key UX improvements include:

No Seed Phrases

COCA has removed seed phrases from the standard onboarding flow through its integration with Privy. Users can sign up with email, two-factor authentication, passkeys, and familiar Web2-style security flows.

Sponsored Gas for Banking Transactions

COCA also sponsors gas for certain banking-related transactions. That means users do not need to search for POL just to send assets or interact with their banking balance.

For everyday users, this is critical. They should not need to understand network fees before they can use their money.

Intent-Based User Experience

Vasili described COCA’s product thinking as intent-based. The user has an intent — spend with a card, deposit crypto, top up a balance, send money — and COCA should resolve the complexity in the background.

The user should not need to care which chain an asset is on or how the transaction is routed.

🤝 Why Polygon Fits COCA

COCA chose Polygon for the COCA token and broader infrastructure because of several factors:

• Fast transactions

• Low fees

• Support for gas sponsorship

• Strong financial ecosystem

• Broad support across exchanges and protocols

• Scalability for future token utility

JT also highlighted Polygon’s progress on payment readiness. Transaction costs are extremely low, block times have been reduced, throughput has improved, and finality has become much faster compared with earlier versions of the network.

For consumer payment products, these details matter. If blockchain payments are going to compete with traditional payment rails, they need to be fast, cheap, and largely invisible to the user.

🔭 What’s Coming Next for COCA

COCA’s roadmap remains focused on turning the app into a full self-custodial banking experience.

Key upcoming features discussed during the AMA include:

ACH and USD Accounts

COCA will introduce ACH accounts, enabling users to make transfers and payments within the United States.

More Assets for Top-Ups

COCA is working on expanding supported assets for deposits, withdrawals, card balance top-ups, and banking balances. The goal is to support not only stablecoins, but also other crypto assets.

USD/EUR In-App Exchange

COCA plans to introduce in-app exchange between USD and EUR accounts. This should help users manage spending across currencies and reduce unnecessary FX-related costs.

Card-to-Card Transfers

Card-to-card transfers are also planned. Users will be able to top up their COCA card from another bank card and send funds from their COCA card to other banks.

This is important for bridging Web2 and Web3 users: COCA should work naturally with existing fintech and banking apps.

COCA ID and Usernames

COCA also plans to introduce COCA ID or COCA usernames, allowing users to send funds to friends through unique usernames instead of long wallet addresses.

More APY Options

COCA wants to expand the APY story beyond USD stablecoins. The goal is to support more assets while keeping the core principle: users should be able to earn yield without locking funds.

Multi-Chain Unified Balances

A major future direction is simplifying multi-chain holdings. For users, USDC should feel like USDC regardless of the chain it is on.

The ideal experience: deposit USDC on any supported chain, see a unified balance, and withdraw it on the chain you need.

🌅 What’s Coming Next for Polygon

JT shared several major focus areas for Polygon.

Global Ramps

Polygon already has US ramps live and plans to expand toward global ramps. The long-term objective is to make on-ramp and off-ramp access more efficient and cost-effective.

Open Money Stack

Polygon’s Open Money Stack is being built to support the full flow from off-chain to onchain and back again.

The vision includes:

• On-ramping into a wallet 

• Deploying funds into DeFi

• Using strategy vaults

• Buying RWAs

• Borrowing against assets

• Off-ramping back into a bank account
  

This is designed to make digital assets feel more real and useful for everyday financial activity.

Cross-Chain Orchestration

Polygon is also working on cross-chain interoperability (Polygon Trails and AggLayer) to reduce friction in cross-chain activity.

The goal is to make actions like bridging, swapping, and deploying into a vault possible in a single flow, with costs visible before confirmation.

Non-USD Stablecoin Ecosystems

In April 2026, Polygon processed around 54% of all USDC transfers globally, more than all other chains combined. Building on this momentum, Polygon is focusing heavily on non-USD stablecoins and onchain FX.

JT mentioned BRZ, JPYC, Australian dollar stablecoins, and other regional currencies as important areas of development. Polygon aims to become a hub for on-chain FX and local stablecoin liquidity.

This matters for products like COCA because it opens the door to more localized financial experiences across different markets.

👥 Community Q&A Highlights

The AMA closed with community questions. Five selected questions were eligible to receive $20 in USDC or EURC, sent directly to their COCA balance.

1. Where do APY and cashback rewards come from?

Vasili explained that APY and cashback should be viewed separately.

APY comes from DeFi lending infrastructure such as Morpho, where liquidity is supplied to lending markets and borrowers pay interest.

Cashback is funded through a combination of efficient infrastructure, merchant offers, partner incentives, and other revenue streams. COCA’s lower operational cost compared with traditional financial infrastructure helps make higher rewards more sustainable.

2. Can Visa block a non-custodial COCA card?

   
   

Vasili clarified the distinction between funds and payment processing.

User funds remain in the wallet controlled by the user. A card provider can only process or block specific card transactions. It cannot access or freeze the full wallet balance.

If a card is blocked, pending card transactions may be affected, but the rest of the funds remain accessible through other available methods such as crypto withdrawals, banking accounts, or future card options.

3. What is the biggest obstacle to onboarding the next billion users?

   
   

JT pointed to complexity.

Most users should not need to understand private keys, chains, wallet balances, bridges, or gas. In the future, many users may use stablecoins without even realizing they are interacting with blockchain infrastructure.

The best crypto experience may be one where the blockchain disappears into the background.

4. What is the most underrated advantage of Polygon for consumer payments?

   
   

JT highlighted programmability.

Stablecoins are not just digital balances. Because they are programmable, they can be used in atomic onchain actions: lending, swapping, borrowing, deploying into strategies, and more.

This creates new possibilities that traditional financial infrastructure cannot easily support.

5. Will COCA introduce Polygon-specific rewards or loyalty programs?

   
   

Vasili said this is a topic COCA is open to exploring with Polygon.

Polygon is currently an important infrastructure layer for COCA, but there may be room to build additional Polygon-specific incentives, rewards, or even a co-branded card in the future.

6. What disappears from Web3 if one billion people use crypto every day?

   
   

JT suggested that even the word “stablecoin” may eventually disappear for mainstream users.

People may simply see “digital money,” “digital dollars,” or standard balances inside an app — while USDC, USDT, or other stablecoins operate in the background.

That would mean Web2 and Web3 have finally started to converge.

🔥 Looking Ahead

The clearest word both COCA and Polygon used to define success was adoption.

For COCA, success means users love the product, use the card, grow with the ecosystem, and experience crypto as something practical rather than complicated.

For Polygon, success means wider stablecoin payment adoption and more traditional financial activity moving onchain.

The shared vision is clear: crypto should not remain a niche tool for technical users. It should become useful financial infrastructure for real people, in real life.

From chain to card, that future is getting closer.

Follow COCA and Polygon on X to stay updated — and if you are curious about COCA, the best way to understand it is to try it yourself. Sign up, order your card, and start using crypto like everyday money.