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MoonPay's new minting-as-a-service tool bills itself as 'AWS for NFTs'

Quick Take

  • MoonPay is hiring engineers for HyperMint, a platform it bills as Amazon Web Services for NFTs.
  • The new endeavor is the latest deviation from MoonPay’s core business of crypto payments infrastructure.

MoonPay is recruiting a number of founding engineers for its new HyperMint service, a platform it bills as Amazon Web Services for non-fungible tokens (NFTs), as the company adds more product lines to its core payments offering.

According to a company job post seeking a Solana engineer, the new service will enable brands, creators and web2 companies to create and deploy crypto tokens through a "UI wizard."

"We abstract away the complexities of deploying an NFT/token strategy and cut time to market from months to weeks or even days. Think AWS for NFTs," the company said in the job advert. Amazon Web Services, or AWS, provides key tools that underpin the modern internet and accounts for a substantial chunk of Amazon's revenue. 

MoonPay appears to making a play for the "minting-as-a-service" market – a space currently occupied by incumbents such as Cargo, Manifold and Moralis, which offer batch handling of NFTs. Analysts at The Block Research say that current tools on the market are still fairly basic propositions.

HyperMint's early clients include high-end fashion houses and record labels. 

 

The Solana engineer role has a salary band ranging from $80,000 to $180,000 and offers "substantial equity" in the MoonPay subsidiary.

Another job ad has put out the call for an Ethereum engineer for HyperMint. A third looks for "an AWS and DevOps expert," as it builds out its founding engineering team. 

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Focusing on Ethereum and Solana plays to the chains used by OpenSea, the current largest platform for NFT sales. Solana is also increasingly popular in the world of NFTs because of its lower transaction fees.

HyperMint was incorporated on Companies House in the UK in February. It is being led by Semyon Germanovich, who has been with MoonPay since December 2020; Adrian Pang, who joined in November 2020; and Frederick Becker, who joined in May last year. Germanovich will lead on product and engineering, Pang will head up operations and strategy and Becker will lead on sales and growth.

Changing MoonPay's core proposition?

The new endeavor is the latest deviation from MoonPay's core business of crypto payments infrastructure. Its NFT concierge service for celebrities has grabbed headlines over the past months, as the "white glove" service brokered the acquisition of a number of high-value items for A-listers. MoonPay CEO Ivan Soto-Wright has said that this was more of a play for "education" in the NFT space and fostered a marketing and PR push for the brand.

The company also recently partnered with OpenSea to roll out direct card payments to simplify the process of acquiring an NFT for those who don't own crypto. This was more of a technical solution to onboarding non-crypto native people into the crypto world.

MoonPay first launched its plug-and-play service for buying and selling NFTs with a credit card in January. This came as Mastercard announced that it was joining forces with Coinbase to enable people to buy NFTs with cards.

In October 2021, the company raised $400 million in an inaugural round which saw the start up valued at $3.4 billion. 

Correction: A previous version of this story said HyperMint was co-founded by Germanovich, Pang and Becker, whereas it was incubated in house by MoonPay. 


© 2023 The Block. All Rights Reserved. This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.

About Author

Lucy is an editor focusing on NFTs, gaming and the metaverse. Prior to joining she worked as a freelancer, with bylines in Wired, Newsweek and The Wall Street Journal, among other publications. Follow her on Twitter: @LHM1.