By
Andy Watson
April 26th, 2024
Alchemy Pay is continuing its expansion in the United States and has now gotten a money transfer license in Iowa.
Crypto-fiat payment gateway Alchemy Pay has acquired a money services license in Iowa as part of plans to expand extensively into the United States. The acquisition of a license is in compliance with local state laws that require any person or entity operating a money transmission or currency exchange business to acquire the license.
Speaking to Cointelegraph about the license, Alchemy Pay Ecosystem Lead touted the need for proper regulations, and confirmed Alchemy Pay’s efforts at compliance:
“We believe that a well-structured regulatory environment is essential for the sustainable growth and development of any industry, and that includes the fiat-crypto payment industry.”
Alchemy Pay is available in 173 countries and supports varying methods of payment, including Mastercard, Visa, domestic transfers, and regional mobile wallets. The exec expressed his belief in crypto payments, calling it a potentially “leading sector in the future”.
McCracken continued, expressing Alchemy Pay’s desire to continue applying for and acquiring licenses across the US. He admits that although doing this is more difficult, it’s an “ultimately correct” path to follow. He said:
“…building core competitiveness and upholding the highest standards of compliance are essential for the long-term success of the crypto payment industry.”
Alchemy Pay Also Has License in Arkansas and Iowa
In September, Alchemy Pay secured a money transmitter license from the state of Arkansas. Issued by the Arkansas Securities Department, the license allows Alchemy Pay to provide people in Arkansas with crypto-related financial services. The license was the payment gateway’s first money transmitter license in the US. By acquiring a license, Alchemy Pay joins other industry players like MoonPay, Coinbase, and bitFlyer, all of which hold these licenses.
In addition to licenses in the United States, Alchemy Pay is looking into acquiring permits in other countries like Hong Kong and the United Kingdom.
In February, Coinspeaker reported that Alchemy Pay secured a payment license from authorities in Indonesia. Collaborating with local firm Berkah Digital Pembayaran, Alchemy Pay obtained a license from the Central Bank of Indonesia, to handle remittances and transfer funds. In addition to simply handling fund transfers, Alchemy Pay hopes to compete with transfer services in the country by offering cheaper options.
$400 Million Valuation
Alchemy Pay successfully raised $10 million in investment funding back in April. According to a press release, the company’s valuation at the funding was $400 million. The press release also included details of an NFT Checkout service, which allows users to buy NFTs using fiat payment options. In supported regions, anyone can use local fiat currencies to buy NFTs.
On Monday, the company joined the Stellar ecosystem as a new provider of on-ramp and off-ramp services. This allows companies and organizations on the Stellar network to use Alchemy Pay services for fiat-crypto conversions. The integration between both services allows for the easy conversion of USDC and XLM into fiat. It also allows developers and decentralized applications (dApps) in the Stellar ecosystem to integrate the Alchemy Pay Ramp easy-to-use plugins and APIs.