Dozens of Celebrities Invest Cumulative $87M into Crypto Firm MoonPay

A group of the world’s top celebrities seems to have one crypto investment in common – MoonPay. 

Chainsmokers, Drake, Eva Longoria, Jason Derulo, Kate Hudson, Paris Hilton, Shawn Mendes, Justin Bieber, Gwyneth Paltrow, Snoop Dogg, and Ashton Kutcher form part of an exclusive circle of celebrity investors to have added up to $87 million of a total $555 million fund led by Tiger Global and Coatue. MoonPay is currently valued at $3.4 billion, with the money from the funding round expected to be used for the expansion and launch of new products.

Founded in 2018, MoonPay, based in Miami, Florida, is a fintech software company that offers a quick and easy way to buy and sell cryptocurrencies using conventional payment methods like credit cards, bank transfers, or mobile wallets such as Apple Pay. 

MoonPay also offers services to other companies such as NFT marketplace OpenSea and Bitcoin.com. 

 Regarding the massive investments being made on behalf of celebrities, MoonPay CEO Ivan Soto-Wright stated: 

“A lot of companies might open a very small portion of their rounds, but we wanted to take on meaningful checks from these folks, because we want them to be part of this story and shape product direction.”

Soto-Wright also mentioned that artists are diversifying their portfolios, thus entering the NFT and Web 3.0 space to avoid relying solely on producing music and their subsequent tours: 

“A lot of them have venture capital portfolios, a lot of them have their own independent ventures, and we came to them saying 'we can help you understand opportunities around Web 3.0, crypto and the metaverse.’”