In a significant move within the financial technology landscape, MoonPay, a prominent global crypto payments network, has announced its acquisition of Dawn Labs, an applied research lab specializing in artificial intelligence and financial markets. As part of this acquisition, MoonPay has unveiled Dawn CLI, a cutting-edge AI-driven technology tool designed for trading. This initiative underscores MoonPay’s commitment to developing AI-native infrastructure tailored for financial services.
Prediction markets have emerged as one of the fastest-growing segments within the trading ecosystem, attracting a new wave of engaged traders on platforms such as Polymarket and Kalshi. These traders utilize social media signals, automated strategies, and cross-platform positioning. However, the existing infrastructure for high-performance trading remains both fragmented and complex, often requiring technical expertise that many prospective traders lack.
Traditionally, constructing and deploying trading strategies involved navigating a challenging landscape of research, software development, and portfolio management expertise. Dawn CLI aims to alleviate these barriers by allowing users to articulate their trading strategies in plain English. The platform translates these descriptions into executable code, facilitating automated user research, simulation, and autonomous execution of trades on designated trading venues.
Dawn Labs was founded in 2025 by Neeraj Prasad, who holds a degree in Computer Science and Engineering from MIT, where he engaged in machine learning research within the university’s neuroscience laboratories. Prior to establishing Dawn, Prasad held roles at esteemed companies including Waymo, Microsoft, Citadel, and Reservoir Labs, where he developed skills in perception systems for autonomous vehicles, machine learning infrastructure, quantitative trading, and deep learning compilers. With this acquisition, Prasad and his team will join MoonPay, with Prasad taking on the position of Chief Engineer of MoonPay Labs.
Dawn CLI streamlines the entire trading lifecycle through several key features:
- Natural Language Input: Users can express their trading strategies in simple language.
- Automated User Research: The platform identifies and presents relevant data and market signals for users to assess their strategies.
- Code Generation and Backtesting: The tool automatically generates the necessary trading strategy code and conducts stress tests.
- Autonomous Execution: Trades are executed continuously as users direct.
Ivan Soto-Wright, CEO and Founder of MoonPay, remarked on the breakthrough potential of Dawn CLI, highlighting how it democratizes complex aspects of active trading. “With Dawn, traders can direct AI agents to develop and execute sophisticated trading strategies autonomously,” he stated.
Prasad echoed this sentiment, asserting that Dawn was designed to tackle the fragmentation traders encounter in research, strategy development, and execution. By merging these capabilities into one autonomous system, he believes Dawn can significantly enhance trading efficiency. Joining forces with MoonPay allows them to expand this innovative system to a wider audience.
The acquisition of Dawn Labs is part of MoonPay’s strategic evolution towards establishing AI-native infrastructure. Over the past year, the company has transitioned from traditional on-ramp APIs to more sophisticated offerings, including MoonPay CLI, MoonPay Agents equipped with Ledger-secured hardware signing, and the MoonAgents Card—a virtual debit card enabling users and AI agents to spend stablecoins seamlessly online. Each advancement has provided AI agents with more dynamic and programmable access to financial systems, with the launch of the Open Wallet Standard further extending this infrastructure across diverse agents and blockchain frameworks.
Founded in 2019, MoonPay serves as a vital facilitator in the movement of value across both fiat and digital assets. The company supports over 30 million customers in 180 countries, alongside more than 500 enterprise clients within the crypto and fintech sectors. Through dedicated integrations, MoonPay connects traditional payment systems with blockchain technology, embodying its mission of facilitating the global movement of value.
