MESO Network

MESO Network was a payment infrastructure company that built developer tools to connect traditional banking rails directly to cryptocurrency wallets and decentralized applications. Founded in 2022 by fintech veterans Ben Mills and Ali Aghareza, the company positioned itself as a solution to one of crypto's persistent onboarding problems: the requirement for users to pass through centralized exchanges before they could fund a self-custodial wallet. In September 2025, MESO was acquired by MoonPay, with both founders moving into senior leadership roles at the acquiring company.

Founding and Background

MESO was co-founded by two executives with deep roots in traditional payments infrastructure. Ben Mills, who served as co-founder and CEO, had previously been Head of Product at Venmo and Head of Developer Experience at Braintree, the payments platform acquired by PayPal. Prior to founding MESO, Mills also held a payments-focused role at Solana, giving him direct exposure to the challenges of moving money within crypto-native ecosystems. Ali Aghareza, who served as CTO, was part of the original engineering team at Braintree and later led engineering efforts there as the platform scaled to support high-volume transaction flows. The two brought complementary expertise in building both consumer-facing payment products and the backend infrastructure that powers them.

The company's tagline captured its ambition plainly: "Fintech built for Crypto." The broader product mission was to build the infrastructure layer that would make crypto onboarding as seamless as any mainstream financial application.

Product: Crypto On-Ramp Infrastructure

MESO's core offering was an API-based on-ramp and off-ramp platform that allowed crypto application developers to embed bank account connectivity directly within their products. Rather than forcing users to first acquire cryptocurrency on a centralized exchange like Coinbase or Binance and then transfer funds to a separate self-custodial wallet, MESO let applications integrate bank account linking natively.

The integration supported multiple deployment contexts: web applications, browser extensions, and mobile platforms. For users, the experience meant they could connect a bank account from within a crypto app without leaving the application or setting up an account on a separate exchange. MESO charged a 1.5% fee on transfers between bank accounts and digital wallets.

The platform handled electronic transfers and ACH payments through a partnership with Cross River Bank, a regional financial institution with an established track record in crypto-adjacent fintech. Cross River had previously worked with Circle on USDC issuance, which made it a natural fit for MESO's infrastructure. On the asset side, MESO supported SOL, ETH, MATIC, and USDC at launch.

From the developer perspective, MESO offered self-custodial tooling alongside its APIs, meaning the platform was designed to avoid taking custody of user funds. This positioned it in contrast to exchange-based on-ramps where users typically held assets in custodied accounts. The documentation described the offering as "self-custodial tools and APIs that bridge conventional finance with decentralized networks," with an emphasis on regulatory compliance and security alongside ease of integration.

Funding

In February 2024, MESO announced a $9.5 million seed round co-led by Solana Ventures and Ribbit Capital. Ribbit Capital is a venture firm focused exclusively on financial services and has backed companies including Robinhood, Coinbase, and Credit Karma. Solana Ventures' co-lead role reflected the network's strategic interest in reducing friction for Solana-native wallets and applications.

The round also included participation from Canonical Crypto and 6th Man Ventures, along with several notable angel investors: Chris Kalani, co-founder of the Phantom wallet; Bill Ready, CEO of Pinterest and a former President at PayPal; and Archie Puri of Bodhi Labs.

The fundraise coincided with MESO's public launch. CEO Ben Mills framed the product's purpose at the time: MESO's goal was a future where users would not need centralized exchanges to get started in crypto, instead accessing digital assets directly from within the applications they were already using.

Solana Relevance

MESO had direct ties to the Solana ecosystem from multiple directions. Solana Ventures was a lead investor in the seed round. Ben Mills had worked at Solana prior to founding the company. And SOL was one of the initial supported assets for on-ramp transactions. Applications built on Solana that required a fiat-to-wallet bridge were natural customers for MESO's API, particularly self-custodial wallets and DeFi frontends that wanted to enable user funding without redirecting users to a centralized exchange.

The Cross River Bank partnership allowed MESO to support US-based ACH transfers, with the company indicating at launch that additional countries were in scope for future expansion.

Acquisition by MoonPay

On September 15, 2025, MoonPay announced it had acquired MESO Network. The financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. The acquisition was MoonPay's fourth of 2025, following deals to acquire Helio (valued at $175 million), Iron, and Decent.xyz.

MoonPay's stated rationale was to strengthen its US banking rail capabilities, particularly ACH and real-time payment support, and to improve developer tooling for payment integrations. MoonPay CEO Ivan Soto-Wright described the acquisition as a turning point for MoonPay, framing the company's trajectory as a shift from being primarily a crypto on-ramp to building infrastructure that would move money across every form and in every market.

Both MESO founders joined MoonPay in senior roles. Ali Aghareza became Chief Technology Officer at MoonPay, overseeing technical strategy and integration. Ben Mills became Senior Vice President of Product, leading MoonPay's global product organization.

Following the acquisition, MESO's developer documentation domain was taken offline. The main meso.network domain continued to resolve minimally, reflecting a product that had been absorbed into MoonPay's broader infrastructure offering.

Assessment

MESO's arc was short but purposeful. The company launched with a clear thesis: that crypto's onboarding problem was fundamentally a payments infrastructure problem, and that solving it required building developer-facing APIs rather than consumer-facing exchanges. The founding team assembled for that thesis was credible, with both founders having spent careers building the exact systems they were now adapting for crypto.

The Solana Ventures and Ribbit Capital co-lead on the seed round reflected validation from both the crypto-native and traditional fintech investment communities. The acquisition by MoonPay, roughly three years after founding, resulted in MESO's technology and team being absorbed into a larger payments platform. MESO is no longer offered as a standalone developer integration. Its legacy is primarily in the talent and technical approach now operating within MoonPay's infrastructure.