In brief
- MoonPay’s privacy policy assigns retail customers, by residence, to five regional companies, each with its own terms: MoonPay USA LLC for the US and Canada, MoonPay Europe B.V. for the EEA, MoonPay (UK) Limited, MoonPay AUS Pty Ltd for Australia and New Zealand, and MoonPay Jersey Ltd for the rest of the world. Which products each offers differs.
- Registers confirm three regional entities (the EEA company’s MiCA licence, exchange and transfer only, no custody; the UK company’s FCA anti-money-laundering registration, 944716; the US company’s FinCEN entry) plus the New York trust company; other licences are company-reported.
- The business lines (MoonPay Enterprise, formerly Iron, and MoonPay Commerce, formerly Helio) do not say which company signs with a business customer.
Reader question: which MoonPay services can consumers and businesses use in each region, and which MoonPay company, under which licence, provides them?
MoonPay began as a crypto on-ramp, a checkout for buying and selling crypto on its own site or inside wallets that embed it. Its terms now also cover a fiat balance, virtual bank accounts that convert deposits into stablecoins and MoonPay-issued US dollar stablecoins; it also markets custody for institutions and payment tools for merchants. Contracting entities vary by service and region. This profile maps them from MoonPay’s current terms, help centre and four public registers, checked on 30 September 2026. We did not open an account or place a transaction, so availability below is what MoonPay states, not what we tested.
What is verified today
ESMA’s interim MiCA register lists MoonPay Europe B.V. as a crypto-asset service provider authorised by the Dutch AFM on 30 December 2024, for exchange of crypto for funds, crypto-to-crypto exchange and transfers, with 29 other EEA states listed for passporting. The FCA register shows MoonPay (UK) Limited, reference number 944716, registered for cryptoasset activities under the Money Laundering Regulations since 9 December 2022. That settles a discrepancy on MoonPay’s own pages: the UK terms give 944716, and the licences page prints 944746 but links to the 944716 record. FinCEN’s list (29 September export) includes MoonPay USA LLC as a money services business. The NYDFS regulated-entities table listed MoonPay Trust Company, LLC in our 23 September capture; the page returned a 403 error on 30 September. The custody and trading scope is MoonPay’s own description.
Entity and authority
| Entity | Serves | Licence or registration claimed | Status (30 Sep 2026) |
|---|---|---|---|
| MoonPay USA LLC (Delaware) | US and Canada; issuer under the stablecoin terms | FinCEN MSB; FINTRAC MSB; NY BitLicense 0000045; state money transmitter licences | FinCEN: verified. BitLicense: company-reported (NYDFS page blocked on 30 Sep). State licences: could not be verified (licences page reviewed; state registers and NMLS not queried). FINTRAC: company-reported |
| MoonPay Europe B.V. (Netherlands) | EEA | MiCA CASP (AFM) | Verified: exchange and transfer services; custody not listed |
| MoonPay (UK) Limited (company 12055543) | UK | FCA cryptoasset registration | Verified: registered, 944716. An anti-money-laundering registration, not an FCA authorisation; the register says the Financial Ombudsman Service and FSCS cannot help with this firm |
| MoonPay AUS Pty Ltd | Australia, New Zealand | AUSTRAC DCE100858195-001 | Company-reported; AUSTRAC not queried |
| MoonPay Jersey Ltd | Rest of world | JFSC SCH-14176 | Company-reported; JFSC not queried |
| MoonPay Trust Company, LLC | Institutions (custody, OTC) | NY limited purpose trust company | Listed on the NYDFS table (23 Sep capture) |
| Launchpad Limited (BVI) | Wallet, app and CLI users in all regions | None stated | Company-reported |
| MoonPay Digital Assets Limited | PYUSDx issuance framework (announced 25 Feb 2026; operation not yet verified) | None stated; jurisdiction not stated | Not publicly disclosed |
MoonPay also says it is registered in Ireland and Italy, and a help-centre page says its MiCA licence covers custody and stablecoin issuance. The first is not on the licences page; the second does not match the ESMA entry. The group parent of these companies is not yet verified: the terms and privacy policy do not name it, and company registries were not queried.
Who can use what, and where
Our matrix. Column headings name the company under each region’s retail terms. “Available (help centre)” means a MoonPay help-centre page says so; “In terms” means the product is covered by that region’s current terms, with launch not verified. Both are company-reported.
| Product | US (MoonPay USA LLC) | EEA (MoonPay Europe B.V.) | UK (MoonPay (UK) Ltd) | Australia, NZ (MoonPay AUS) | Rest of world (MoonPay Jersey) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Buy, sell, swap (consumers and businesses) | In terms | In terms | In terms; appropriateness test and 24-hour cooling-off for new customers | In terms; MoonPay AUS is the counterparty | In terms |
| MoonPay Balance (fiat balance, retail) | Available (help centre) | Available in the EU (help centre); a Dutch foundation, unnamed in the terms, is party to the Balance clauses; German residents capped at 30 days | Available (help centre) | Not in terms or help-centre list | In terms “where offered”; not in the help-centre list |
| Virtual accounts (MoonPay Enterprise help-centre eligibility, via partner apps) | USD, EUR, GBP: retail and business (help centre) | EU: EUR, GBP retail and business; USD business only (help centre). Other EEA states: not yet verified | EUR, GBP retail and business; USD business only (help centre) | Not in terms; entity not disclosed | USD, EUR, GBP: retail and business (help centre) |
| MoonPay USD stablecoins (buy, redeem; described in terms, issuance not yet verified) | Excluded in New York and Colorado; elsewhere not stated | Excluded | Not stated | Not stated | Not stated |
| Licence evidence | FinCEN verified; state licences could not be verified | MiCA verified | FCA registration verified | Company-reported | Company-reported |
The virtual-account row comes from a MoonPay Enterprise help article, and “your partner app shows exactly what’s available to you”. The US, EEA, UK and rest-of-world retail terms all contain virtual-account clauses, but whether a partner app’s users contract under them, or with another MoonPay company, is not yet verified. The help centre also excludes 47 jurisdictions from all services, Iceland among them.
