I really look at this and compare it to when you had financial markets were based on paper. You had traders on the trading floor shouting orders at each other and writing things on paper. Then you move to electronification of markets where everybody was using computers. And I see this as that next natural evolution to going to blockchain technology where it is immediately reconciled. I mean, you no longer have to worry about settlement fails. You don't have that great paperwork crisis that happened that actually started the trend towards dematerialization of securities. markets move fast crypto moves faster from the floor of the new york stock exchange Coindesk's public keys tracks the money, markets, and moves shaping digital assets. Caroline Pham, welcome to Markets Outlook. Hi, thanks for having me on the show. Of course, thanks for joining us again. We are talking about the news that was launched this morning. MoonPay acquiring SODOT and launching Moon Institutional. Just a quick foundation for us here. what was behind the acquisition and what can we expect from Moon Institutional? Sure, of course. So we're very excited to announce this deal. SODOT was acquired for $100 million all stock, and it is the foundation of our Moon Pay Institutional Business Unit that we've launched to focus on financial institutions, asset managers, trading firms, and exchanges. What's really exciting about SODOT is that they were founded in 2023 with a top team that provides secure key management solutions, non-custodial or self-hosted wallets founded by Ito Sofer and his co-founders. And it just really represents the gold standard in cryptography and other technology to make sure that you actually own your keys and own your crypto. It's being used by some of the top exchanges and trading firms in the world. So eToro, Flow Traders, Flowdesk, BitGo, all of them are SODOT's existing partners and clients, and we're really excited. And the reason why this is the anchor and the foundation of our MoonPay institutional strategy is because what we're seeing is this trend towards having an open architecture where you have an open platform, a comprehensive technology solution that's going to bring you all the way from key management, custodial or non-custodial wallets to on-chain order routing and trade execution, stablecoin settlement, collateral operations, all the way to payments, right? And so having something end-to-end that works with a single direct API integration into firms' existing systems, not to be trendy and not to be, you know, nerding out over the tech here, but that is what people want to see. And I know that because I used to work on it when I was at Citi with the different teams at Citi, the product teams, the innovation labs and everything. So that's really what we're seeing is an end to end tech infrastructure. That's institutional grade. And why is this important right now to us Our thesis is that TradFi is going to meet DeFi liquidity but it needs to do so in a secure controlled and compliant way with regulations that is KYC forward And MoonPay having started in the non-custodial space, having started in the DeFi space, we know how to KYC DeFi. We've been doing it since 2019. We have 30 million users, 180 countries, over 7,500 partners, merchants, wallet providers in our network with a reach of over 100 million estimated. So when you take all of that and you look at the fact that SOTA already has 50 billion that they secure, 10 million wallets, all institutional, we really think this is setting the foundation for when you truly see DeFi meeting TradFi. All right. $100 million is a big number. And if I think to years past, you know, we've we've seen these big numbers attached to acquisitions. At one point they were attached to acquiring regulated entities in different jurisdictions. Sometimes it feels like these big numbers are attached to fads. I remember when everyone was investing hundreds of millions in Web3 gaming. I think it's a different story when we're talking about the institutional picture here. But just talk to me a little bit about that bet on more and more institutions really understanding the benefits of blockchain rails. Just talk to me a little bit about the company investing so heavily in this direction. Sure, of course. So we are moving towards next-gen open financial markets and payment infrastructure. There's a reason why over 100 central banks around the world, which I used to engage with, and the BIS have been working on their innovation hubs to develop blockchain market infrastructure. I mean, you're looking at doing things like transforming, you know, wholesale FX markets, wholesale payments. This is really the pipes and plumbing of the financial system. And it's not new. Central banks and institutions have been working on all of this since at least about 2017, 2018, if not all the way back to about 2015, when blockchain technology really kind of came on the scene. And it was obviously first with Bitcoin. but institutions quickly understood the underlying value of the blockchain technology, given the fact that you have the instant settlement, it is the cryptography involved, the fact that it's immutable. All of these things are what you want to see when you're looking at financial market infrastructure. The other reason why is because if you just think about the general trends, I really look at this and compare it to when you had financial markets were based on paper. You had traders on the trading floor shouting orders at each other and writing things on paper. Then you move to electronification of markets where everybody was using computers. And I see this as that next natural evolution to going to blockchain technology where it is immediately reconciled. I mean, you no longer have to worry about settlement fails. You don't have that great paperwork crisis that happened that actually started the trend towards dematerialization of securities. Also, look, when you think about the volumes that we're seeing, I mean, just in the first quarter of 2026, I think stable coin transaction volume reached $28 trillion. This is real, right? And I said back in January that 2026 is gonna be the year of institutional adoption because you finally have the digital asset ecosystem maturing to that level that is required for financial institutions for the world largest asset managers You seen the announcements that have come out It a real thing The technology is real and it the future Do you think that crypto companies now have to have an institutional play in their business plan to survive? I think