Moonpay has closed its $100 million all-stock acquisition of Israeli startup Sodot, using the deal as the foundation for a new institutional business line. The company, long known for retail fiat-to-crypto rails, is now pushing deeper into services built for regulated financial firms, including banks and asset managers.
Sodot Becomes the Security Core of Moonpay Institutional
Sodot, founded in 2023, focuses on advanced cryptography and key management. Moonpay said its technology will serve as the backbone of Moonpay Institutional. The startup uses Multi-Party Computation, or MPC, and Trusted Execution Environment, or TEE, tools to secure digital keys, allowing institutions to manage private keys without exposing them to third parties.
Moonpay said Sodot’s systems have already secured more than $50 billion in transactions and protected over 10 million wallets for clients including Etoro and Bitgo. The full Sodot team will join Moonpay, which also plans to keep investing in its Israeli operations and the region’s cryptography talent base.
Former CFTC Acting Chair Caroline Pham Takes the Lead
To run the institutional push, Moonpay appointed former U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission acting Chairman Caroline Pham as CEO of Moon Global Markets. According to the company, Pham brings more than 25 years of experience across law and finance, including roughly 10 years working around digital assets and time at Citigroup.
The appointment fits Moonpay’s compliance-heavy message. The company already holds a New York Limited Purpose Trust Company charter and a Bitlicense, credentials it says support custody services for traditional financial firms. Pham said boards and investors are asking for a more unified digital asset strategy, and Moonpay Institutional is being built as that turnkey entry point.
One API, 200-Plus Chains, and a Focus on Stablecoin Demand
Moonpay Institutional is being positioned as a protocol-agnostic platform offering wallet infrastructure, custody, trade execution, and over-the-counter liquidity. Through a single API, the platform connects to more than 200 blockchains, a structure aimed at reducing the fragmentation that has slowed institutional crypto adoption.
Moonpay’s timing also tracks with the growth of stablecoins and onchain finance. Citing Federal Reserve research, the report said stablecoin market capitalization has risen more than 50% since early 2025 and now sits near $320 billion. Stablecoin transaction volume reached $33 trillion in 2025, while the first quarter of 2026 alone recorded more than $28 trillion. Against that backdrop, asset managers are seeking exposure to DeFi yields and tokenized real-world assets, and Moonpay is using the Sodot acquisition to strengthen its position in that institutional buildout.