MoonPay suspends operations in Ukraine, Russia and Belarus

On March 10th the MoonPay team contacted all customers to inform them that due to recent events in Eastern Europe they had suspended operations in Ukraine, Russia, and Belarus and are no longer working with customers with physical addresses in those regions. 

In an explanation of their recent decision, they noted that it was impossible for them to continue operating in these regions and adhere to the current sanctions in place by countries across the world, including the UK, EU, UK, and others. 

Founded less than three years ago, MoonPay’s fiat-to-crypto on-ramp powers more than 250 wallets, websites, and applications in more than 160 countries and has processed more than $2 billion in transactions to date. In November 2021, the firm hit a $3.4 billion valuation off the back of a $555 million Series A funding round led by Tiger Global Management.

MoonPay’s foray into NFT services

The user-friendly payments infrastructure helps to bridge the world of crypto with traditional finance, providing solutions in the NFT space that make it easy for marketplaces like OpenSea, the largest NFT marketplace, to offer fast and safe ways to buy and sell digital assets.

Available to any brand, creator, or marketplace, MoonPay’s NFT Checkout classifies tokens as ‘digital goods’ leading to card approval rates that are multiples higher than standard crypto on-ramps. With other payment providers following suit it is the ease of connection that sees Moonpay succeed as an offering for NFT marketplaces.

Although many cryptocurrency exchanges are resisting pressure from countries to ban Russian users on their platforms, the sanctions are now having an effect on both sides of the conflict. Coinbase, which publicly stood behind all of its users in the face of sanctions, nevertheless blocked 25,000 wallets addresses linked to what it believes are Russian individuals and entities engaged in illegal activity Monday.

Non-US exchanges such as Binance and FTX have argued that preserving the access of Russians to crypto is crucial, considering their growing reliance on digital assets as the ruble plummets in the face of heavy US and European sanctions.