ICE Explores Investment in Crypto Payments Firm MoonPay Amid Growing Wall Street Interest

According to Cointelegraph, Intercontinental Exchange (ICE), the parent company of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), is reportedly in discussions to invest in the crypto payments company MoonPay. This potential investment is part of MoonPay's latest funding round, which aims to raise funds at a valuation of $5 billion. Bloomberg, citing sources familiar with the matter, did not disclose the specific dollar amount of ICE's potential investment. In October, ICE made a significant investment of $2 billion in the prediction platform Polymarket, elevating the company's valuation to $9 billion. MoonPay, established in 2019, is a financial technology firm that provides infrastructure for buying, selling, and utilizing cryptocurrencies through fiat on-ramps and off-ramps. It enables users to purchase crypto using traditional payment methods such as debit and credit cards, while also offering services to wallets, exchanges, and enterprises seeking to integrate crypto payments. The investment discussions highlight the increasing convergence between the crypto sector and Wall Street, as traditional financial institutions continue to adopt blockchain technology and form partnerships with crypto companies. This trend is further exemplified by ICE's exploration of stablecoin integration with Circle, a stablecoin company, and ICE's various clearing and data services. The products under consideration for integration include Circle's USDC dollar-pegged stablecoin and its tokenized money market fund, US Yield Coin (USYC), which is backed by short-term US Treasurys. In December, the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) approved the Depository Trust and Clearing Corporation (DTCC) to begin offering tokenized bonds and stocks. Real-world asset (RWA) tokenization represents physical or traditional assets on a blockchain, facilitating faster settlement times, cross-border transactions, and the use of assets as collateral in decentralized finance (DeFi) applications. DTCC, which handled approximately $3.7 quadrillion in settlement volume in 2024, is considered a cornerstone of the traditional financial system, clearing transactions across equity, bond, fixed income, and financial derivatives markets. DTCC plans to launch its tokenized trading services in the second half of 2026, minting some US Treasurys onchain using the Canton Network, a permissioned blockchain infrastructure network designed for financial institutions. This development underscores the growing integration of blockchain technology into traditional financial systems, as Wall Street continues to explore the potential benefits of crypto and blockchain innovations.