Canada is served by MoonPay USA LLC, but only two points are stated for it: MoonPay stablecoins are excluded, and Balance is not in the help-centre list. Virtual-account eligibility for Canada is not stated.
Business-only lines sit outside this grid. MoonPay Enterprise (Pay In, Pay Out, Issue) is sold to developers, whose end users sign up through partner apps; availability “varies by jurisdiction, corridor, customer type, and payment rail”. MoonPay Commerce (built on Helio, acquired before Iron in March 2025) serves merchants and maintains the Solana Pay plugin for Shopify. Neither names its contracting entity, and we found no named, dated production customer for either. MoonPay Institutional markets custody through the New York trust company; a named custody client was not found either. MoonPay announced an M0 integration for custom stablecoins in November 2025; production issuance was not yet verified. PYUSD itself is issued by Paxos.
Dependencies
Virtual-account deposits arrive over ACH and Fedwire, SEPA, and Faster Payments or CHAPS, then convert into a stablecoin; Circle’s USDC and EURC are among the options. The banks behind those rails, who holds customer money during conversion, and the stablecoins’ reserve custodian and attestation provider are not yet verified: the help centre and stablecoin terms we read do not name them.
Alternatives
| Point | MoonPay | Bridge (Stripe) | zerohash |
|---|---|---|---|
| MiCA entity (ESMA) | MoonPay Europe B.V., AFM, 30 Dec 2024 | Bridge Building S.A., CSSF, 29 Jun 2026 | zerohash europe B.V., AFM, 29 Oct 2025 |
| MiCA custody (service a) | Not listed | Listed | Listed |
| Consumer sign-up | Direct, via its own site and apps | US users need an account with a partner | Not compared |
| US trust company | NY limited purpose trust (NYDFS) | OCC conditional approval (company-reported) | North Carolina trust charter (company-reported) |
A wallet that wants a consumer brand people sign up with directly may prefer MoonPay. A platform that needs a MiCA provider able to hold client crypto in the EEA would look at Bridge or zerohash, since ESMA lists custody for them and not for MoonPay (background: how ESMA plans to supervise MiCA firms).
Limitations and unknowns
- US state money transmitter licences: could not be verified. MoonPay’s licences page lists 47 jurisdictions with no California row, while MoonPay says its BitLicense lets it serve all 50 states; how the other states are covered is not explained.
- NY BitLicense: company-reported; NYDFS returned a 403 on 30 September. AUSTRAC, JFSC, FINTRAC, Irish and Italian registrations: not yet verified, registers not queried.
- A Dutch e-money licence reported by third parties: not yet verified; no MoonPay page found, DNB not queried.
- Contracting entity for Enterprise, Commerce and Institutional clients: not publicly disclosed on the product pages and help centre; onboarding criteria and pricing not yet verified.
- Which stablecoins MoonPay USA LLC issues, on which chains, with which reserve reports, mint and redemption conditions, supported chains per currency, and the deposit-insurance position of Balance, account funds and the trust company: not yet verified (context: the Fed’s proposed capital rules for stablecoin issuers).
- Card products: not yet verified; not researched for this profile. A positive country list for consumer ramps: not publicly disclosed; the help centre publishes only an exclusion list.
- Reach figures measure different things and are not comparable: 160+ countries (consumer), 180 (MoonPay to M0), 100+ (Enterprise). Iceland is in the ESMA passport list but on MoonPay’s unsupported list, so a passport does not mean commercial availability.
Key facts (as of 30 September 2026)
- Terms dates: US 6 Aug 2026, EEA 27 May 2026, UK 6 Sep 2026, rest of world 2 Jul 2026, Australia 12 Mar 2025
- US fees on MoonPay’s own platform: MoonPay fee up to 4.5% with a minimum of up to $3.99, plus network and ecosystem fees. Balance-funded buys and sells carry zero MoonPay fee; other costs are not stated as waived. Virtual-account transaction fee: 0% to 10%, “typically about 1%”
Sources
- ESMA: interim MiCA CASP register; FCA: MoonPay (UK) Limited
- FinCEN: MSB Registrant Search; NYDFS: regulated entities
- MoonPay: licences, US terms, EEA terms, UK terms, stablecoin terms
- MoonPay help centre: virtual accounts by region, MoonPay Balance
Last updated: 30 September 2026. Next recheck triggered by: a change to the licences page or any regional terms; an ESMA service change for MoonPay Europe B.V. (custody in particular); a DNB e-money listing; a change in the trust company’s NYDFS status; a new stablecoin or excluded region under the stablecoin terms; Balance reaching new regions; a named production launch of Enterprise issuance.
