Bieber and Paltrow among celebs pouring $87m into NFT firm Moonpay
Crypto startup Moonpay has raised $87m (£67m) from dozens of celebrity investors including Justin Bieber, James Corden and Gwyneth Paltrow.
Moonpay, a payments infrastructure provider for digital assets which runs a concierge service to buy NFTs for users, has a number of high profile clients. The platform even featured in a music video showing music artist Post Malone purchasing a Bored Ape Yacht Club NFT.
The firm’s latest capital raise drew participation from over 60 celebrities from across the entertainment, music and sports industries with Paris Hilton, Post Malone and Snoop Dogg among investors.
“Web3 is inspiring the entertainment industry, and commerce in general, to reimagine the way we create community, connect with fans, build value and manage intellectual property,” said Gwyneth Paltrow, Co-Founder of Kinship Ventures.
“We are excited to invest in MoonPay because we believe their technology is best positioned to make participating in cryptocurrency more accessible,” she continued.
Launched in 2019, Moonpay has benefitted from the recent explosion of interest in the NFT market. An estimated $40bn of capital was poured into NFTs last year putting it on a par with the traditional art market which was valued at $50bn in 2020.
In November, Moonpay closed a series A funding round for $555m, bringing the company’s valuation to $3.4bn.
Ivan Soto-Wright, the chief executive and co-founder of MoonPay, said NFTs can usher in a “creator economy renaissance,” giving artists greater control over their work.
“Hollywood is using smart contracts and blockchain technology to assert their creative intellectual property rights,” said Soto-Wright. “Major global sports franchises have used digital tokens and NFT collectibles to transform fan engagement. And recording artists are beginning to explore how NFTs can give them more control over royalty rights.”
Despite the growing popularity of NFTs online payments infrastructure can still carry risks for investors. High value NFTs, such as collectibles from the Bored Ape Yacht Club, are frequently the target of attempted scams and theft.
Read more: Bored Ape owner loses NFTs worth $576,000 to scam