MoonPay acquires Meso to expand real-time payments, bridging TradFi and DeFi, and challenging Circle and Visa in global crypto payments.
MoonPay, a leading crypto infrastructure company, has officially acquired Meso Network, a crypto payments startup. The acquisition, first reported by Bloomberg, represents a huge move as MoonPay moves to compete with major players such as Circle and Visa for global crypto payments.
Founded in 2019, MoonPay really started out attention for offering fiat-for-crypto ramps, which allowed customers to buy and sell cryptocurrencies in using traditional providing methods akin to credit cards and financial banking transfers. Since then, the company has grown rapidly to serve more (30 million) users and has nearly 500 partners.
Now, with the acquisition of Meso, MoonPay hopes to move beyond crypto ramps and be a fully integrated payments network around the world. While the financial terms of the deal were not revealed, the strategic objectives are obvious.
According to Ivan Soto-Wright, MoonPay’s co-founder and CEO, the acquisition will make a significant difference in the support of MoonPay’s U.S. banking systems with support for electronic transfers and real-time payments. It will also improve the experience of the developer, giving companies a better API platform to incorporate the services of MoonPay.
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In addition, Meso’s team is distinguished with deep industry experience. The Meso’s Chief Technology Officer, Ali Aghareza, will now be CTO of MoonPay. He was on the original engineering team at Braintree, that was later acquired by PayPal and played an important role in scaling their infrastructure.
Similarly, co-founder of Meso Ben Mills is joining MoonPay as his Senior Vice President of Product. He is a former Head of Developer Experience at Braintree and Head of Product at Venmo with a solid background in creating user-focused payment products.
On the acquisition, MoonPay feels its 10-year mission is aligned. The company seeks to consolidate traditional finance (TradFi) and decentralized finance (DeFi) under one effective and regulated roof. This includes support for Money Transmitter Licenses (MTLs), BitLicenses and MiCA approval within the EU.
Furthermore, Meso’s knowledge of self-custody and developer friendly tools are enabling MoonPay’s hopes to provide businesses and individuals with a simple, secure means of transacting in both fiat and crypto. With this, the firm moves closer to having an offering that poses no challenges to interbank payments and major card networks as well as blockchains and stablecoins.
In recent months, MoonPay has been growing in various strategies. The addition of Helio, a Solana-based payment provider, and Iron, a compliance-focused crypto infrastructure platform, also bolsters its position. With these acquisitions, MoonPay brings the overall picture together for an up-to-date and global payment system.
This latest move puts MoonPay in head-to-head competition with reputed financial technology big guns. However, with its emphasis on crypto-native tools, access to developers, and the provision of real-time payments, it may get an edge in the ever-changing prognosis of world banking.
In conclusion, acquiring Meso is a turning point for MoonPay. As it becomes a multifaceted entity from fiat-to-crypto service to a full-service payment network, the company is building its foundation to be a major player in traditional and crypto-finance.
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