Crypto payments platform MoonPay is launching an institutional unit after acquiring Sodot, an Israeli crypto security infrastructure provider.

MoonPay on Wednesday announced the acquisition of Sodot, using Sodot’s key management technology as the core infrastructure layer of its new business serving financial institutions, asset managers, trading firms and exchanges entering digital asset markets.

“We built MoonPay to be the world’s leading crypto payments network,” MoonPay co-founder and CEO Ivan Soto-Wright said in a press release, adding that its institutional arm is the next stage for the company.

According to Bloomberg, the deal closed in April in an all-stock transaction valued at around $100 million. MoonPay did not immediately respond to Cointelegraph’s request for comment to confirm the deal’s details.

The move expands MoonPay’s business beyond retail crypto payments and reflects rising demand from traditional finance companies for secure wallet and custody infrastructure as they expand into digital assets.

MoonPay targets institutional demand

MoonPay’s new institutional division aims to serve large traditional financial firms across a range of areas, including trading, tokenized securities, payments, wallet management and stablecoin issuance.

The unit will be led by Caroline Pham, who joined MoonPay as its chief legal officer and chief administrative officer in December after serving as acting chair of the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission before joining MoonPay in late 2025.

Source: MoonPay

“There is no one better suited to lead this business than Caroline, who brings decades of experience at the highest levels of financial regulation and capital markets,” Soto-Wright said.

Security race heats up in crypto

Founded in 2023, Sodot is a platform focused on crypto key management infrastructure, a critical part of safeguarding digital assets and operating institutional wallets.

The company specializes in self-hosted multi-party computation (MPC), a cryptographic method that splits a private key into separate shares distributed across multiple independent parties to increase the security of funds.

Related: Fireblocks launches tool for institutions to earn yield on stablecoins

The acquisition comes amid a growing trend of institutional services supported by crypto custody providers. Last week, crypto exchange OKX integrated off-exchange settlement by BitGo, a publicly traded digital asset custodian.

Previously, BitMEX partnered with European crypto custody firm Zodia Custody to enable institutional crypto derivatives trading, with collateral held in segregated custody off-exchange.

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Latest developments: ETF inflows are signaling renewed confidence from traditional investors.

• Spot Bitcoin ETFs have absorbed almost $2 billion year-to-date, 21Shares CIO Adrian Fritz said on CoinDesk’s Public Keys
• Demand is coming from a mix of retail investors, institutions, and hedge funds using arbitrage and options strategies
• Morgan Stanley and other major asset managers entering crypto are accelerating institutional adoption

Why it matters: Liquidity — long a concern for skeptics — is no longer a barrier.

• Bitcoin now rivals mega-cap equities like Nvidia, with daily trading volumes exceeding $50 billion, Fritz said
• ETF structures provide both primary and secondary market liquidity, making the asset “institutional ready”
• Portfolio managers are increasingly viewing bitcoin as a viable multi-asset allocation despite volatility concerns

Reading between the lines: The ETF boom didn’t happen overnight.

• Adoption has been gradual, requiring education and comfort with crypto’s role in portfolios
• Investors are still grappling with correlations, volatility, and macro sensitivity
• The steady build in flows suggests a structural — not speculative — shift in demand

What to watch: Several catalysts could push Bitcoin past the key $80K level.

• Improving geopolitical sentiment, including any resolution tied to global conflicts, could boost risk appetite
• Continued ETF inflows remain a core driver of structural demand
• Negative perpetual futures funding rates could trigger short squeezes on upward price moves
• A breakout above the 200-day moving average ($85K–$90K range) would signal a stronger trend reversal

The big picture: Macro forces still dominate crypto’s trajectory.

• Investors are closely watching PCE inflation data and upcoming Fed decisions for policy direction
• Oil prices remain a driver — a spike above $100 could pressure risk assets, including bitcoin
• Adrian expects continued consolidation in the near term, with a move toward $100K by year-end if conditions align

The altcoin angle: Not all crypto assets will benefit equally.

• Ethereum is struggling but showing signs of renewed ETF inflows after a weak first quarter
• “Altcoin season” may not return in its previous form, as investors adopt more fundamentals-driven approaches
• Projects with real revenue and cash flow, like Hyperliquid, are gaining traction with traditional investors
• Weaker altcoin ETFs could face closures if underlying projects fail to demonstrate strength

Pantera Capital founder and CEO Dan Morehead said cryptocurrency markets may be undervalued compared with artificial intelligence stocks, which he described as overheated after a strong run.

Morehead framed the divergence as one of the largest he has seen between the two sectors, speaking at an event in New York on Tuesday.

