Buying Bitcoin with a card used to cost 17% in fees. This is the founder who thought that was insane, bootstrapped a fix on 365% annual loans, and built it into a $5B company.
Ivan Soto-Wright is the co-founder and CEO of MoonPay, the on-ramp plugged into MetaMask, Phantom, and just about every major crypto wallet you have used. Over 35 million people have run crypto through it. He started with zero payments background, got kicked off Stripe for touching crypto, and turned the lights on with a single acquirer that said yes.
In this one, Ivan and Ivan Patriki get into how MoonPay went from a card-to-crypto ramp to an "operating system for global value movement," and the wild new frontier: letting an AI agent hold a wallet and spend your money for you.
We cover:
Why buying Bitcoin with a card cost 17% (and why "your margin is my opportunity")
The Stripe ban that almost killed MoonPay before it started
Bootstrapping on loans at 1% a day (that is 365% a year, and yes it was legal enough)
Vitamin businesses vs painkiller businesses (and why his first startup failed)
$27 trillion moved over stablecoin rails last year
Why USDC is banned in Canada
Pay Box: giving Claude or ChatGPT a non-custodial wallet without handing over your private key
Booking an EasyJet flight inside Claude by sending USDC to an X402 endpoint
"Can I tell Claude to find me a girlfriend?"
Why an AI agent may manage your yield better than you do
Getting "interesting letters from three-letter agencies" under the last administration
Why banks like Chase still reject crypto card transactions (and why that is changing)
16 acquisitions in two and a half years, mostly aqua-hires for entrepreneurial DNA
Innovate or die: how MoonPay avoids becoming a stagnant PayPal
Grit, poker, and eating glass: the founder mindset
Taking over the X Games to make crypto part of culture
RESOURCES & LINKS:
Check out MoonPay: https://www.moonpay.com
MORE OF IVAN SOTO-WRIGHT:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/isotowright/
MORE OF ON THE MARGIN:
Website: https://www.themargin.tv
Spotify:
Main Site: https://www.on-the-margin.com
MORE OF BOAZ SOBRADO:
Twitter: https://x.com/sobradob
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sobradob
Website: https://themargin.tv/boaz-sobrado
MORE OF IVAN PATRIKI:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/artizt
Substack: https://substack.com/@artizt
Twitter: https://x.com/Ivan_patriki
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/artizt/?hl=en
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@ascended
Telegram: https://t.me/ivanpatriki
Timestamps:
00:00 - Two Ivans and the vision for global value movement.
01:00 - No payments background: pension funds, portfolio construction, and a first failed startup.
03:00 - The MoonPay insight: buy crypto directly inside your wallet.
04:10 - Kicked off Stripe, the first live transaction, and the 17% card fee.
06:20 - How MoonPay grew to $5B in seven years.
09:20 - Bootstrapped on 365% loans while VCs said no.
10:40 - Bull case for crypto and stablecoins as the better money rail.
12:40 - Vitamin vs painkiller: lessons from the lemonade stand up.
15:00 - Fastest crypto in your wallet and the Canada stablecoin ban.
17:00 - The 15-year vision: fund, tokenize, trade, spend.
20:30 - Where MoonPay users actually come from (and why not North Korea).
22:40 - Pay Box: a secure wallet inside Claude and ChatGPT.
27:00 - Booking flights with USDC over X402, and agentic commerce that actually works.
30:00 - Why agents may run your finances better than you.
32:50 - The biggest mistakes, three-letter agencies, and Silicon Valley Bank.
36:30 - What separates a founder: grit, poker, and shipping over perfection.
40:30 - The secret: make one dollar on the internet.
42:10 - Buying companies for entrepreneurial DNA and 16 acquisitions.
45:10 - Innovate or die: not becoming a stagnant PayPal.
47:10 - Message to the world: try Pay Box.
48:20 - Why there is no MoonPay coin (yet).
50:20 - Distribution, SEO, AEO, and taking over the X Games.
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