MoonPay, a crypto payments infrastructure firm, announced Monday that it has acquired Meso, a startup building payments systems that bridge traditional finance and crypto. The deal is part of MoonPay’s strategy to create a global payments network that connects banks, card systems, stablecoins, and blockchains under a consistent regulatory framework. This includes U.S. money transmitter licenses as well as Europe’s forthcoming MiCA regime.
In a statement, Ivan Soto-Wright, MoonPay co-founder and CEO, said the acquisition marks the company’s next phase of growth:
“We’ve built trusted ramps that brought millions into crypto, now we’re building the global network that will move money across every form and in every market,” Soto-Wright said.
we're excited to share that MoonPay has acquired Meso to help us build crypto's largest global payments network
— MoonPay 🟣 (@moonpay) September 15, 2025
Ali Aghareza and Ben Mills will be joining our team as new CTO and SVP of Product
let's get to work! pic.twitter.com/fMP22ihdbH
Leadership changes with Meso integration
With the acquisition, Meso’s co-founders are formally joining MoonPay’s leadership team:
- Ali Aghareza, Meso’s Chief Technology Officer, will step into the same role at MoonPay. Aghareza was part of the original engineering team at Braintree, which was later acquired by PayPal, and has held senior engineering roles at PayPal itself.
- Ben Mills, co-founder of Meso, will become Senior Vice President of Product. Mills previously led developer experience at Braintree, served as head of product at Venmo, held leadership roles at Thinkful and Chegg, and worked on payments innovation at Solana before co-founding Meso.
MoonPay did not disclose financial details or terms of the transaction.
Ongoing acquisition strategy
The deal continues a pattern of acquisitions by MoonPay as it scales its global payments infrastructure. Earlier this year the company acquired:
- Helio, a Solana-based payments processor, in January 2025
- Iron, a stablecoin infrastructure firm
- Decent.xyz, an onchain payments platform, as reported by Bloomberg
Together, these acquisitions expand MoonPay’s ability to support crypto purchases via cards, bank transfers, and mobile methods. The company aims to position itself as a crypto-native payments network, offering infrastructure similar to Stripe in the traditional financial world.
Challenges and market context
Despite pursuing multiple acquisitions, MoonPay has also been working through operational challenges. In June 2024, the company laid off about 10% of its workforce due to high costs and weaker-than-expected operating margins.
MoonPay has expanded rapidly since its founding in 2019. It became one of the fastest-growing startups in crypto infrastructure, raising $555 million in a Series A round in 2021 at a valuation of $3.4 billion. That funding round was led by Tiger Global and Coatue.
As the broader crypto industry navigates regulatory uncertainty, MoonPay is focusing on building a compliant and scalable foundation to integrate crypto and fiat payments.
Looking ahead
MoonPay says that adding Meso’s technology and leadership, alongside its recent acquisitions, gives it the key elements required to build a single global payments network that works across fiat and digital assets.
If successful, the platform could allow both consumers and businesses to pay, get paid, and transfer value across multiple payment forms within one unified system.
Kristian Koch
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