Bieber, Sharapova, Willis Help Crypto, NFT Startup Raise $87M

MoonPay has raised $87 million in funding from high-profile investors, Reuters reported on Wednesday, citing a statement from the cryptocurrency payments startup.

What Happened: The firm’s Series A funding round saw participation from celebrity investors like tennis star Maria Sharapova and pop singer Justin Bieber.

Other investors that participated in the round included Hollywood actor Bruce Willis, rapper Snoop Dogg and Canadian singer Abel Makkonen Tesfaye, otherwise known as The Weeknd.

The investment round was first disclosed in November, but the detailed list of celebrity investors involved stayed out of the public record until recently.

See Also: Serena Williams: ‘I’m Really In Love With Ethereum’

Tiger Global Management and Coatue led the investment round which valued MoonPay at $3.4 billion.

According to a report from CNBC, these celebrities were included in a list of 60 new investors that collectively contributed $87 million to the $555 million funding round announced in November.

The report also named Chainsmokers, Drake, Eva Longoria, Jason Derulo, Kate Hudson, Paris Hilton, Matthew McConaughey, Mindy Kaling, Questlove, and Shawn Mendes on the list of MoonPay’s new investors.

MoonPay builds payment infrastructure for crypto and NFT transactions. It also lets users exchange cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin BTC/USD, Ethereum ETH/USD, and Dogecoin DOGE/USD using payment methods like Apple Inc AAPL Pay with debit and credit cards.

Price Action: According to data from Benzinga Pro, BTC was trading at $40,191, up 0.25% in the last 24 hours.

Photo courtesy: MoonPay