MoonPay is buying North Capital, a Salt Lake City-area financial technology firm holding a stack of SEC registrations, in an all-stock deal worth more than $60 million, according to sources familiar with the matter. The acquisition would make North Capital a wholly owned subsidiary of MoonPay once the transaction closes, pending regulatory approval. It marks the crypto payments company's most direct move yet into the heavily regulated world of U.S. capital markets infrastructure.
The deal was reported by cryptonews.net, which also reported North Capital's roughly $9 billion in primary and secondary transaction volume. North Capital, based in Midvale, Utah, previously raised $2.18 million in an October 2021 seed funding round backed by Karlani Capital and Fiduciary Trust International, according to Traxcn data reported by Cointelegraph. That funding history stands in sharp contrast to MoonPay's own scale — the same Traxcn data pegged MoonPay's private market valuation at $3.4 billion this month.
What North Capital Brings to the Table
North Capital affiliates hold broker-dealer, trading, transfer agent, and investment advisory registrations with the SEC, giving the firm a broad regulatory footprint that MoonPay does not currently possess on its own. The company provides technology infrastructure for tokenizing securities and supports private securities issuers and fund managers across capital raising, asset management, clearing, custody, and secondary trading. Central to that infrastructure is PPEX ATS, an SEC-registered alternative trading system that lists more than 1,250 approved assets available for secondary-market private securities trading, according to a release carried by PR Newswire.
James P. Dowd, founder and CEO of North Capital, framed the deal as a natural extension of the company's founding purpose. He said the company's core mission to bring access, liquidity, and transparency to private markets is best realized through modern, resilient technology infrastructure, per remarks reported by FX News Group. MoonPay co-founder Ivan Soto-Wright said bringing North Capital's capabilities into the MoonPay ecosystem can connect different parts of the financial system through programmable infrastructure.
Part of a Broader 2026 Buying Spree
The North Capital purchase is the latest in a string of acquisitions MoonPay has made this year as it builds out what it describes as the regulatory foundation for mass adoption of tokenized real-world assets. Earlier in 2026, MoonPay acquired DFlow, a Solana-based trading infrastructure provider, and Sodot, a security startup. In June, it also picked up Entendre, an AI-powered stablecoin accounting and financial operations startup, according to reporting from Axios.
Together with North Capital, those deals point toward a company assembling the full technology and back-office stack needed for onchain finance — from trading infrastructure and security tooling to accounting automation and now regulated securities plumbing. MoonPay has established what it calls MoonPay Trade, a platform meant to connect banks and fintechs to tokenized assets, DeFi protocols, and stablecoin liquidity.
The Regulatory Hurdle Ahead
The deal is not a done thing yet. Because North Capital's affiliates operate as SEC-registered broker-dealers, any change of ownership must clear FINRA's review process before MoonPay can take control. Under FINRA Rule 1017, broker-dealers undergoing a direct or indirect change of ownership or control must submit a Continuing Membership Application at least 30 days prior to closing for review by FINRA's Membership Application Program Group, which evaluates financial projections and supervisory controls as part of that process, according to FINRA's own guidance.
The timing of regulatory review leaves open exactly when MoonPay will actually gain control of North Capital's regulatory licenses, even as the companies move forward with the announced terms.
Betting on a Market That's Still Mostly on Paper
Tokenization refers to minting real-world assets — including equities, bonds, and commodities — in token form so they can be bought, sold, and traded on blockchains. It has become a prominent blockchain use case among traditional financial institutions. The market's eventual scale remains uncertain.
MoonPay's North Capital purchase is a bet on the growth of tokenized assets, a bet that will depend as much on FINRA's approval calendar as on how quickly banks and fund managers move their assets onto blockchains.
