MoonPay - Democratizing Cryptocurrency Through Its Investment Platform

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The Public's faith in crypto has exploded in the meantime. It's a major topic not only among investors but also in mainstream culture, owing to everyone including long-time investors like Elon Musk to that youngster from high school on Twitter.

Merchants may accept crypto-based payments for a variety of goods and services thanks to technology-based crypto payments and fraud protection solutions. For debit and credit card transactions, it also has a worldwide monetary onramp. It allows businesses to accept cryptocurrency payments for a variety of products and services.

MoonPay is a fintech startup that develops a cryptocurrency payment system. Its on-and-off-ramp line of products allows users to modify between government-issued currency and cryptocurrencies using different payment methods, including credit and debit cards, Apple Pay, Google Pay, Samsung Pay, and local bank transfers, MoonPay accepts payments, fights fraud in over 160 countries, and is used by 300+ prominent wallets, websites, and applications. The firm was created in 2019 and is situated in Miami, Florida.

Read this article further to read more about MoonPay.

MoonPay - Company Highlights

MoonPay - About and How it Works?
MoonPay - Industry
MoonPay - Name, Logo, and Tagline
MoonPay - Founders
MoonPay - Startup Story
MoonPay - Vision, and Mission Statement
MoonPay - Business Model
MoonPay - Catering Celebs
MoonPay - Funding, and Investors
MoonPay - Investments
MoonPay - Growth
MoonPay - Competitors
MoonPay - Challenges Faced
MoonPay - Future Plans

MoonPay - About and How it Works?

MoonPay is a cryptocurrency payment facilitator. People can use debit cards, credit cards, and a variety of other major payment methods to purchase and sell cryptocurrencies and NFTs. This payment service, which was launched in 2019, has risen in importance as a result of the booming NFT sector. MoonPay was founded in 2019 with a single goal in mind: to accelerate the usage of cryptocurrencies. Only with 2 young co-founders - Ivan Soto-Wright and Victor Faramond - the firm set out to design a secure and very simple software solution that would allow individuals from all around the world to engage in the largest tech transformation since the world wide web.

MoonPay is a popular solution among both ordinary investors and celebs because of its ease. As per the company's website, the platform has over 10 million active users in 160 countries and has processed about $3 billion in transactions.

When non-fungible tokens or NFTs first became popular, MoonPay was the go-to payment provider. Users might buy their favourite NFTs without having to worry about cryptocurrency. When celebrities began purchasing artworks from the renowned Bored Ape Yacht Club NFT collection, the platform acquired even more traction.

In a traditional exchange, you'd need to first get a wallet, then add an appropriate amount of cryptocurrency, and then complete the transaction - a simple but time-consuming operation. The procedure is significantly simpler using MoonPay. All that is required of the user is to set a budget. MoonPay then calculates a baseline price for the digital asset using its uncommon tools.

MoonPay takes care of purchasing the needed cryptocurrency, then purchasing the tokens and billing the consumer.

"We've tried to make it as similar as a process as you would be interacting with your private bank," says Ivan Soto-Wright, the CEO of MoonPay. "You basically generate an invoice, you wire money for that invoice, and then we settle the transaction," he explained.

MoonPay - Industry

One of the names used most frequently for research in the finance sector nowadays is "financial technology." FinTech, or financial technology, is the application of cutting-edge contemporary technology to the world of money. It mostly makes use of disruptive and creative technologies to deliver financial services. By offering innovative and safe financial services, fintech startups met the demand for increased security from investors. The desire for more economical financial services that offer accessibility and a faster speed might be cited as the second factor in the development of financial technology.

In 2021, the market had a value of USD 112.5 billion. By 2028, the scope of the global fintech market is predicted to be USD 332.5 billion, and it is projected to expand at a 19.8% compound annual growth rate over that time.

The market is primarily driven by growing connectivity with the ecosystem of the financial services industry, growth in the market cap of cryptocurrencies, and ICOs. This technology facilitates quicker transfers and lowers operating costs. Uncertainty over the regulatory frameworks and standards enforced by the system is the main constraining issue for the fintech market. Furthermore, the financial sector's use of digital technologies is expanding quickly.

The globe has seen the emergence of new financial technology innovations including mobile money, peer-to-peer or marketplace financing, insurance technology (insur-tech), Robo-advice and crypto-assets. Markets might become more varied, fair, effective, and equitable as a result of these advances, but concentration levels could also rise. Especially in developing and transition countries, innovation has boosted inclusiveness and brought about competitiveness.

