MoonPay, the Swiss-based crypto payments infrastructure company used by more than 5 million people, has announced customers in 150 countries worldwide will be able to buy $NEAR directly through its platform.
While MoonPay already allows users in Europe and elsewhere to buy $NEAR using a debit or credit card, this is the first time users in 150 countries, including the United States, will be able to use MoonPay’s quick, simple service.
“By providing a direct on-ramp to NEAR, we’re giving more people exposure to this exciting and dynamic ecosystem,” said Ivan Soto-Wright, co-founder and CEO at MoonPay.
“We’ll be watching eagerly as NEAR develops and new projects emerge as the community expands. We can’t wait to see what’s in store for it next.”
MoonPay has made the buy flow significantly faster for users, with the creation of fixed quotes that guarantee the amount of crypto users will receive once they purchase.
The full list of countries $NEAR is available in can be found here. While $NEAR is now available to buy in the US, there are still a number of states where purchasing has not yet been activated. The states where citizens cannot buy $NEAR at launch are Louisiana, Texas, New York, and Hawaii.
Users in the remaining 46 states and 150 other countries will be able to buy $NEAR on MoonPay from today.
Supercharging Sharding
The announcement coincides with the launch of sharding on NEAR, the next significant chapter in the NEAR blockchain.
NEAR’s Nightshade Sharding accelerates the speed of the network to process more transactions securely as well as increasing its capacity to run bigger and more resource-intensive Dapps, like gaming.
NEAR has more than 20 gaming and NFT projects currently running on the blockchain that can take advantage of super-low fees, and infinite scalability.
DeFi is also set to benefit from MoonPay’s integration and the upgrades to the blockchain. Well-known DeFi projects Curve.Fi, Sushi, Dodo, Kyber, Woo, and NEAR native projects Ref, Burrow, Onomy and Trisolaris have, or are in the process of launching on NEAR’s secure and scalable blockchain, with more to follow.