clearly understanding the technology infrastructure as being core and foundational is table stakes, right? And I think people understand that. But everybody comes from a different strength. I mean, for us, because we are looking at being that technology infrastructure stack, you know, we aren't competing with our clients. We see ourselves as really enabling our clients and our partners to access, like I said, the digital asset and DeFi ecosystem. Right now, everybody's very focused on cross-chain collateral mobility, and they're looking at aggregated DeFi liquidity. Obviously, you've seen the stories, you've covered these stories about how the markets have been operating 24-7 when you see market disruption, market stress, looking at some of the oil perps, for example. So people are really seeing the value and having tokenized assets on chain. History doesn't just happen. It's built by the bold, the brave, and the bullish. Consensus Miami is where crypto, culture, and trillions in capital converge. And ideas that fuel institutional scale are sparked. A place for those who refuse to settle for the status quo. The builders reprogramming the future of finance through every deal and decision. Breaking boundaries begins with being there. Experience that, Senator. Markets move fast. Crypto moves faster. From the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, Coindesk's public keys tracks the money, markets, and moves, shaping digital assets. You mentioned that this isn't the first time that institutions are looking at blockchain technology to really solve some problems that have existed for a long time in TradFi. I think the impetus for this is the regulatory progress we've seen in the United States over the past year, year and a half from where you sit. Of course, you used to be the acting chair of the CFTC. Is this the case? And if market structure doesn't pass this year, do institutions maybe slow down a little bit? So regulatory environment is 100% what has been slowing down the adoption of the blockchain technology, because like I said, everybody's been working on developing this in-house. The other reason why our solution is so important is because not every firm has the ability to build it from scratch themselves. So having stable coins in a box, having crypto in a box, being able to just stand that up and plug into it is table stakes for catching up to all the announcements that everybody's doing as they move in to take advantage of this. So I think that it is clearly the fact that last year with the White House crypto report, with the work that the SEC did with Project Crypto and is continuing to do with Project Crypto, the work that I led with the Crypto Sprint, the tokenized collateral guidance, the stablecoins guidance, the SEC's token taxonomy that the CFTC joined in. Those are the core pillars of regulatory clarity that was necessary for institutions to be able to enter the space. And importantly, the repeal of SAP 121. These were all blockers. And so in a pro-innovation environment with pro-innovation administration policies, that is why you seeing 2026 be the year of institutional adoption Do you think that market structure can still pass this year I think it really looking at the calendar There's only so many days, so I think it'll be really keeping an eye on the calendar. I want to talk a little bit more about the regulatory side. I know Stablecoins is a part of Moon Institutional's plan, as you've mentioned in our conversation. So far, we have banks that are slowing down progress on implementing genius rules that banks also have slowed down progress in market structure that like we were just talking about. How are you watching that? You know, Moon Institutional launches today. How are you watching the progress and the tension between banks and the crypto industry? Yeah, I honestly, what I see is I don't see any tension, right? And I actually don't see anybody slowing down. You have banks that have filed for patents, right, for stablecoin technology that have filed for trademarks for their stablecoin names. You see banks, particularly smaller banks, launching tokenized deposit networks. So what we see is value is coming on-chain. You know, MoonPay is how the world moves value. And Ivan Toto Wright, our co-founder and CEO, his vision is that we are the future operating system for money. The way that you interact with your money, the way that you move value, it's going to be on-chain and it's going to be different. The wallet is going to become the center of your engagement with the financial system. And not only that, but with life. I mean, when you have your tickets that are in your wallet, right, to some event, when you have like your NFT collectibles, that's going to be in your wallet. That's going to be in your wallet together with your stable coins or your tokenized deposits. It's going to be there with your tokenized securities. It's going to be there with your predictions. I think all of that, all in one in a wallet, we are seeing that kind of be the future of transactions. You know, I kind of alluded to the fact that it feels like many crypto companies are looking for their institutional angle right now as we see institutional capital flow into the space. Talk to me about what differentiates MoonPay from some of the other players out there like Coinbase Prime, BitGo, Anchorage. So first of all, MoonPay started the DeFi space. So when we're talking about providing access to DeFi liquidity, there's no one better than MoonPay. He's already proven that we do it at scale, right? 30 million users, 180 countries. I think I mentioned already we have 7,500 partners, merchants, wallet providers in our network. When you think about the fact that we believe in any chain, any token, and any wallet through our tech stack, that is our, for example, on-chain order router and trade execution technology. This is natively cross-chain. Not a lot of people are that. It's interoperable. It's across both permissioned and permissionless networks. it's connected to over 200 chains and millions of assets. Right. So there's not many people who really start from the DeFi space, but also start from the DeFi space with KYC. This is something that's a really unique value proposition. So we frankly believe we have the best tech. And by making investments in companies like SOTOT, we're going to make sure that we keep having the best tech. Any other acquisitions in the pipeline you can tell us about? Just stay tuned. Caroline, thanks so much for joining the show today. Thank you for having me. Thank you.
