MoonPay is betting that institutions want broader access to on-chain financial products beyond simple cryptocurrency purchases.
The crypto payments company said Thursday that it has started MoonPay Trade, a platform designed to connect banks, fintechs and enterprises with tokenized assets, decentralized finance (DeFi) protocols and stablecoin liquidity on more than 200 blockchains through a single integration.
The service is backed by Decent.xyz, the cross-chain routing startup that MoonPay acquired for a “high eight-figure” sum, said a person familiar with the matter.
The expansion comes as tokenization is gaining momentum in the financial sector, attracting global banks and asset managers. Real-world tokenized assets (blockchain-based versions of stocks, bonds and funds) now exceed $33 billion in market value, tripling in a year, data from RWA.xyz shows. Boston Consulting Group projected the market could grow to $18.9 trillion by 2033.
Large asset managers including BlackRock, Franklin Templeton and JPMorgan have already introduced tokenized funds on public blockchains, while stablecoins increasingly serve as settlement avenues for payments and trading activities.
MoonPay Trade will serve as the execution arm of MoonPay Institutional, the company’s business focused on regulated financial firms and led by former Acting CFTC Chair Caroline Pham.
“All major financial institutions are building a tokenized asset strategy,” Pham said in a statement, adding that the platform provides institutions with access to on-chain markets “with full compliance.”
MoonPay Trade supports tokenized fund subscriptions, collateral transfers, and integrations with DeFi lending protocols such as Morpho, Aave, and Maple Finance. Those protocols allow users to earn returns or borrow against digital assets directly on the blockchain rails.
The company has been on an acquisition spree as it expands from crypto payments into broader financial infrastructure.
Earlier this month, the company acquired Solana’s merchant infrastructure provider DFlow, which processed more than $12 billion in transaction volume in the first quarter. This year, it also bought security startup Sodot, following last year’s acquisitions of payment processors Meso and Helio.
