MoonPay Acquires Solana Payments Startup Helio for $175 Million

MoonPay has acquired Helio, a Solana payments startup, for $175 million. Key points include:

The acquisition is an all-equity deal confirmed by Helio CEO Stijn Paumen.
The entire Helio team will join MoonPay, which aims to expand its services in crypto payments.
Helio's focus on e-commerce includes a recent Shopify plugin that facilitates Solana network payments.
This acquisition follows other notable deals in the crypto payments space, including Stripe’s purchase of Bridge for $1.1 billion.
Despite ongoing interest in crypto payments, broader adoption remains limited.
Industry experts view the MoonPay-Helio deal as internal consolidation rather than a major external validation.