“It’s just my intuition that although AI is very important, it’s going to go up big time over the long haul, seems to be pretty fully priced right now,” he said.

By contrast, “crypto…is incredibly cheap,” according to Morehead.

Pantera’s internal data backs that view. Morehead said an index of leading AI companies is “trading at 33% over its log trend of the last four years,” while bitcoin BTC$76,222.93 has fallen well below its own historical trajectory. “It’s 43% cheap to its trend,” he said, calling it “the biggest divergence we’ve seen in history.”

The gap comes as investor enthusiasm has tilted heavily toward AI, with large funding rounds and rising public market valuations. Crypto, meanwhile, has struggled to regain momentum despite broader adoption and regulatory progress in the U.S.

“The majority of institutions still don’t get it. They still don’t have any exposure,” Morehead said, adding that limited participation leaves room for future demand. Only a minority of large investors currently hold digital assets, he noted, even as the asset class matures.

That dynamic contrasts with AI, where investors have moved quickly to price in expected growth. For Morehead, the imbalance creates an opportunity for those willing to take a longer view.

He also pointed to structural cycles in crypto markets. “The four-year cycle is real,” he said, referring to bitcoin’s supply schedule. If past patterns hold, he suggested the market could remain in a weaker phase in the near term, even as the long-term outlook stays positive.

Beyond relative valuations, Morehead tied crypto’s appeal to broader macro trends. He described digital assets as a hedge against currency debasement, noting that inflation and monetary expansion have pushed investors toward scarce assets. “It’s actually all those things aren’t moving. It’s a massive devaluation of paper money,” he said.

Morehead sees convergence between AI and blockchain technologies. Pantera has invested in several projects at that intersection, and Morehead argued the two sectors are linked. “There’s really no world in which AI is important that crypto isn’t part of it,” he said.

Pantera views crypto as a relative value trade for now As capital continues to flow into AI, Morehead’s thesis rests on the idea that markets will eventually rebalance, drawing attention back to digital assets that remain, in his view, underpriced.

Visa (V) is expanding its stablecoin push by adding support for five more blockchains as it leans into a multichain approach to global payments.

The payments giant said Wednesday its stablecoin settlement pilot now spans nine networks and has reached a $7 billion annualized run rate, up 50% from the prior quarter. The program lets issuers and acquirers settle transactions using stablecoins instead of traditional banking rails.

The newly supported blockchains are Coinbase’s Base, Polygon, Canton Network, Circle’s Arc and Stripe-backed Tempo, joining existing integrations with Ethereum, Solana, Avalanche and Stellar.

Visa’s move comes as stablecoins — cryptocurrencies with prices tied to fiat money — are gaining ground as a way to move money across borders. Visa has been testing that model through pilots and regional rollouts, including USDC settlement tied to card programs in more than 50 countries.

Instead of waiting days for funds to move through banking systems, partners can settle transactions using blockchain-based dollars that move in near real time. By supporting multiple networks, Visa is aiming to give partners access to different pools of liquidity without added complexity.

“Our partners are building in a multi-chain world, and they expect their options to reflect that reality,” said Rubail Birwadker, Visa’s global head of growth products and strategic partnerships. “Expanding our stablecoin settlement pilot program to more blockchains means our partners can choose the networks that best fit their needs, while relying on Visa to provide a common settlement layer across all of them.”

KuCoin EU has appointed a new Anti-Money Laundering (AML) chief and expanded its compliance team in Vienna, weeks after Austrian regulators barred the exchange from taking on new business under Europe’s Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (MiCA) regime.

The MiCA-licensed entity named Carmen Kleinhans as its Anti-Money Laundering officer, alongside two deputy AML officers drawn from former Austrian regulators and bank compliance chiefs. According to a Wednesday release, the team will oversee AML, Counter-Terrorist Financing (CTF) and sanctions controls, as well as enterprise-wide risk management and regulatory engagement.

The move follows a February decision by Austria’s Financial Market Authority (FMA) to prohibit KuCoin EU from onboarding new clients or signing new contracts after finding that key AML/CTF and sanctions compliance roles were not adequately staffed, breaching internal organizational requirements.

The hires mark an effort by the exchange to address those gaps and align more closely with traditional financial services compliance expectations, as regulators increasingly focus on governance and controls rather than solely technical breaches.

Related: Thailand crypto platforms freeze 10K accounts in AML crackdown: Report

Wider regulatory pressure on KuCoin

The new staffing push also comes against a broader backdrop of rising AML and sanctions scrutiny in crypto, with regulators increasingly willing to freeze or partially suspend business over governance and staffing failures rather than just technical breaches of securities or licensing rules.

