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Key Takeaways
- MoonPay will acquire North Capital, which handles about $9 billion in transaction volume, in an all-stock deal worth over $60 million.
- The deal brings North Capital’s SEC broker-dealer, trading, transfer and investment advisory registrations into MoonPay’s ecosystem, offering a faster path than building them independently.
- The acquisition extends MoonPay’s 2026 buying spree, following its purchases of DFlow and Sodot, as it broadens from crypto payments into regulated tokenized-securities infrastructure.
MoonPay plans to acquire private-markets investment platform North Capital in an all-stock deal valued at more than $60 million, according to an emailed announcement Wednesday.
The acquisition would add North Capital’s securities-tokenization infrastructure and regulatory registrations to MoonPay’s operations as the payments company continues expanding beyond its original crypto business.
Deal Terms and What North Capital Brings
North Capital, based in Salt Lake City, operates a platform with roughly $9 billion in primary and secondary transaction volume. The company will become a wholly owned MoonPay subsidiary once the deal closes, a process subject to regulatory approval.
The all-stock structure and $60 million valuation were confirmed by sources familiar with the matter, since the companies’ own announcement did not disclose specific financial terms.
North Capital provides technology infrastructure for tokenizing securities on behalf of private securities issuers and fund managers, supporting capital raising, asset management, clearing, custody and secondary trading.
Its affiliates hold broker-dealer, trading, transfer and investment advisory registrations with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, registrations that would transfer to MoonPay’s ecosystem as part of the acquisition.
Those registrations represent a significant portion of the deal’s underlying value. Obtaining broker-dealer and investment advisory licenses directly from the SEC typically requires a lengthy application and review process.
This means that acquiring an already-registered platform can offer a substantially faster path to operating within U.S. securities regulations than building equivalent registrations from the ground up.
MoonPay’s Rationale for the Deal
MoonPay CEO and founder Ivan Soto-Wright said the acquisition supports the company’s effort to build the regulatory foundation needed for mass adoption of tokenized real-world assets.
“Building the regulatory foundation to support mass adoption of tokenized real-world assets.”
Soto-Wright added that bringing North Capital’s capabilities into MoonPay’s ecosystem is intended to help connect different parts of the financial system through modern, programmable infrastructure, linking traditional securities processes with blockchain-based settlement and custody tools.
Part of a Broader Acquisition Pattern
The North Capital deal continues an acquisition run MoonPay began earlier this year. The company previously acquired Solana-based trading infrastructure provider DFlow and Israeli crypto security firm Sodot in a separate stock deal.
MoonPay has also built out its Trade platform this year to connect banks and fintechs to tokenized assets, decentralized finance protocols and stablecoin liquidity, extending its business well beyond the crypto payments processing that originally defined the company.
That pattern points to a company assembling regulatory licenses, technical infrastructure and institutional relationships through acquisition rather than building each capability internally, a strategy increasingly common among crypto firms seeking faster entry into regulated securities markets.
MoonPay’s original business centered on making it easier for consumers to buy and sell cryptocurrency using traditional payment methods like credit cards and bank transfers.
Its expansion into tokenized securities, DeFi connectivity and now regulated investment infrastructure marks a substantial broadening of that original mandate, positioning the company closer to full-service financial infrastructure than a narrower crypto on-ramp provider.
Tokenization’s Broader Market Context
Tokenization refers to representing real-world assets such as equities, bonds, and commodities as tokens that can be bought, sold and traded on blockchains. It has become one of the most closely watched use cases for blockchain technology among traditional financial institutions in recent years.
Citi has projected the tokenized securities market could grow to $5.5 trillion by 2030, a scale that has drawn a wave of acquisitions and infrastructure investment from both crypto-native firms and traditional financial institutions positioning themselves for that growth.
MoonPay’s move to acquire an SEC-registered platform specifically, rather than building comparable registrations from scratch, reflects the regulatory complexity involved in offering tokenized securities products in the U.S. market, where broker-dealer and investment advisory registrations can take significant time to obtain independently.
