Crypto payment firm MoonPay has acquired Web3 creative agency Nightshift to help brands expand into cryptocurrency and collectible tokens.

Following the acquisition, Nightshift will change its name to Otherlife, but will be able to maintain its portfolio of branded clients such as Adobe, Shopify and Arsenal Football Club. In addition, the company will now be able to work with some of MoonPay’s existing customers.

The main objective of the acquisition is to enable MoonPay to offer full lifecycle support for major brands. According to MoonPay officials quoted by cryptonews.com, the company wants to be able to reach out to brands that might be interested in Web3 and help them put together a complete end-to-end strategy.

Despite the current state of the cryptocurrency market, MoonPay is confident that there is still significant interest in blockchain technology, particularly for various business cases such as loyalty programs and IP supplements. According to MoonPay, the company is active in more than 160 countries and serves more than 5 million customers.

MoonPay expansion efforts and product launches

In December 2022, MoonPay revealed that it registered as a crypto asset company with the UK Financial Conduct Authority. At the time, the company’s Director of International Compliance emphasized the entity’s commitment to achieving the highest level of security and compliance, not just in the UK but around the world.

The company revealed in a blog post that the FCA’s high compliance standards cause most applications to be rejected or withdrawn. According to the FCA’s executive director of markets, almost 75% of applications are not approved.

In October 2022, MoonPay officially entered the Brazilian market by sponsoring the Clube de Regatas do Flamengo soccer team. As part of this partnership, MoonPay has agreed to help Flamengo leverage NFT and web3 to improve fan engagement.

In June 2022, MoonPay launched the HyperMint service, which allows brands to mint up to 100 million non-fungible tokens (NFTs) at a time.

The new service allowed creators and brands to attach images, music, videos, or other metadata to a token on their own platform. The official launch marked a step in the company’s attempt to create a complete suite for brands looking to launch their own digital assets.

MoonPay emphasized that these digital assets would be utility tokens, which are not the same as security tokens. Security tokens must be registered with regulatory bodies such as the United States Securities and Exchange Commission.