MoonPay, the global crypto payments network, has announced the acquisition of Dawn Labs, an applied research lab focused on artificial intelligence and financial markets, alongside the launch of Dawn CLI, an AI-native trading tool designed to convert plain-English strategy descriptions into fully autonomous trade execution. The move marks the latest step in MoonPay’s broader push to build AI-native infrastructure for financial services.
Dawn Labs was founded in 2025 by Neeraj Prasad, who studied computer science and engineering at MIT and conducted machine learning research in the university’s neuroscience labs before holding engineering roles at Waymo, Microsoft, Citadel, and Reservoir Labs. Prasad and the full Dawn team join MoonPay as part of the acquisition, with Prasad taking on the role of Chief Engineer of MoonPay Labs. The platform was built to address fragmentation across the active trading workflow, particularly in fast-growing prediction markets on platforms such as Polymarket and Kalshi, where traders rely on social media signals and automated strategies but face technically demanding and manually intensive infrastructure.
Dawn CLI manages the full trading lifecycle across four stages: users describe a strategy in plain English, the platform surfaces relevant data and market signals for evaluation, trading strategy code is generated and stress-tested automatically, and trades are then executed continuously as directed by the user. The system eliminates the traditional requirement for expertise spanning research, software development, and portfolio management to operate a sophisticated trading strategy.
The acquisition builds on a series of AI-native infrastructure moves MoonPay has made over the past year, including MoonPay CLI, MoonPay Agents with Ledger-secured hardware signing, MoonAgents Card, and the Open Wallet Standard. Founded in 2019, MoonPay serves more than 30 million customers across 180 countries and supports more than 500 enterprise customers spanning crypto and fintech.
KEY QUOTES:
“The team at Dawn Labs have made the most complex parts of active trading accessible to anyone with an idea. With Dawn, traders can direct AI agents to develop and execute sophisticated trading strategies autonomously.”
Ivan Soto-Wright, CEO and Founder, MoonPay
“We built Dawn to address the fragmentation traders face across research, strategy development and execution. Competing effectively has required expertise across multiple disciplines at once. Dawn brings those capabilities into a single autonomous system. Joining MoonPay allows us to scale that system to a broader audience.”
Neeraj Prasad, Founder, Dawn Labs and Chief Engineer, MoonPay Labs
