Payhound

Payhound is a Malta-based, regulated cryptocurrency payments platform built specifically for businesses. Founded in 2018 under the original name Moneybite by a team of banking and payments industry veterans, the company rebranded to Payhound in 2023 following a period of significant expansion. Its core mission is to bridge the gap between digital assets and traditional business finance — enabling merchants, operators, and institutions to accept, settle, and manage crypto payments without needing to take on direct exposure to cryptocurrency volatility.

From Moneybite to Payhound: A Regulated Foundation

The company's origins in banking and payments distinguish it from many crypto-native startups. Operating since 2019 as a Virtual Financial Assets Service Provider in Malta, Payhound secured its Class 3 VFASP license from the Malta Financial Services Authority (MFSA) in 2021, the same year it reached profitability. By 2022, the platform had processed over 800 million euros in transactional volume and achieved consecutive ISO/IEC 27001 certifications for information security management — a credential typically associated with enterprise financial infrastructure rather than crypto startups.

As EU regulation evolved, Payhound positioned itself ahead of compliance deadlines. The company obtained full Crypto-Asset Service Provider (CASP) authorization under the EU's Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (MiCAR), one of the more comprehensive regulatory frameworks now governing digital asset businesses in Europe. It also holds a Financial Institution licence under Malta's Financial Institutions Act (Chapter 376). This dual licensing stack — MiCAR CASP plus Financial Institution status — is a meaningful differentiator in a market where many crypto payment processors remain unregulated or operate in regulatory grey zones.

The 2023 rebrand from Moneybite to Payhound coincided with a 50% office expansion and a sharpened product focus on regulated B2B crypto payment infrastructure.

What Payhound Does

Payhound's platform offers four core service pillars:

Crypto Payments Processing — Merchants can accept cryptocurrency from customers and receive settlements in either crypto or fiat, insulating them from price volatility on the collection side. The platform promises settlement from "zero to paid in seconds" for supported flows.

Cross-Border Payments — Payhound routes international transactions through crypto rails, enabling faster and cheaper cross-border transfers compared to traditional correspondent banking. This is particularly valuable for industries like iGaming and affiliate marketing, where payment velocity and global reach are competitive necessities.

Large-Volume Trading — For clients that need to buy or sell significant quantities of digital assets, Payhound provides access to dedicated traders and deep liquidity, supporting institutional-scale transaction sizes without the slippage risks of public exchanges.

Custody and Exchange — The platform includes custody and administration of crypto-assets along with crypto-to-fiat and crypto-to-crypto exchange capabilities, functioning as an integrated payments and treasury layer for business clients.

Two Deposit Architectures

Payhound gives business clients a choice between two payment collection models, each suited to different use cases:

Invoice Deposit Flow — A business sets a fiat amount, and Payhound generates a crypto invoice with a locked exchange rate for a defined time window. Customers pay in cryptocurrency; the merchant receives the exact expected fiat equivalent. This approach eliminates over- and underpayment risks caused by price swings during the payment window, making it ideal for fixed-price goods and services.

Channel Deposit Flow — Customers receive a dedicated wallet address that functions like a persistent account number. Funds sent to this address at any time are automatically converted at prevailing market rates and transferred to the business's account. This model suits high-frequency use cases — recurring deposits, subscription payments, or affiliate payouts — where a persistent payment rail is more practical than generating individual invoices.

Solana Integration

In 2025, Payhound added native support for SOL (Solana) and TRX (Tron) across all transaction flows, expanding its asset coverage beyond its initial focus on Bitcoin, Ethereum, and major stablecoins. The addition of Solana was framed around the network's technical properties: high throughput and low transaction costs make SOL particularly well-suited to time-sensitive or high-frequency payment scenarios — the same characteristics that make Solana attractive to DeFi protocols and on-chain consumer applications.

Solana-native stablecoin support is included alongside native SOL: USDC on Solana is available to all clients, while USDT on Solana is available to clients outside the EU (reflecting MiCA-era compliance posture around certain stablecoin products within the EU single market). Clients can settle directly in SOL or route it through a crypto-to-fiat workflow using either the invoicing or channel deposit model.

The integration positions Payhound to serve verticals where Solana payments are increasingly normalized — particularly iGaming operators processing player deposits, and affiliate networks running large-volume commission payouts where network fees and confirmation times materially affect economics.

Industries and Clients

Payhound targets a range of B2B verticals where crypto payments have established commercial traction:

• iGaming — Operators can accept player deposits in crypto without holding digital assets directly, offloading exchange and custody risk to Payhound's regulated infrastructure.
• Affiliate Marketing — Platform operators can disburse commissions instantly and globally in crypto, bypassing SWIFT delays and correspondent banking fees that can stretch payouts to days or weeks.
• Forex and Investment Firms — Payhound supports high-volume trading workflows and settlement for financial services clients who need regulated crypto counterparty access.
• Payment Service Providers (PSPs) — PSPs can add crypto rails to their offerings by integrating Payhound's API without needing to obtain their own crypto licences.
• Travel and Luxury Services — Businesses serving high-net-worth clients increasingly accept crypto as a payment option; Payhound provides the compliance and settlement infrastructure to do this safely.
• Real Estate — Cross-border real estate transactions benefit from crypto's speed and global accessibility, particularly for international buyers.

Recognition and Industry Standing

Payhound's regulatory standing has translated into industry recognition. The company won Payment Innovation of the Year at the SBC Lisbon Awards 2025, one of the more prominent awards in the global betting, gaming, and payments sector. It was subsequently named Best Crypto Payment Provider at the SiGMA Europe Awards 2026 — SiGMA being the main industry gathering for the iGaming and fintech sectors in Malta and Europe.

The SBC award specifically recognized Payhound's "commitment to providing businesses with simple, secure and efficient crypto-to-fiat, and crypto-crypto payment solutions," noting features including instant settlement, seamless API integrations, 24/7 access to payment networks, and the ISO 27001 security framework.

Positioning

Payhound occupies a specific niche: it is not a consumer wallet, a DeFi protocol, or a cryptocurrency exchange. It is infrastructure for businesses that want to offer or use crypto payments within a regulated, enterprise-grade framework. Its MFSA authorization and MiCAR compliance make it one of a relatively small number of crypto payment processors that can credibly serve EU-regulated businesses — iGaming operators with gaming licences, financial institutions with AML obligations, or PSPs with their own regulatory requirements — without creating compliance exposure for those clients.

The Solana integration adds a performant, low-cost settlement rail to an already broad asset roster, extending Payhound's utility for use cases where settlement speed and fee economics directly affect margins.

Headquarters: Level 0A, Centris Business Gateway II, Birkirkara, Malta CBD 3020. Website: payhound.com.