Connect with us

Published

on

In this article

MoonPay CEO and co-founder Ivan Soto-Wright speaking at the Bitcoin 2021 conference in Miami, Florida.
Eva Marie Uzcategui | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Cryptocurrency start-ups have raised record funding this year.

It’s no surprise, then, that some major players in the space — from the Winklevoss twins’ virtual currency exchange Gemini to Ethereum co-founder Joseph Lubin’s blockchain start-up ConsenSys — announced massive new funding deals in the last week.

MoonPay, a relative newcomer, is taking the crypto mania in venture capital to new heights. The three-year-old fintech firm said Monday it has raised $555 million in its first-ever financing round. The investment, led by Tiger Global and Coatue, values the company at $3.4 billion.

Founded in 2018, Miami-based MoonPay’s software lets users buy and sell cryptocurrencies using conventional payment methods like credit cards, bank transfers or mobile wallets like Apple Pay and Google Pay.

It also sells its technology to other businesses including crypto website Bitcoin.com and non-fungible token (NFT) marketplace OpenSea, a model CEO Ivan Soto-Wright calls “crypto-as-a-service.”

Soto-Wright said the firm aims to make crypto accessible to the masses in the same way that video-conferencing tools like Zoom made it easier to make calls over the internet.

“With the blockchain and cryptocurrencies, I think right now we are still in the dial-up days,” he told CNBC in an interview.

“Eventually we will get to this place where it’s frictionless to move any amount of value around anywhere in the world, and costs move as close as possible to zero.”

‘PayPal for crypto’

With prices of bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies hitting all-time highs lately, venture capital investment in the start-ups powering the market is booming. Investors are looking for the next Coinbase after the crypto exchange giant’s blockbuster listing in April.

MoonPay’s pitch to investors is that it offers a “gateway” to digital assets. For now, that includes bitcoin, ether and other digital tokens like NFTs. But Soto-Wright’s vision is to expand the platform to include everything from digital fashion to tokenized stocks.

“People are calling us similar to PayPal, but for crypto,” he said.

The company has strong controls and checks in place to tackle money laundering, Soto-Wright said. Regulators have become increasingly wary about illicit activity in the market.

MoonPay says it has been profitable since launching its platform in 2019. The firm is on track to hit $150 million in annual revenue this year after transaction volumes skyrocketed 35-fold from 2020. Its service is now used by more than 7 million customers.

Still, the company faces stiff competition, not least from fintech pioneers like PayPal, which rolled out its own crypto features last year.

Soto-Wright said he’s not worried about the competition. He described PayPal as a “walled garden” that doesn’t give users control over their assets. “We believe the future of crypto is about customers taking possession of their private keys,” passwords that grant people access to their funds, he said.

IPO ambitions

Looking ahead, MoonPay plans to spend the money raised on new products and expansion. Soto-Wright said the firm already has ambitions to take the business public. “We have aspirations eventually to be a public company,” he said.

Cryptocurrencies are notoriously volatile, however, and that has impacted even the most well-known players in the space. Coinbase, for example, missed sales estimates in the third quarter after a drop in monthly users.

Bitcoin hit an all-time high of nearly $69,000 earlier this month, but has since dropped about 17%. Ether, meanwhile, is down 13% from its record high.

Soto-Wright said MoonPay is prepared for a potential downturn in crypto markets, adding the firm is “agnostic” on which assets it supports.

“In the same way that telecoms got disrupted by voice over IP (internet protocol), we think, over time, financial services and all these different applications will be disrupted by the blockchain,” he said.

“There’s obviously going to be volatility as the market is trying to discover what assets, what blockchains are ultimately going to get adopted.”

Continue Reading

Technology

Oracle and Silver Lake part of TikTok investor group as Trump extends deal deadline

Published

on

By

Oracle and Silver Lake part of TikTok investor group as Trump extends deal deadline

In this photo illustration, the logo of TikTok is displayed on a smartphone screen on April 5, 2025 in Shanghai, China. 

Vcg | Visual China Group | Getty Images

President Donald Trump on Tuesday extended the deadline for ByteDance to divest TikTok’s U.S. business, which will be owned by an investor consortium that includes Oracle and Silver Lake, CNBC’s David Faber reported.

It’s the fourth time Trump has extended the deadline. The extension, as described in an executive order, precludes the Department of Justice from enforcing a national security law that would effectively ban TikTok in the U.S. until Dec. 16.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent revealed on Monday that a “framework deal” had been reached involving TikTok. Under the national security law, which would have come into effect on Wednesday, app store operators like Apple and Google and internet service providers would be penalized for providing services to TikTok’s U.S. operations if a deal was not reached.

Under the framework deal, about 80% of TikTok’s U.S. business would be owned by an investor consortium that includes Oracle, Silver Lake and Andreessen Horowitz, the Wall Street Journal on Tuesday reported. As part of the arrangement, existing U.S. users would need to shift to a new app, according to report.

Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping are expected on Friday to discuss the terms of the TikTok-related deal that Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent revealed on Monday.

The deal, which is expected to close in the next 30 to 45 days, includes new investors, existing ByteDance investors and will result in Oracle maintaining its cloud computing agreement with TikTok, CNBC’s David Faber reported earlier on Tuesday.

Bessent said Tuesday during CNBC’s Squawk Box that Trump was willing to let TikTok “go dark,” which spurred China to agree to a deal. The Treasury Secretary said that the deal’s commercial terms had already been finalized “in essence” since March or April, but China put the deal on hold following Trump’s tough tariffs and trade policies.

“We were able to reach a series of agreements, mostly for things we will not be doing in the future that have no effect on our national security,” Bessent said Tuesday.

A senior White House official said in a statement that, “Any details of the TikTok framework are pure speculation unless they are announced by this administration.”

TikTok did not reply to a request for comment.

WATCH: Trump’s willingness to let TikTok go dark motivated China to make deal.

Treasury Secretary Bessent: Trump's willingness to let TikTok go dark motivated China to make deal

Continue Reading

Technology

Microsoft announces $30 billion investment in AI infrastructure, operations in UK

Published

on

By

Microsoft announces  billion investment in AI infrastructure, operations in UK

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella speaks at Microsoft Build AI Day in Jakarta, Indonesia, on April 30, 2024.

Adek Berry | AFP | Getty Images

LONDON — Microsoft said on Tuesday that it plans to invest $30 billion in the U.K. by 2028, as the company builds out its artificial intelligence infrastructure.

The investment includes an additional $15.5 billion in capital expansion and $15.1 billion in its U.K. operations, Microsoft said. The company said the investment would enable it to build the U.K.’s “largest supercomputer,” with more than 23,000 advanced graphics processing units, in partnership with Nscale, a British cloud computing firm.

The spending commitment comes as President Donald Trump embarks on a state visit to Britain. Trump arrived in the U.K. Tuesday evening and is set to be greeted at Windsor Castle on Wednesday by King Charles and Queen Camilla.

During his visit, all eyes are on U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer, who is under pressure to bring stability to the country after the exit of Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner over a house tax scandal and a major cabinet reshuffle.

On a call with reporters on Tuesday, Microsoft President Brad Smith said his stance on the U.K. has warmed over the years. He previously criticized the country over its attempt in 2023 to block the tech giant’s $69 billion acquisition of video game developer Activision-Blizzard. The deal was cleared by the U.K.s competition regulator later that year.

“I haven’t always been optimistic every single day about the business climate in the U.K.,” Smith said. However, he added, “I am very encouraged by the steps that the government has taken over the last few years.”

“Just a few years ago, this kind of investment would have been inconceivable because of the regulatory climate then and because there just wasn’t the need or demand for this kind of large AI investment,” Smith said.

Starmer and Trump are expected to sign a new deal Wednesday “to unlock investment and collaboration in AI, Quantum, and Nuclear technologies,” the government said in a statement late Tuesday.

WATCH: What’s at stake in Trump’s visit to the U.K.

Trump in the UK: What’s at stake

Continue Reading

Technology

Waymo obtains permit to test robotaxis at San Francisco International Airport

Published

on

By

Waymo obtains permit to test robotaxis at San Francisco International Airport

Waymo partners with Uber to bring robotaxi service to Atlanta and Austin.

Uber Technologies Inc.

Alphabet-owned Waymo obtained a permit to start testing its robotaxis at San Francisco International Airport, San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie and the company announced Tuesday.

Waymo will partner with the airport to roll out its commercial robotaxi service in phases, “beginning with employee testing soon ahead of welcoming Bay Area riders,” company spokesperson Chris Bonelli told CNBC.

That means the robotaxis will start with human drivers on board, ready to take control of the vehicles if needed, and eventually operate as a driverless ride-hail service.

Waymo is already operating its service in San Mateo County, where the airport is based, and in nearby San Francisco, but it does not yet have permission to ferry passengers to or from the airport.

In 2022, Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport gave Waymo permission to test and operate its service there, and earlier this month, Waymo secured a permit to begin testing at San Jose Mineta International Airport.

Last month, Lurie said Waymo could operate a limited passenger service on one of San Francisco’s main thoroughfares, Market Street, where such services had previously been restricted.

For its general robotaxi service, Waymo now operates in Phoenix, parts of the San Francisco Bay Area, Los Angeles, Austin and Atlanta.

Tesla began testing a robotaxi service in Austin in June, with human safety supervisors on board. The Elon Musk-led company is also in discussions with San Francisco Bay Area airports. Tesla has permission to operate a paid car service in San Francisco, but not to run a driverless ride-hailing business there.

Tesla does not currently sell vehicles that are safe to use without a person in the car, ready to take over steering or braking at any time.

Don’t miss these insights from CNBC PRO

Exclusive: Amazon just launched its Zoox robotaxis in Las Vegas and we took a ride

Continue Reading

Trending