Transaction Overview
On January 13, 2025, MoonPay, historically offering fiat to crypto onboarding capabilities, announced its acquisition of Helio, a platform that enables crypto payments for a reported $175M.
Target: Helio
Helio enables online merchants, applications, and creators to accept payments in over 100 forms of crypto assets. This capability is powered by Helio’s Application Programming Interface (API), native plug-ins, or pay links. Helio can be thought of as the “Stripe for crypto.” Just as Stripe revolutionized fiat payment enablement for online merchants, Helio is following a similar playbook for crypto payments.
Helio charges clients between 0.25% and 2.00%, depending on the specific capabilities utilized. The platform integrates seamlessly with WooCommerce, Shopify, and Discord, making it easy for businesses on these platforms to offer crypto payment options.
The company reports processing over $1.5 billion in annualized transaction volume, serving more than 6,000 sellers, and providing payment options to over 1 million end users. Helio is used across a variety of applications, including Shopify-powered e-commerce sites, decentralized applications (DApps), ticketing, NFTs, and creator communities. Notable clients include Magic Eden, Hivemapper, Solana Labs, Star Atlas, Layer Zero Labs, and Polygon Labs.
Founded in 2022 by Stijn Paumen and Jim Walker, Helio is headquartered in London with a team of 20 members. The company raised $3.3 million in a seed round in April 2023 at a $12 million post-money valuation. The round was led by Lightspeed Venture Partners and Peak, with participation from Droid Capital, Faction Ventures, and other investors.
Buyer: MoonPay
MoonPay is a fiat-to-crypto on-ramp provider that enables users to buy, sell, and swap cryptocurrencies and NFTs. The company offers on/off-ramp services as an API-integrated solution for businesses and directly to end users through its own non-custodial wallet.
MoonPay supports over 110 cryptocurrencies and 30+ fiat payment methods, including credit/debit cards, bank transfers, Apple Pay, Google Pay, and Samsung Pay, operating in more than 180 countries. To date, MoonPay has facilitated the creation of 20 million accounts and delivered over $6 billion in cryptocurrency.
In 2021, MoonPay reported reaching $150 million in annual revenue. The company has been profitable since launching its platform in 2019.
Founded in 2019 by Ivan Soto-Wright, Victor Faramond, and Maximilian Crown, MoonPay is headquartered in Miami, Florida, and employs over 300 team members across nine countries. The company was last valued at $3.4 billion following a $555 million Series A round led by Tiger Global and Coatue in April 2022, during the peak of the crypto market prior to the Crypto Winter. Other notable investors include Animoca Brands, Paradigm, Andreessen Horowitz, Genesis Accel, Cobalt Capital, WndrCo, and 122 additional backers.
Transaction Parameters
MoonPay acquired Helio for a reported $175M, with the form of consideration (cash or stock or a combination) being undisclosed.
Previous comparable transactions include: Bridge.xyz | Stripe ($1.1B, M&A Alert here), Pay.so | Request Finance, Bit2Pay | MELD, Cryptpay | Hero
Strategic Rationale
Helio expands the scope of MoonPay’s capabilities to include payments, marking a significant strategic shift.
MoonPay has established itself as the largest independent provider of fiat-to-crypto conversion services, supporting a wide range of companies that rely on this fundamental capability to onboard new customers. Notable clients include wallets such as MetaMask and Phantom, as well as exchanges like Uniswap and OpenSea. During the NFT boom of 2021–2022, a significant portion of MoonPay’s business was centered around enabling the creation and purchase of NFTs.
While MoonPay Checkout was an early payment product designed to enable credit card transactions, its primary focus was on the NFT ecosystem. Helio complements and significantly extends MoonPay’s payment capabilities, broadening its reach and potential.
Architect Partners’ Observations
Why are crypto payments important?
First, while still relatively small, there is a very active and growing economy where crypto serves as the reference currency. For example, NFT and memecoin issuers typically only accept payments in crypto. Ideally, interested buyers can use any form of crypto asset as payment—and many are doing just that. These payments are virtually instant, irreversible (eliminating the possibility of chargebacks), generally low-cost in terms of transaction fees, and operate entirely outside the traditional banking and payment ecosystems.
The larger opportunity, estimated at $2.4 trillion annually and gaining momentum, is the use of crypto to pay for mainstream goods and services or to send “money” to friends and family. The core value proposition remains the same: instant, low-cost, and secure transactions. This trend is particularly evident in cross-border B2B payments and remittances, where crypto provides a more efficient alternative to traditional methods.
Crypto can also be a preferred form of “currency” for individuals or businesses in certain countries or regions, particularly stablecoins, which function as crypto assets tied to the value of the US dollar. Stablecoins offer a secure and stable store of value in environments with volatile local currencies or economic instability.
As more people globally own and use crypto in its various forms, the likelihood of it becoming an accepted method of exchanging value increases.
These trends are already underway. Let’s see where they lead.
Sources
PitchBook, Helio Press Release, Moonpay Press Release, CoinDesk