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MoonPay - Name, Logo, and Tagline

MoonPay's tagline says, "Crypto just got easy."

MoonPay - Founders

MoonPay was founded by Victor Faramond and Ivan Soto-Wright in March 2019.

Victor Faramond

Victor serves MoonPay as its co-founder and chief technology officer. Victor has extensive experience in developing both front-end and back-end systems for cutting-edge websites. He has previously worked in Apple, Merck KGaA, and Skello.

Ivan Soto-Wright

Ivan is the co-founder and chief executive officer of MoonPay. Ivan is an investor, entrepreneur, and early adopter of financial technology. Ivan graduated from George Washington University with a bachelor's degree in Economics with Special Honors. At St. Anne's College, University of Oxford, he also studied philosophy, politics, and economics. Ivan used to work for Redington.

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MoonPay - Startup Story

With just one goal in mind in 2019, Ivan Soto-Wright and Victor Faramond, the company's two co-founders, set out to build a simple and secure software solution that would allow users from all over the world to take part in the largest digital revolution since the internet, which resulted in the foundation of MoonPay.

Just two and a half years later, in November 2021, MoonPay completed its Series A investment round with a valuation of $3.4 billion, making it the largest and most valued Series A for a bootstrapped cryptocurrency startup. The firm is using this financing to continue in international expansion and top-tier personnel, as it maintains its extraordinary rate of growth.

Investment in the start-ups driving the sector is flourishing in venture capital as the price of cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin has recently reached all-time highs. After the massive cryptocurrency exchange's successful IPO in April, investors are searching for the next Coinbase.

The "portal" to digital assets was the selling point of MoonPay to investors. For the time being, this entails bitcoin, ether, and other electronic coins like NFTs. However, Soto-Wright intends to broaden the platform's scope to cover anything from tokenized equities to digital clothing. People are referring to them as PayPal for cryptocurrency, he added.

According to Soto-Wright, the business has robust controls and checks in place to combat corruption. Regulators are being more cautious as a result of illegal activities in the industry.

Since the platform's introduction in 2019, according to MoonPay, it has been profitable. After transaction volumes soared 35-fold from 2020, the company is on target to generate $150 million in revenue this year. More than 7 million users already utilise its service.

MoonPay - Vision, and Mission Statement

MoonPay's mission has been clear from the start: provide the next billion people access to cryptocurrency.

The goal of MoonPay is to provide the next billion people with access to cryptocurrencies, which we believe will ultimately have a greater impact on people's lives than the internet.

Because they firmly believe in the potential of cryptocurrencies and their ability to democratise finance, everything they have done in their first two years has been focused on achieving that aim.

MoonPay - Business Model

MoonPay, a Miami-based company that was founded in 2019, offers software that enables users to purchase and trade cryptocurrencies using standard payment methods including credit cards, bank transfers, or mobile wallets like Apple Pay and Google Pay.

In a business model CEO Ivan Soto-Wright refers to as "crypto-as-a-service," it also offers its technology to organisations like non-fungible token (NFT) exchange OpenSea and cryptocurrency website Bitcoin.com.

Processing fees, payment fees, and a concierge service for affluent customers are how MoonPay generates revenue.

• Processing and Payment fees - The processing and payment fees that MoonPay's institutional and retail customers pay to make up the majority of its income. Every time a customer buys or sells a cryptocurrency, a processing fee is levied on the consumer side. It charges a 4.5 per cent fee for card purchases. Fees are 1 per cent for both purchases and sales when using bank transfers. Users will furthermore be responsible for paying the corresponding gas fees imposed by the blockchain network they use to conduct their transactions. Similar to that, it assesses firms with a 4.5 per cent card payment fee and a 1 per cent bank transfer cost. However, depending on several variables, such as everyday transactions, rates for larger partners may be negotiable. Although these costs can seem high, it should be recognised that MoonPay does not keep the entire charge. It is required to split the money for credit card transactions with the MasterCard or Visa card issuer. Additionally, it collaborates with several custodians and fraud detection services, both of which charge extra fees. Numerous comparable services, including Shakepay, have also emerged. All of them advertise themselves as simple ways for regular people to obtain cryptocurrency.
• Concierge Service - MoonPay also makes money from its custodial services for wealthy people, albeit this portion of their revenue is probably lower. On behalf of its customers, it will use this service to buy and store cryptocurrencies and non-fungible tokens (NFTs). Celebrities including Post Malone, The Weeknd, Lil Baby, and Jimmy Fallon have received such service from the firm. Although nothing is known, it may be inferred that MoonPay charges a management fee in the form of a percentage for such services.

