Cryptocurrency payments company MoonPay said it would be able to offer its service to users in all 50 US states after receiving licensing approval in New York.
In a June 4 notice, MoonPay said the New York State Department of Financial Services (NYDFS) granted its US company a BitLicense and a money transmitter license. The addition of the BitLicense makes MoonPay one of 35 digital currency businesses able to operate in New York State.
“With the approval of our New York BitLicense and Money Transmitter Licenses, MoonPay now holds the golden regulatory stack for crypto in the US, allowing us to directly serve customers in every single state without gaps in coverage,” said MoonPay co-founder and CEO Ivan Soto-Wright.
Under the BitLicense program, any digital asset business in New York or managing investments from residents must obtain the license. The regime is currently under scrutiny by elected officials such as New York City Mayor Eric Adams, who called for an end to the program during the Bitcoin 2025 conference in Las Vegas.
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The MoonPay notice came roughly a month after the company announced it planned to open a new headquarters in New York City. The payments platform said in December 2024 that it had received approval to operate as a licensed crypto business in the Netherlands under the European Union’s Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) framework.
If you can make it here, you can make it anywhere?
As a significant economic hub, New York and its biggest city have often been the focus of cryptocurrency companies looking to make inroads in the US market.
Anchorage Digital, Circle, Coinbase and Gemini all have BitLicenses to operate in the state, but the program is also subject to regulatory and legal scrutiny. In January 2024, Genesis Global Trading agreed to surrender its BitLicense as part of a settlement with NYDFS over allegedly defrauding investors through the Gemini Earn program.
Adams still faces political backlash after Justice Department officials recently stepped in and directed local authorities to drop a corruption case against the New York City mayor. At the same time, he has seemingly stepped up his support of the digital asset industry, hosting a crypto summit and speaking at the Bitcoin 2025 conference.
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