Four years. One mission.

I don’t write things like this. And to be honest, I don’t usually enjoy reading them either. But hitting 4 years at MoonPay felt like a moment worth pausing for. A chance to reflect on the journey, the growth, and the people who made it all possible. The impact this place has had on my life is hard to put into words.

Before joining MoonPay, I was building a non-custodial Bitcoin wallet on my own for Android and iOS using React Native. I called it Newealth, a fork of BlueWallet, and the goal was to create a simple, beginner-friendly crypto wallet that also taught people how crypto works.

I shared it with friends and family, and the first thing everyone asked was, “How do I actually buy crypto?” That question led me deep into the world of on-ramps.

I spoke to many providers, but they all had high minimums or required upfront commitments. Some asked for deposits of €10,000 or more with the risk of losing money if you didn’t meet certain fee targets within a set timeframe. If you didn’t generate enough volume, they’d keep the difference. It was a way to make sure they only worked with people who were serious. A model a lot of folks used back then.

Then I reached out to MoonPay. I explained I was building solo and they simply said, “No problem. Use it. No commitments”. That response stunned me. I integrated MoonPay into the wallet, shipped it, and people were able to buy crypto immediately. It just worked.

That’s when I became a fan. I started reading everything I could about the company, and eventually I applied. I went through the interview process and joined.

I joined MoonPay in 2021 as a contractor Associate Engineer and became the first software engineer hired in South Africa. A few months later, following our first calibration cycle, I moved into a Senior Engineer role. From there, I took on technical leadership within the Risk team, contributed to large-scale projects, and eventually transitioned into engineering management. Today I serve as a Senior Engineering Manager, working with the Account and Identity teams, supporting multiple teams across regions, and helping scale the systems behind our global platform.

Back then, MoonPay had around 6 million customers. Today, we serve over 30 million across more than 180 countries. I’ve had the chance to contribute to many of the systems that supported that growth. To date, we’ve moved billions of dollars in crypto. No one does it better. We’ve built the best crypto on-ramp on the planet.

One of the most impactful projects I’ve been part of is our fraud prevention platform. Alongside an incredible team, we explored, tested, and learned from the best in the space, then built something that worked better for MoonPay’s needs. We tried many off-the-shelf tools, but none could do the job more effectively. The system we built includes layered fallbacks, real-time observability, and self-healing capabilities. It has been tested to process well over 100 million dollars in a single day without flinching. I also supported the rollout of our first machine learning model into production, which now powers fraud detection across high-volume flows.

On the Identity and Compliance side, I helped shape the development of our KYC infrastructure. Working closely with engineers and product partners, we built an adaptive onboarding engine that handles real-time decisions across multiple entities, evolving regulatory frameworks like MiCA and Finprom, and customers from every corner of the world. The system reliably scales to hundreds of thousands of verifications per day, all while maintaining a seamless customer experience.

I also contributed to several major payment method launches including MoonPay Balance, ACH, PayPal, PIX, and Venmo, making sure fraud and risk systems were embedded early and worked effectively at scale.

Over time, I’ve worked on product experiments and A/B tests focused on improving conversion and growing revenue. Several of these experiments had a meaningful impact. Through this work, I’ve come to see myself as a hybrid between engineer and product thinker.

I’ve led two internal hackathon-winning teams. One of them was a focused challenge to generate the most revenue during July 2023. We won. That month, the work we shipped contributed to several of the highest-volume days MoonPay had seen at the time.

In 2024, I helped establish our Cape Town office. We are now growing a cross-functional team of more than 20 people contributing to MoonPay’s global mission. Starting something from scratch and watching it grow has been one of the most rewarding leadership experiences of my career.

Mentorship has become one of the most fulfilling parts of my journey. I’ve been fortunate to support two engineers as they stepped into tech lead roles and two others as they grew into senior engineers. Seeing them grow, take on more responsibility, and succeed in their own paths has been a quiet reminder of what this work is really about.

Here, I’ve worked with some of the most brilliant, kind, and effective people I’ve ever met. People from wildly different paths. Some helped build companies that IPO’d. Others came from high-growth startups like Revolut, Monzo, and Coinbase. Some joined us after years at Amazon, Facebook, Google, Twitter, Uber, Spotify, and more. A few don’t need to work anymore but continue because they believe deeply in what we’re building. Being surrounded by people like this has changed how I think and how I lead.

To the folks who’ve shaped this journey, thank you. To our engineering leadership: Chris, Craig, David, Mihai. To my product partners: Ale, Anders, Dami, JD, NJ, Rodney, Zee To everyone I’ve had the privilege to build with: Adam, Alex, Ana Rita, Antonio, Ben, Dani, Filipe, Luca, Luan, Marcel, Marco, Muzi, Radek, Tiago To our founders Ivan and Victor, thank you for building a company where someone like me could grow like this.

And a special shoutout to David Cordeiro, my manager and mentor from day one. He believed in me before I believed in myself. He gave me chances I didn’t think I was ready for. He saw potential I couldn’t yet see. He put me in positions that stretched me, challenged me, and helped me grow into the person and professional I am today. That belief changed everything for me. I’ll always be grateful.

Four years in, I’m still learning, still building, and still feel like it’s day one.

We’re just getting started. We’re on a mission