The parent company of the NYSE, ICE, plans to invest in the crypto payment company MoonPay, with a target valuation of $5 billion. This looks like a financing event, but essentially it is traditional finance’s “strategic absorption” of crypto payments.

ICE is not an ordinary investor; it controls the NYSE and manages top-tier global trading and clearing infrastructure, deciding “what can be traded.” This move is not just a gamble on a track but aims at the core entrance to the crypto world. MoonPay acts as a “toll booth” for Web2 funds entering Web3, specializing in fiat and crypto asset conversions—essentially a crypto version of Stripe + PayPal. It perfectly fills ICE’s gap in crypto payment channels—one side understands compliance rules, the other controls the payment gateway. Their collaboration forms a complete closed-loop.

A $5 billion valuation looks like an increase from the $3.4 billion in 2021, but for ICE, it’s not expensive at all. With stablecoins and tokenized assets rapidly developing, exchanges are not short of tradable assets; what they lack are legitimate, globally scalable payment channels. Infrastructure-level gateways like MoonPay will only become more important in the future, making this a precise “bottom-fishing” move.

The core of this matter is not “crypto,” but “payment rights.” Now, digital euros are coming, and stablecoins are eroding traditional payment systems. Payment gateways have become a battleground for traditional finance and crypto. ICE’s entry aims to maintain dominance over “how money enters the crypto world,” because losing the payment gateway could undermine the entire financial system’s foundation.

If the partnership materializes, the impact will be profound: compliance, anti-money laundering, and risk control standards for crypto payments will be redefined. Crypto will no longer be an “underground” way to bypass finance but will be integrated into mainstream systems. Unregulated small and medium payment channels will gradually be abandoned by liquidity.

For the market, short-term effects may not be immediately obvious, but long-term, this is a significant structural benefit—regulatory capital entering the scene indicates that crypto will exist long-term, gradually resembling mainstream finance. While freedom may decrease, certainty will increase.

Ultimately, ICE’s focus on MoonPay confirms a fundamental fact: crypto will not be eliminated but will be taken over by traditional financial systems, becoming part of the formal financial ecosystem.