MoonPay is establishing a dedicated institutional unit by acquiring Sodot, an Israeli provider of crypto security infrastructure, and plans to use Sodot’s key-management technology as the backbone for services tailored to banks, asset managers, trading firms, and exchanges entering digital asset markets.
In a press release, MoonPay said the move will extend its network beyond consumer crypto payments into enterprise-grade infrastructure. Bloomberg reported that the deal closed in April in an all-stock transaction valued at around $100 million, though MoonPay did not immediately respond to Cointelegraph for comment on the specifics.
“We built MoonPay to be the world’s leading crypto payments network,” MoonPay co-founder and CEO Ivan Soto-Wright said in a press release, adding that its institutional arm is the next stage for the company.
Key takeaways
- MoonPay is launching an institutional division by acquiring Sodot, leveraging its key-management technology to serve traditional finance players entering crypto markets.
- The deal, disclosed as an all-stock transaction valued at about $100 million, reportedly closed in April, according to Bloomberg.
- Caroline D. Pham will lead the new unit, bringing regulatory and capital markets acumen to shepherd institutional adoption.
- The move underscores a broader trend of custody and wallet infrastructure becoming central to crypto adoption by institutions.
MoonPay’s institutional push takes shape
The newly formed MoonPay Institutional unit is designed to cater to major traditional financial firms across several domains, including trading, tokenized securities, payments, wallet management, and stablecoin issuance. The strategy signals a shift from MoonPay’s established retail-payments footprint toward essential infrastructure that incumbents require to operate in digital asset markets at scale.
Caroline Pham will helm the division, having joined MoonPay as chief legal officer and chief administrative officer in December after serving as acting chair of the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission. MoonPay’s leadership highlighted her regulatory experience and capital markets background as a critical asset for navigating complex crypto markets at an institutional level. “There is no one better suited to lead this business than Caroline, who brings decades of experience at the highest levels of financial regulation and capital markets,” Soto-Wright said.
Pham’s leadership appointment and the strategic focus on institutional clients come as the industry sees a growing appetite among banks, asset managers, and trading desks for robust custody, secure wallet technology, and compliant on-ramps into digital asset markets. The new unit will pursue relationships that require high assurance around key management, secure settlement rails, and scalable custody solutions—areas that have historically been the preserve of specialized custody providers, but are increasingly embedded in mainstream financial workflows.
Key technology: MPC and Sodot’s security framework
Sodot, founded in 2023, specializes in crypto key management infrastructure and is known for its self-hosted multi-party computation (MPC) approach. MPC is a cryptographic method that splits a private key into multiple shares distributed across independent parties, enabling signatures and access controls without exposing a single point of failure. This architecture is particularly attractive to institutions that demand stringent controls and resilience for large digital asset holdings.
By integrating Sodot’s MPC-based framework, MoonPay aims to offer enterprise-grade custody and wallet-management capabilities that can be deployed within traditional financial environments. The emphasis on secure key management aligns with a broader market push toward formalizing crypto custody as a core service for institutions, rather than a niche feature for crypto-native players.
Industry context and implications for institutional crypto adoption
The MoonPay-Sodot move sits within a broader industry trajectory in which custody and security infrastructure are increasingly essential to institutional participation. In recent weeks, major exchanges have accelerated their own institutional onboarding through partnerships and off-exchange settlement arrangements with custody providers. For example, OKX recently integrated off-exchange settlement via BitGo, a publicly traded digital asset custodian, underscoring demand for regulated, secure settlement rails as institutions enter crypto markets.
Cross-industry collaborations between trading venues and custody specialists have become a recurring theme. Earlier, BitMEX announced a partnership with Zodia Custody to enable institutional crypto derivatives trading with collateral held in segregated custody off-exchange. These developments illustrate how the market is maturing from consumer-focused payments to a suite of reliability-focused services that institutions require to operate confidently in digital assets.
The MoonPay–Sodot announcement also highlights the ongoing competition to deliver secure, scalable infrastructure that can support not just custody, but also tokenized securities, regulated wallet services, and compliant stablecoin ecosystems. As traditional finance players seek to extend their footprint in digital assets, the emphasis on robust key management, governance, and regulatory alignment will be a key differentiator among service providers.
Looking ahead, investors and market participants will want to watch several dimensions: how MoonPay’s institutional unit signs its first major clients and which product lines prove most compelling for different segments (trading desks vs. asset managers), how smoothly Carline Pham’s regulatory expertise translates into practical governance and compliance outcomes, and how the partnership with Sodot scales in real-world deployments across jurisdictions with varying regulatory regimes.
MoonPay’s latest move reflects a broader shift in the crypto ecosystem—from retail-focused payments to institutional-grade infrastructure that enables secure, regulated participation. As the market continues to evolve, the integration of advanced key-management tech and formalized custody offerings will likely become a baseline expectation for any platform seeking to attract and retain institutional users.
Readers should stay tuned for updates on client onboarding milestones, product rollouts, and any financial or strategic details the company elects to disclose as the institutional arm begins its first full operating cycle.
