Crypto Payments Startup MoonPay Buys Web3 Agency Nightshift

Cryptocurrency payment provider MoonPay is acquiring Web3-focused creative agency Nightshift as the company looks to build out a one-stop shop for brands looking to tap into online currencies and adjacent technologies, like collectible tokens and metaverse activations.

MoonPay, which provides crypto payment services and nonfungible token (NFT) infrastructure to brands like Nike, Universal and Fox, said the acquisition will further its mission to make a new ownership-based iteration of the internet, or Web3, more accessible to brand clients and, in turn, consumers. The companies declined to share the exact financial terms of the purchase.

As part of the deal, Nightshift will rebrand to the new name Otherlife, and the agency will retain its roster of brand clients, which has included Adobe, Shopify and Arsenal F.C., in addition to serving more of MoonPay’s existing customers.

“There was a big opportunity for us to come together and now be able to offer the end-to-end lifecycle support for big brands,” said MoonPay CEO Ivan Soto-Wright. “Now we can go to any brand that has an idea or wants to enter Web3, and we can help them execute a full end-to-end strategy.”

The deal comes as flux in the cryptocurrency space and dips in the NFT market have made some major brands wary about entering the Web3 space after companies had previously scrambled to get on board. But MoonPay enterprise president Keith Grossman, who left his role as president of Time magazine to join the company last month, said there’s still plenty of interest in using the technology for business cases like loyalty programs and intellectual property supplements, if not the more speculative side of the space.

“What Nightshift has done really well is show people what Web3 experiences can be and how they can deepen brand engagement,” Grossman said. “And at the end of the day, if you can show clients how they can be more successful, they don’t care if it’s Web1, Web2 or Web3—they just want to be more successful.”

Founded in 2018, MoonPay has raised around $642 million to date, according to the data hub Crunchbase. The company previously unveiled an NFT platform called HyperMint in June of last year with brands like Universal Pictures and Fox Corporation signed on as launch partners. The startup has also worked with Nike to power its virtual shoe marketplace and created a Halloween Horror Nights NFT scavenger hunt with Universal Parks and Resorts.

“This technology is some of the best fandom technology that’s ever existed,” said Soto-Wright. “And so part of that, when we’re speaking to brands, was ‘OK, how do they execute a strategy? What is the ‘why’? How do we put a strategy in place?’”

With its track record of guiding brands through Web3 strategies and marketing activations, Nightshift’s purchase is meant to help answer those questions. Nightshift CEO Michael Perrow, who co-founded the company along with executive creative director Michael Moodie, said MoonPay’s infrastructure will also help the agency offer more concrete tech options to the brands it advises.

“What I find the true synergy here—where the 1+1=3—is now that we’re able to use the infrastructure of MoonPay and HyperMint, we’re able to provide some of the large brands we work with, like Arsenal, for example, options about how to onboard their millions of fans into Web3 in a seamless manner,” Perrow said.

“Using the wallets and smart contracts, using the on-ramps, using the ever-growing infrastructure is really exciting for us to provide the best-in-class solutions for for all these wild ideas that we’re coming out with.”