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MoonPay’s Ivan Soto-Wright Bets on a Non-Custodial, API-First Future for Crypto

As the crypto space consolidates, MoonPay is quietly becoming the infrastructure layer for the next wave of Web3.
With over 30 million verified users across 160 countries and a fully licensed global stack, the company is enabling everything from fiat onramps to embedded DeFi experiences.
Originally launched to make wallet top-ups seamless via Apple Pay and debit cards, MoonPay now powers API-first solutions used by nearly every major DeFi app.
“We started with a simple question, how do you top up your wallet?” MoonPay’s CEO and co-founder Ivan Soto-Wright told CoinDesk in an interview. Now it’s about giving developers the tools to bring crypto into everyday life.
Ivan Soto-Wright is speaking on the main stage at Consensus 2025, in Toronto on May 15.
The company is pushing toward a fully API-driven, «headless» infrastructure model, where developers can plug MoonPay into their products just like Stripe.
Helio, one of MoonPay’s recent acquisitions, underscores this trajectory. Moonpay acquired the Solana-powered crypto payment processor in January, for a reported $175 million.
Despite its size and reach, MoonPay still operates with a startup mentality. With only 300 employees, the team is «execution-first» and relentlessly focused on efficiency. The company saw 112% year-on-year growth, with Q1 2025 marking its strongest quarter ever.
MoonPay primarily earns via transaction fees on crypto purchases through debit cards, Venmo, and Apple Pay. But it’s experimenting with zero-fee trading products like “Balance,” which allows users to deposit cash and trade instantly.
Soto-Wright is a well-known entrepreneur and investor, and is a member of the Milken Institute Fintech Advisory Council.
Prior to MoonPay, he was CEO and co-founder of smart money app Saveable. He started his career at London-based investment firm Redington.
CoinDesk: What trends do you see emerging in crypto?
Soto-Wright: “DEXs will overtake CEXs, with users demanding control over their assets but expecting the smooth UX of a centralized platform.»
«MoonPay’s ethos is that more crypto transactions should be peer-to-peer, taking advantage of decentralized exchanges. We’re seeing a general shift from CeFi to DeFi, with decentralized exchanges currently dominating 30% of the market. I see this trend continuing to shift over time – DeFi is global and ultimately reduces friction and costs by cutting out the middleman.”
How do you expect the wallet market to develop?
“Cryptocurrency wallets will eventually replace bank accounts. Users will have multiple wallets, like you and I have a number of bank accounts now. MoonPay provides the mission-critical infrastructure to power these wallet experiences, both from our MoonPay Widget product and APIs.”
Does MoonPay plan to make more acquisitions in the near term?
“M&A is a huge growth driver to our business. We view it as an accelerator to help us move quickly and bring more products to market. A big part of our M&A strategy is identifying the right companies to help achieve our vision for the future of payments. An example of this is Helio, which unlocked our ability to power crypto commerce for merchants.»
“We’re always open to M&A,” Soto-Wright said, noting that past acquisitions have been cash-flow positive from day one. “It’s about speed, scaling by acquiring great teams with a sharp founder mindset.”
What features do customers want, better UX?
A central theme for MoonPay is the shift from custodial to non-custodial finance. “We believe crypto should be non-custodial first,” said the company’s CEO.
To facilitate this shift, MoonPay is developing what it calls the “CEX experience in a DeFi environment.” That means abstracting away the complexity of DeFi —wallets, UTXOs, compliance — into easy-to-integrate SDKs and widgets. “Think of it like packaging up the convenience of a centralized exchange and putting it into your own wallet.”
What does the future have in store for MoonPay?
While not yet confirmed, a MoonPay stablecoin could be in the pipeline.
“We’re taking our time, but you can see the early signs in Balance. Eventually, there could be a stablecoin.”
READ MORE: Why MoonPay and PayPal Partnered to Expand Crypto Adoption in the U.S.
Disclaimer: Parts of this article were generated with the assistance from AI tools and reviewed by our editorial team to ensure accuracy and adherence to our standards. For more information, see CoinDesk’s full AI Policy.
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Tesla Reports $951M in Crypto Holdings as it Misses Earnings

Tesla (TSLA) still holds almost $1 billion in bitcoin, according to the automaker’s latest earnings report.
The electric vehicle firm reported digital asset holdings worth $951 million as of March 31, down from $1.076 billion on Dec. 30. Tesla currently holds 11,509 bitcoin in its balance sheet, according to Bitcoin Treasuries data.
The change is almost certainly due to bitcoin’s price depreciating between the two quarters. Data from Arkham Intelligence indicates that Tesla did not perform any transactions in the last three months. Arkham marks Tesla’s holdings as being currently worth $1.049 billion.
A new rule from the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) requires corporate holders of digital assets to begin marking those assets to market each quarter.
Tesla also reported $19.34 billion in revenue for the first quarter of the year; analysts had expected the carmaker to rake in $21.37 billion.
The TSLA shares were up more than 2% in after-hours trading.
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Bitcoin Tops $91K as Trade Optimism Fuels Crypto Rally But Demand Headwinds Remain

