MoneyLion launches crypto investing ahead of planned SPAC deal

The banking and investing app MoneyLion is adding crypto trading to its all-in-one financial services app.

The eight-year-old fintech company, which plans to go public later this month on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker ML, will introduce buying and selling capabilities for bitcoin and ether at its Investor Conference on Monday morning, CEO Dee Choubey told CNBC.

Choubey called the initial development the “the beginning of the education process” for its consumers during the “early innings of DeFi” and talked about the potential to explore different yield products, crypto payment applications and NFT marketplaces down the road.

“It’s a very important first step if we think that the future of fintech is DeFi,” he told CNBC. “We will have created a segment of the population and have exposed them to DeFi so when it becomes more ubiquitous, they’re fully prepared to take advantage of it.”

MoneyLion won’t charge transaction fees to consumers, but will make money on the spread when they convert their cryptocurrency to dollars.

It’s also introducing a feature that lets customers round up their debit card purchases in bitcoin. MoneyLion has 2.2 million customers as of August. The app offers banking, investing and credit so far.

It’s hoping to go public through the special purpose acquisition company, or SPAC, Fusion Acquisition Corp. on September 22. If successful, it will join public fintech companies SoFi, Robinhood and Square’s Cash App in the growing group of superapps striving to become the go-to place for customers to manage all aspects of their financial lives.