MoonPay acquires North Capital in $60 million all-stock deal
MoonPay is buying North Capital, an SEC-registered private-markets platform, in an all-stock deal valued at more than $60 million as it pushes deeper into securities tokenization. The acquisition gives the crypto payments firm regulatory registrations and infrastructure it previously lacked, signaling how seriously payment companies now treat the tokenized real-world asset market.
- North Capital’s platform has processed roughly $9 billion in primary and secondary transaction volume to date.
- The all-stock deal is worth more than $60 million, according to sources familiar with the matter.
- North Capital will become a wholly owned MoonPay subsidiary once regulatory approval clears the transaction.
- $60M+ value of the all-stock deal for North Capital
- $9B North Capital’s lifetime primary and secondary transaction volume
MoonPay plans to acquire North Capital, a Salt Lake City-based private-markets investment platform, to support its expansion into tokenized securities, according to an emailed announcement Wednesday (September 23) reported by CoinDesk. The all-stock transaction is worth more than $60 million, sources familiar with the matter told the outlet. The deal remains subject to regulatory approval before it closes.
North Capital Brings $9 Billion in Transaction Volume and SEC Registrations
North Capital’s platform has handled about $9 billion in primary and secondary transaction volume, a scale comparable to a mid-sized regional broker-dealer’s annual flow. Its affiliates hold broker-dealer, trading, transfer and investment advisory registrations with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
Those registrations matter because they let issuers and fund managers raise capital, manage assets, clear trades and custody securities within a single compliant infrastructure stack. North Capital’s technology already supports tokenizing private securities for issuers and fund managers, covering capital raising through secondary trading. Folding that infrastructure into MoonPay gives the payments firm a regulatory footing it did not previously hold in the U.S. private-securities market.
MoonPay CEO Ivan Soto-Wright Frames Deal as Regulatory Foundation
MoonPay CEO and founder Ivan Soto-Wright said the acquisition supports the company’s goal of building infrastructure for institutional adoption of tokenized real-world assets.
We believe bringing those capabilities into the MoonPay ecosystem can help connect different parts of the financial system through modern, programmable infrastructure.
Ivan Soto-Wright, CEO and founder, MoonPay
North Capital’s founders and executives are not quoted in the announcement, and their assessment of the deal’s terms is not represented in the reporting so far.
DFlow and Sodot Preceded North Capital in MoonPay’s 2024 Buying Spree
The North Capital deal extends a run of acquisitions MoonPay has made this year. The company previously bought Solana-based trading infrastructure provider DFlow and security startup Sodot, both aimed at broadening its reach beyond core crypto payments processing.
MoonPay has also launched a Trade platform connecting banks and fintechs to tokenized assets, decentralized finance protocols and stablecoin liquidity. Tokenization, the process of minting assets like equities, bonds and commodities as blockchain tokens, is widely projected to grow into a multi-trillion dollar sector in coming years.
The BlockWest read. The deal matters less for MoonPay’s balance sheet than for what it signals about compliance as the moat in tokenization. Buying broker-dealer and transfer-agent registrations outright, rather than partnering around them, tells rivals that regulatory plumbing, not blockchain rails, is now the scarce asset. Expect other crypto-native firms chasing tokenized securities to face pressure to acquire similar SEC-registered infrastructure rather than build it themselves.
The transaction still requires regulatory approval before North Capital becomes a wholly owned MoonPay subsidiary, and neither company has disclosed an expected closing date. Whether the SEC signs off without conditions, and how North Capital’s existing clients respond to new ownership, remain open questions as the deal moves through review.
