Justin Bieber, Snoop Dogg and Bruce Willis Invest Millions in Cryptocurrency Company MoonPay
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Cryptocurrency payments startup MoonPay raised $87 million in a recent investment round.
More than 60 high-profile investors participated in the round, including singer Justin Bieber, rapper Snoop Dogg, tennis player Maria Sharapova, actor Bruce Willis and rapper Drake.
In a statement released this Wednesday (13), MoonPay informed that the investments are part of the Series A round. Published in November last year, the round valued the company at US$ 3.4 billion.
Focus on NFTs and celebrities
MoonPay provides payment infrastructure for cryptocurrency and NFT transactions. According to CEO Ivan Soto-Wright, the expectation is that content creators will increasingly use NFTs to market their work and engage with fans.
“MoonPay sees an entirely different format for the entertainment industry. In that sense, my thinking was, let’s build a diverse portfolio of amazing people representing different industries and let’s talk about the use cases of their intellectual property.”
According to the company, the funds raised will go towards doubling their efforts with a focus on NFTs and interaction between fans and artists.
Also participating in the investment round were Adel Future Nur’s company Dreamcrew; Kinship Ventures, led by Gwyneth Paltrow; actor Ashton Kutcher; venture capital firm Sound Ventures, backed by Guy Oseary; singer Abel Tesfaye, better known as The Weeknd and his manager Amir Esmailian.
MoonPay is a crypto company recognized for interacting with renowned people. This is because, generally, it acts as an intermediary for NFTs deals with celebrities.
According reported through Cryptheory, singer Madonna, for example, acquired her $556,000 NFTs Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) via MoonPay.
“I finally entered the metaverse. My own Ape! How should I name it? Thank you MoonPay. We all need protection from the evil eye.” wrote Madonna on the occasion.
Also, in January of this year, MoonPay purchased a zombie-themed NFT CryptoPunk for 900 ETH. At the time, this was equivalent to approximately $3 million.