A Tuesday report by blockchain security auditor CertiK showed that KuCoin and OKX were among the exchanges hit with some of the largest AML-related penalties in 2025, highlighting how enforcement has shifted toward financial crime and controls rather than solely securities law issues.

Notable AML-Related Penalties in 2025. Source: CertiK

At a group level, KuCoin has also faced regulatory action in other jurisdictions. In January 2025, it agreed to pay nearly $300 million and exit the US market for two years in a criminal resolution over unlicensed money-transmission and AML failures, the Wall Street Journal reported at the time.

On March 30, the parent company of KuCoin agreed to pay a $500,000 civil penalty to settle a case by the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission alleging it operated an unregistered offshore commodities exchange. Earlier that same month, KuCoin received a warning from Dubai’s Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority over allegedly offering virtual asset services in the emirate without the required local licence.

Whether the hires are enough to restore normal operations under KuCoin EU’s Austrian authorization now depends on the FMA’s assessment of whether the required control functions have been fully and suitably restored.

Cointelegraph reached out to KuCoin EU for comment, but had not received a response by publication.

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Automated Market Makers (AMMs) are a foundational innovation within decentralized finance (DeFi), enabling permissionless and continuous trading without relying on traditional intermediaries. By replacing centralized order books with algorithmic pricing mechanisms, AMMs have transformed how digital assets are exchanged, making liquidity more accessible and markets more efficient

How AMMs Replace Traditional Order Books

In traditional financial markets, trading is facilitated through order books, where buyers and sellers submit bids and asks at specific prices. A trade occurs only when these orders match. While effective, this system depends on active participants and can suffer from low liquidity, especially for less popular assets.

AMMs eliminate the need for matching counterparties. Instead of waiting for a buyer or seller, users trade directly against a liquidity pool—a smart contract containing pairs of tokens supplied by liquidity providers (LPs).

This shift introduces several key advantages:

• Always-available liquidity (as long as funds exist in the pool)
• Permissionless participation (anyone can provide liquidity or trade)
• Elimination of intermediaries (reducing reliance on centralized exchanges)

The x * y = k Model Explained Simply

At the core of most AMMs lies a mathematical formula that governs pricing. The most widely used is the constant product formula:

$x\cdot y=k$

Where:

• x = quantity of Token A in the pool
• y = quantity of Token B in the pool
• k = constant (must remain unchanged after trades)

How it works:

• When a trader buys Token A, they remove some of it from the pool.
• To maintain the constant (k), the pool requires more Token B to be added.
• This adjustment changes the ratio between x and y, which in turn alters the price automatically.

In simple terms:
The more you buy, the more expensive it gets. The more you sell, the cheaper it becomes.

This dynamic pricing mechanism ensures continuous liquidity—but it comes with trade-offs.

Slippage and Price Impact

Because AMMs rely on pool ratios rather than fixed prices, large trades can significantly shift the balance of assets. This leads to two important concepts:

1. Slippage

Slippage is the difference between the expected price of a trade and the actual executed price.
It occurs because the price moves during the transaction.

• Small trades → minimal slippage
• Large trades → higher slippage

2. Price Impact

Price impact refers to how much a trade changes the market price within the pool.

For example:

• If a liquidity pool is shallow (low funds), even a moderate trade can cause a large price swing.
• In deep pools (high liquidity), the same trade has a much smaller effect.

Bottom line:
Liquidity depth determines how stable prices are during trading.

Why Uniswap Changed Trading Forever

The launch of Uniswap marked a turning point in crypto markets. Before AMMs, decentralized exchanges struggled with low liquidity and poor user experience.

Uniswap introduced:

• Simple, elegant AMM design based on x * y = k
• Permissionless liquidity provision, allowing anyone to earn fees
• Seamless token swaps directly from wallets
• Trustless execution via smart contracts

This model unlocked a wave of innovation:

• Yield farming
• Liquidity mining
• Decentralized trading ecosystems

More importantly, it removed gatekeepers. Anyone with a token could create a market for it instantly—no approvals, no listings, no centralized control.

Conclusion

Automated Market Makers are more than just a trading mechanism—they are the core infrastructure of DeFi. By replacing order books with mathematical models and liquidity pools, AMMs enable open, efficient, and decentralized markets.

Understanding how AMMs function—from the constant product formula to slippage dynamics—provides a deeper insight into how value flows across decentralized ecosystems.

👉 Mastering AMMs isn’t optional in DeFi—it’s the difference between guessing and actually understanding how the system works.