Bitcoin (BTC) surged past $91,000 on Tuesday, climbing nearly 5% amid renewed investor optimism and fresh hopes of a thaw in U.S.-China trade tensions, but headwinds persist that could cap further upside, analytics firm CryptoQuant cautioned.
The largest crypto by market capitalization hit $91,700 in the U.S. afternoon, its strongest price since early March. Altcoins followed BTC higher, with Ethereum’s ether (ETH) rising 8% over the past 24 hours above $1,700, and dogecoin (DOGE) and Sui’s native token (SUI) gaining 8.6% and 11.7%, respectively. The broad-market crypto benchmark CoinDesk 20 Index advanced 5.2%.
Markets were buoyed by remarks from U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, who reportedly told investors at a closed-door JPMorgan event that the tariff standoff with China was unsustainable. Bessent said de-escalation would come “in the very near future,” characterizing current conditions as a “trade embargo.” However, he cautioned that a more comprehensive deal between the two nations could take even years.
Stocks recovered from yesterday’s decline, with the S&P 500 and the tech-heavy Nasdaq finishing the session 2.5% and 2.7% higher, respectively. Gold, meanwhile, sharply reversed from its record price of $3,500 during the day and was down 1%.
«As capital rotates into safe-haven and inflation-hedging assets, BTC and gold are proving to be key beneficiaries of the exodus from USD risk,» analysts at hedge fund QCP Capital said in a Telegram broadcast.
They highlighted rejuvenating inflows to spot U.S.-listed BTC ETFs and the return of the so-called Coinbase price premium, suggesting demand from American institutional investors. BTC ETF booked over $381 million net inflows on Monday adding to Thursday’s $107 million, according to Farside Investors data.
But not all signs point to a sustained breakout.
Despite the price jump, on-chain data points to fragility beneath the surface, CryptoQuant analysts said in a Tuesday report. Bitcoin’s apparent demand has decreased by 146,000 BTC over the past 30 days—an improvement from the sharp drop in March, but still negative. CryptoQuant’s demand momentum metric, which tracks new investor interest, has deteriorated further to its the most bearish level since October 2024, the report noted.
Market liquidity remains soft, with the report using USDT’s market cap growth as a proxy for crypto liquidity. USDT grew $2.9 billion over the past two months, below its 30-day average. Historically, BTC rallies coincided with USDT growth above $5 billion and above trend — a threshold not yet met.
Adding to the caution, bitcoin is now facing a key resistance zone between $91,000 and $92,000 at around the «Trader’s On-chain Realized Price» metric, a level that has often served as resistance in bearish conditions. CryptoQuant’s on-chain bull score classified current market conditions as bearish, suggesting a pause or pullback could follow if sentiment weakens.
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Unicoin CEO Rejects SEC’s Attempt to Settle Enforcement Probe

Unicoin has rebuffed the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) attempt to negotiate a settlement agreement to close an ongoing probe into the Miami-based crypto company, its CEO Alex Konanykhin revealed in a Tuesday letter to investors.
In his letter, Konanykhin said Unicoin was given an “ultimatum” by the SEC to attend a settlement negotiation meeting last week, on April 18.
“We declined to show up,” Konanykhin told CoinDesk, adding that the SEC had made demands ahead of the meeting that he found “unacceptable.” He declined to share specifics, telling CoinDesk that the communication between Unicoin’s lawyers and the SEC was confidential.
Unicoin received a Wells notice — a sort of official heads-up from the SEC that it intends to file an enforcement action against the recipient — in December, shortly before former Chair Gary Gensler stepped down, alleging violations related to fraud, deceptive practices, and the offer and sale of unregistered securities. No official enforcement action has yet been filed.
Since President Donald Trump took office, the SEC has reversed its once-aggressive stance toward crypto regulation, backing off from many of its open investigations into crypto companies, including blockchain gaming firm Immutable and non-fungible token (NFT) marketplace OpenSea, and even some of its ongoing litigation, including against Coinbase and Cumberland DRW.
Other SEC enforcement cases against crypto companies, including its cases against Binance and Tron, have been paused while the parties attempt to negotiate a settlement. The agency recently reached a settlement agreement with Nova Labs, the parent company behind the Helium blockchain, that saw Nova Labs pay a $200,000 fine to settle civil securities fraud charges, and the SEC dropped its claims that Helium (HNT) and other related tokens were securities.
In his letter to investors, Konanykhin claimed that the SEC’s probe has caused “multi-billion-dollar damage” to the company and its investors.
“We would likely be a $10B+ publicly traded company by now if the SEC had not blocked our ICO, stock exchange listing and fundraising,” Konanykhin wrote, adding that the SEC had prevented Unicoin from acting on the “very favorable market opportunities.”
“We were forced into a standstill,” Konanykhin wrote.
The SEC did not respond to a request for comment.
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