Before you can use crypto, you have to get some. In the early days that was surprisingly hard. MoonPay, founded in 2019 by Ivan Soto-Wright and his co-founders, set out to fix that by letting people buy crypto with a credit card or bank transfer, according to Fortune.
That "on-ramp" between regular money and crypto became the base for a much bigger business.
What MoonPay does
MoonPay's payment tools are built into wallets, exchanges and apps. When someone buys crypto inside one of those apps, MoonPay often handles the payment behind the scenes. Polymarket, for example, lists MoonPay as a deposit option alongside Coinbase.
CEO Soto-Wright describes the strategy as four pillars: fund, tokenize, trade and spend. MoonPay earns transaction fees on crypto purchases and sales and, increasingly, revenue from newer businesses in stablecoins, institutional services and tokenized securities.
The funding
MoonPay has raised about $655 million across two rounds, according to StockAnalysis:
- A $555 million Series A in November 2021 at a $3.4 billion valuation.
- A $100 million Series B in June 2026 at a $3.9 billion valuation.
Bloomberg reported in December 2025 that Intercontinental Exchange, the parent of the New York Stock Exchange, was in talks to invest at a target valuation of about $5 billion.
Growth by acquisition
MoonPay has made six acquisitions since the start of 2025, including:
- Helio, a Solana payments processor.
- Iron, a stablecoin infrastructure company.
- Meso, a payments startup.
- Decent, a crypto infrastructure firm.
- Sodot, an Israeli security startup.
- DFlow, a Solana trading platform, for $100 million in an all-stock deal in May 2026.
In April 2026, it launched MoonPay Institutional, led by former acting CFTC chair Caroline Pham. In September 2026, it agreed to acquire North Capital Investment Technology, adding licenses to operate a broker-dealer and other regulated businesses as it moves into tokenized real-world assets, according to MoonPay.
The problem MoonPay set out to solve
In crypto's early years, simply converting dollars into bitcoin or other tokens was often clunky, slow and limited to a handful of exchanges that required lengthy signup processes. Banks and card networks were also wary of crypto purchases, which led to declined transactions and fraud flags. By building reliable payment plumbing that app developers could plug in directly, MoonPay removed a major point of friction and let other companies focus on their own products instead of building their own payment systems from scratch.
From payments to broader financial infrastructure
Stablecoins, digital tokens designed to hold a steady value by being backed one-to-one with assets like the U.S. dollar, have become a major part of how money moves in crypto markets, since they let traders and businesses transact without the price swings of bitcoin or ether. By expanding into stablecoin infrastructure and tokenized real-world assets, which represent traditional investments like stocks or real estate on a blockchain, MoonPay is positioning itself for a future where crypto tools are used for everyday payments and traditional finance, not just speculative trading.
Lessons for entrepreneurs
- Fix the bottleneck. MoonPay focused on the least glamorous but most necessary step: getting money in.
- Become infrastructure. When other apps build on your product, you grow as they grow.
- Hire for credibility. Bringing on a former regulator helped MoonPay court big financial institutions.
- Use acquisitions deliberately. Buying companies can speed up growth, as long as your core business keeps generating cash.
The bottom line
MoonPay grew by solving a basic problem in crypto and then expanding through smart acquisitions and key hires. For founders, its story shows how owning one essential step in a customer's journey can become the foundation for a much larger company.
Sources: https://fortune.com/2026/05/05/moonpay-acquires-solana-100m-all-stock/, https://www.moonpay.com/newsroom/moonpay-northcapital, https://stockanalysis.com/private/moonpay/valuation/
Content on The Evergreen Edit is for educational and informational purposes only and is not individualized financial, investment, tax or legal advice. Learn more.
This article is for educational purposes only and isn't personalized financial, tax or legal advice. Consider talking with a qualified professional about your situation.
Kiara Miller — Founder & Editor
Kiara Miller is the founder and editor of The Evergreen Edit. He has been doing independent finance research for two decades and reviews every article before it's published.
More about Kiara →Get smarter about your money.
Join readers who get The Sunday Edit every week.
