Cryptocurrency start-ups have raised record funding this 12 months.

It is no shock, then, that some main gamers within the area — from the Winklevoss twins’ digital forex change Gemini to Ethereum co-founder Joseph Lubin’s blockchain start-up ConsenSys — introduced massive new funding deals within the final week.

MoonPay, a relative newcomer, is taking the crypto mania in enterprise capital to new heights. The three-year-old fintech agency mentioned Monday it has raised $555 million in its first-ever financing spherical. The funding, led by Tiger World and Coatue, values the corporate at $3.4 billion.

Based in 2018, Miami-based MoonPay’s software program lets customers purchase and promote cryptocurrencies utilizing standard cost strategies like bank cards, financial institution transfers or cellular wallets like Apple Pay and Google Pay.

It additionally sells its expertise to different companies together with crypto web site Bitcoin.com and non-fungible token (NFT) market OpenSea, a mannequin CEO Ivan Soto-Wright calls “crypto-as-a-service.”

Soto-Wright mentioned the agency goals to make crypto accessible to the plenty in the identical means that video-conferencing instruments like Zoom made it simpler to make calls over the web.

“With the blockchain and cryptocurrencies, I believe proper now we’re nonetheless within the dial-up days,” he advised CNBC in an interview.

“Ultimately we are going to get to this place the place it is frictionless to maneuver any quantity of worth round anyplace on this planet, and prices transfer as shut as doable to zero.”

With costs of bitcoin and different cryptocurrencies hitting all-time highs recently, enterprise capital funding within the start-ups powering the market is booming. Buyers are on the lookout for the subsequent Coinbase after the crypto change big’s blockbuster listing in April.

MoonPay’s pitch to traders is that it provides a “gateway” to digital property. For now, that features bitcoin, ether and different digital tokens like NFTs. However Soto-Wright’s imaginative and prescient is to broaden the platform to incorporate every part from digital style to tokenized shares.

“Individuals are calling us much like PayPal, however for crypto,” he mentioned.

The corporate has robust controls and checks in place to deal with cash laundering, Soto-Wright mentioned. Regulators have turn into increasingly wary about illicit exercise available in the market.

MoonPay says it has been worthwhile since launching its platform in 2019. The agency is on observe to hit $150 million in annual income this 12 months after transaction volumes skyrocketed 35-fold from 2020. Its service is now utilized by greater than 7 million clients.

Nonetheless, the corporate faces stiff competitors, not least from fintech pioneers like PayPal, which rolled out its own crypto features final 12 months.

Soto-Wright mentioned he isn’t anxious concerning the competitors. He described PayPal as a “walled backyard” that does not give customers management over their property. “We consider the way forward for crypto is about clients taking possession of their non-public keys,” passwords that grant individuals entry to their funds, he mentioned.

Cryptocurrencies are notoriously risky, nevertheless, and that has impacted even essentially the most well-known gamers within the area. Coinbase, for instance, missed sales estimates within the third quarter after a drop in month-to-month customers.

Bitcoin hit an all-time excessive of practically $69,000 earlier this month, however has since dropped about 17%. Ether, in the meantime, is down 13% from its file excessive.

Soto-Wright mentioned MoonPay is ready for a possible downturn in crypto markets, including the agency is “agnostic” on which property it helps.

“In the identical means that telecoms received disrupted by voice over IP (web protocol), we predict, over time, monetary providers and all these totally different functions might be disrupted by the blockchain,” he mentioned.

“There’s clearly going to be volatility because the market is making an attempt to find what property, what blockchains are in the end going to get adopted.”