MoonPay Buys North Capital to Gain Regulated Securities Infrastructure

MoonPay has agreed to acquire North Capital, a private-markets infrastructure provider, in an all-stock deal worth more than $60 million, the companies announced on September 23, 2026. The move hands the crypto payments firm direct access to SEC-registered brokerage, custody and trading infrastructure, marking one of its most consequential steps yet toward operating inside the regulated US securities system rather than around it.

North Capital, based in Midvale, Utah, is not a household name, but its plumbing is the kind that keeps private markets running. The firm holds registrations as a broker-dealer, operates an alternative trading system (ATS), and runs both a transfer agent and an investment adviser business, all under SEC oversight. According to the disclosed figures, North Capital has supported more than $8.7 billion in primary and secondary transaction volume. Its investor base has included Karlani Capital and Fiduciary Trust International, and the company last raised outside capital in October 2021, a $2.18 million seed round.

Why a payments company wants a broker-dealer

MoonPay built its business as an on-ramp between traditional payment rails and crypto wallets, a role that made it a household utility for exchanges and wallet providers but left it largely outside the regulatory perimeter that governs securities. Tokenized real-world assets change that calculus. Issuing a tokenized share, fund interest or note, and then letting investors trade or transfer it, generally requires exactly the licenses North Capital already holds: a transfer agent to record ownership, a broker-dealer or ATS to facilitate trades, and an investment adviser function for managed products.

By acquiring that stack outright, MoonPay is attempting to compress years of licensing work into a single transaction. Once the deal closes, and it still requires regulatory approval before North Capital becomes a wholly owned subsidiary, MoonPay would be positioned to originate, custody and move tokenized securities within a compliant framework, rather than relying on third-party partners for the regulated pieces of that chain. Both companies’ boards have already approved the transaction.

The acquisition is not an isolated bet. It follows three other purchases MoonPay made earlier in 2026: Sodot, a key management provider; DFlow, which supplies trading infrastructure; and Entendre, which focuses on AI-driven finance operations. Layered together, those deals suggest a company assembling the full back end needed to move from crypto payments into institutional-grade custody, onchain trading and now regulated securities issuance. North Capital is the piece that gives that stack legal standing in US markets, which is arguably the hardest part to build from scratch.

What it means for the tokenization race

MoonPay’s move lands amid a broader scramble by financial infrastructure players to control the rails for tokenized assets. Traditional exchanges are pursuing similar ambitions from the opposite direction: the New York Stock Exchange, for instance, has struck a deal with Blockchain.com to offer tokenized stocks, while regulators themselves are reshaping the rules of engagement. The SEC’s own new exemption for tokenized US stocks is redrawing which players can legally issue and trade these instruments, and central banks are experimenting too, as seen in the ECB’s move to become both operator and buyer in a new tokenized bond system.

Against that backdrop, MoonPay’s acquisition reads less like a standalone bet on tokenization and more like an attempt to avoid being left dependent on partners for the regulated core of that business. Owning a broker-dealer, an ATS, a transfer agent and an investment adviser under one roof reduces the number of counterparties MoonPay needs to route through when handling issuance or secondary trading of tokenized securities. It also puts MoonPay, valued at $3.4 billion according to Traxcn, in more direct competition with firms that have spent years building or buying similar licenses.

What to watch next

The deal’s fate now depends on regulatory sign-off, the single condition standing between announcement and closing. Observers should watch for:

• Confirmation of regulatory approval and the timeline for North Capital’s full integration as a MoonPay subsidiary.
• Whether MoonPay begins offering tokenized securities issuance or secondary trading services using North Capital’s licenses, and to which client segments.
• How competitors respond, particularly as exchanges and banks pursue their own tokenization partnerships and licensing paths.
• Whether MoonPay’s prior acquisitions (Sodot, DFlow, Entendre) are formally integrated with North Capital’s infrastructure to form a single product offering.

For now, the transaction underscores a broader pattern: crypto-native firms are increasingly buying their way into regulatory compliance rather than building it from zero, a trend also visible in the compliance and partnership models banks are adopting, such as Raiffeisen Bank’s crypto access partnership with Bitpanda. Whether that approach delivers durable regulatory standing, or simply shifts scrutiny onto a larger combined entity, will become clearer once North Capital’s licenses are tested at MoonPay’s scale.

Source: Cointelegraph

This content is for informational purposes only and does not constitute financial or investment advice.