Crypto startup MoonPay sees valuation blast to $3.4 billion

MoonPay, a three-year old software developer whose product lets people buy and sell cryptocurrencies using credit cards, mobile wallets and bank transfers, has seen its valuation blast off to $3.4 billion after securing $555 million in its first financing round, led by Coatue and Tiger Global.

“This historic financing round is a vote of confidence for what we’re doing and where we’re headed next. It’s proof that people believe in our ability to bring the next billion people to crypto, a waystation to our final destination: the moon,” said Ivan Soto-Wright, MoonPay’s co-founder and CEO, in a blog post.

The figure comes as several crypto players have seen increased interest from investors. The Winklevoss Twins’ Gemini exchange raised $400 million last week.

MoonPay lets people exchange cryptocurrencies and fiat, or government-issued, currencies using major payment methods, including Apple Pay and Google Pay, along with debit and credit cards. Bitcoin.com was one of the earliest customers. MoonPay is now looking to streamline the checkout process in the NFT world, saying it believes NFTs to be the next big growth area.

“With the meteoric rise of NFTs, crypto encompasses a booming revolution in digital ownership,” said Soto-Wright. “In the arts this has sparked nothing short of a renaissance—an explosion of activity that’s bound to reach other industries as new use cases for digital tokens are discovered. We believe the ticketing industry, for example, will likely be radically disrupted by NFTs.”

The company says it views its mission as bringing “the next billion people” to the crypto world by 2030. It says its software “democratizes crypto,” letting any business have access to the necessary infrastructure to remain compliant with regulations. It plans to use the Series A funds to increase its staff, add more payment methods and expand its footprint.

MoonPay has processed more than $2 billion in transactions since beginning operations. And business has gotten exponentially busier. Transaction volume increased 35-fold in the past two years, Soto-Wright said.