Executive Who Brought Time Magazine Into Web3 Is Leaving for MoonPay

Keith Grossman, who as president of Time magazine brought the storied media brand into Web3 in 2021, announced today that he is leaving to join crypto payments startup MoonPay.

Grossman will serve as president of MoonPay’s enterprise division, where he told Decrypt that he will work to help usher brands and large companies into Web3. He cited Nike and Universal Pictures as examples of the kinds of mainstream firms he’d like to introduce into the industry.

“How do we bring as many enterprises into the ecosystem as possible and show them what the benefits are of moving from Web2 into Web3?” Grossman said of the new role.

He cited the challenges in onboarding users and companies into the crypto space, particularly with interfaces and experiences that pervade the industry today. “I genuinely think that MoonPay has the tools and the capabilities to alleviate some of the concerns on the front end and help with mass adoption,” Grossman told Decrypt.

Grossman joined Time in 2019 following time spent at Bloomberg and Wired, and sought to help the nearly century-old media brand modernize and look to the future. Last March, the company began a push into Web3 with the auction of limited-edition Ethereum NFT magazine covers, which collectively sold for about $446,000 worth of ETH.

 NFT Revolution

‘One of the Most Transformative Moments in Our Lives’: Why TIME Is Betting Big on Crypto and NFTs

When the NFT market exploded in March and brought Web3 into the mainstream, a 98-year-old print magazine and news organization generated one of the most surprising headlines in the space. TIME launched Ethereum NFTs based on its iconic red-bordered magazine covers, and generated $446,000 worth of ETH in the process. Bridging the nearly century-old brand into the crypto world “was not planned” for long, TIME president Keith Grossman told Decrypt. In fact, the NFT sale came together in a matter of...

Time followed that up with its ongoing TimePieces NFT project, and has pursued collaborations with the likes of musician Tim “Timbaland” Mosley, photographer Isaac “Drift” Wright, and the Cool Cats NFT project.

The media brand—which Salesforce founder Marc Benioff acquired in 2018—has also pursued interactive experiences, such as in metaverse game The Sandbox and Web2 game Fortnite, as well as brand partnerships. Time is also producing animated series based on the NFT projects Robotos and The Littles, as well.

In April, Grossman said that Time had earned more than $10 million in profit from its Web3 initiatives during its first year of building in the space.

Grossman will depart Time on December 31 and start at MoonPay on January 2, 2023.

TimePieces and the magazine’s other Web3 endeavors will continue on under Maya Draisin, Time’s Chief Brand Officer and a longtime collaborator of Grossman’s. He said that Time has spent this year operationalizing its Web3 business and expanding out its team, and pointed to a TimePieces community of what he said is over 60,000 people and 150 artists.

“What makes TimePieces great is not an individual—it's the community,” he said. “Here's a community that's been built around values, and I think that those values will transcend any one individual over time.”

Steve Aoki, Ashton Kutcher, Paris Hilton Join $87 Million MoonPay Investment Group

What do Questlove, Matthew McConaughey, and Gwyneth Paltrow have in common? Well, sure they've all been on "The Tonight Show." And as of today they're also all investors in MoonPay. MoonPay announced today that the three have joined Steve Aoki, Justin Bieber, Ashton Kutcher's Sound Ventures, Brie Larson, Gal Gadot, Eva Longoria, Paris Hilton and others (most of them major celebrities) in providing $86.7 million in funding to the payments infrastructure company. Hell, even Bruce Willis pitched in...

MoonPay launched in 2019 and offers payments infrastructure for buying and selling cryptocurrency, including on- and off-ramps to fiat currency. The company was valued at $3.4 billion when it announced a $555 million Series A funding round in November 2021 led by Tiger Global and Coatue.

The payments startup expanded that round with nearly $87 million more in April 2022 from an array of celebrity backers, including Justin Bieber, Brie Larson, Steve Aoki, Gwyneth Paltrow, Paris Hilton, and Bruce Willis. MoonPay has also helped a number of celebs purchase NFTs—especially from the Bored Ape Yacht Club—through its concierge service.