MoonPay - Catering Celebs

Since November 2021, celebrities have used MoonPay to buy products from some of the most well-liked and pricey NFT collections. Just a handful of the rising list of celebrities who have used cryptocurrency firm MoonPay to facilitate purchases of exorbitantly priced non-fungible tokens includes Jimmy Fallon, Post Malone, Diplo, DJ Khaled, and Justin Beiber. Rapper Snoop Dogg joined the crew as the newest member on December 22, 2021. On Twitter, he displayed four brand-new items from the Bored Ape Yacht Club line. He praised MoonPay and its CEO Ivan Soto-Wright for their assistance with the transaction in a different tweet. A significant majority of the NFT transactions MoonPay has arranged on behalf of celebrities are for Bored Apes.

They are A-list celebrities in addition to being some of MoonPay's more than 60 new investors. The Chainsmokers, Drake, Matthew McConaughey, Eva Longoria, Kate Hudson, Paris Hilton, Jason Derulo, Mindy Kaling, Questlove, and Shawn Mendes are just a few more famous people that have invested.

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MoonPay - Funding, and Investors

MoonPay has received a total funding of $642 million from investors in 3 rounds of funding.

MoonPay - Investments

MoonPay - Growth

Having only existed for three years, MoonPay has:

• processed transactions worth more than $2 billion.
• seen a surge in transaction volume of more than 35 times.
• consistently attained monthly sales growth of greater than 30%
• accumulated a clientele of more than 7 million users.
• more than five times its partner ecosystem.
• provided support for more than 30 fiat currencies and 90 cryptocurrencies.

MoonPay - Competitors

The top competitors in the competitive set of MoonPay are

• Coinbase
• Wyre
• Ramp Instant
• Mercury.io.
• Simplex
• Transak
• Banxa
• Paywithmoon
• Changelly
• Ffnews
• Bitmart

MoonPay - Challenges Faced

Difficulties include access to different currencies and custodial limitations, regulatory and compliance constraints, and fraud concerns among traditional payment providers. These are the same problems that MoonPay focuses on and helps its partners with.

“We are excited about the opportunity in crypto, but one of the challenges to mainstream adoption is offering the same seamless experience that users have come to expect from modern internet products. MoonPay has impressed us with its product, infrastructure, and execution.”  - Kris Fredrickson, managing partner at Coatue.

“We think that the crypto economy today is growing faster than the internet was at a similar stage of its development and that MoonPay is well-positioned to serve crypto-native innovators and those in traditional finance.” -Kris Fredrickson, managing partner at Coatue.

People all across the world now have an easy and safe method to join in this new economy thanks to MoonPay. Beyond cryptocurrencies, MoonPay's non-fungible token solution has been gaining ground in the NFT market, which has lately experienced spectacular development.

MoonPay - Future Plans

MoonPay intends to use the funds received in the future to expand and develop new products. According to Soto-Wright, the company already has plans to go public.

Moonpay will begin an expansion phase with the financing, hiring additional engineers for its staff and preparing to offer more features to its network. A range of tools for consumers is the company's main emphasis. Cryptocurrency exchanges and wallets must abide by several standards, including Know Your Customer and Anti-Money Laundering legislation, to offer fiat on-ramping services.

By offering a third-party solution, Moonpay says it can let enterprises focus on their core competencies while it handles KYC, payment processing, cryptocurrency liquidity and delivery, fraud protection, regulatory licencing, ecosystem identity verification, and customised checkout processes.

FAQs

What is MoonPay?

MoonPay is a digital platform for buying and selling cryptocurrency.

When was MoonPay founded?

MoonPay was founded in 2018 in Greater Miami Area, East Coast, Southern US.

Who is the founder of MoonPay?

Victor Faramond and Ivan Soto-Wright are the co-founders of MoonPay.

What is the amount of funding raised by MoonPay?

MoonPay has received a total funding of $642 million.

Who are the competitors of MoonPay?

The top competitors of MoonPay are:

• Coinbase
• Wyre
• Ramp Instant
• Mercury.io
• Simplex
• Transak
• Banxa
• Paywithmoon
• Changelly
• Ffnews
• Bitmart