MoonPay is acquiring North Capital, a Utah-based broker operating quietly in the private stock sector since 1999. The core value of the acquisition lies not in North Capital’s technology, but in the United States securities licenses that MoonPay previously had to lease from third-party partners.
Although financial terms remain private, the transaction was made public on Wednesday and is currently awaiting regulatory approval to finalize.
MoonPay’s Push to Tokenization
Just last week, MoonPay launched a pathway giving its 35 million users access to a tokenized Treasury fund created by WisdomTree. However, the details revealed a limitation: WisdomTree Securities had to facilitate the brokerage because MoonPay lacked its own US broker-dealer.
The acquisition of North Capital solves this issue comprehensively. North Capital brings a portfolio of regulatory assets, including two SEC-registered broker-dealers, a registered investment adviser, a registered transfer agent, and PPEX—an alternative trading system featuring over 1,250 approved private securities. Altogether, its platform has facilitated $8.7 billion in primary capital raises and secondary market transactions.
This deal focuses on foundational infrastructure rather than consumer products. Essential back-end functions such as clearing, investor verification, escrow, and shareholder recordkeeping are mandatory for any institution aiming to legally offer tokenized shares to US retail customers. Acquiring an existing framework is much faster than securing each individual license independently.
“All financial markets are becoming more technology-driven, but the infrastructure supporting them is still fragmented across different tech stacks, providers, and workflows,” Ivan Soto-Wright, CEO of MoonPay, said in the release
What the Deal Means for Users
This takeover aligns with MoonPay’s broader corporate strategy. Following reports that it purchased Solana router DFlow for $100 million in stock in May—marking its sixth acquisition since early 2025—CEO Ivan Soto-Wright has positioned the firm around funding, tokenizing, trading, and spending. North Capital provides the necessary tokenize-and-trade architecture for strictly regulated securities.
For everyday users, this difference is significant. Currently, the majority of tokenized stocks on cryptocurrency applications operate as synthetic trackers, and a proposed SEC exemption would allow them to trade without associated dividends or voting rights. Incorporating a transfer agent enables MoonPay to provide genuine securities where owners are officially registered on the issuer’s corporate books.
This disparity is particularly pronounced within private markets, where pre-IPO token products marketed to retail investors frequently grant zero actual equity ownership. North Capital’s technological framework accommodates Reg A+ and Reg CF offerings—regulatory exemptions allowing non-accredited individuals to purchase private shares—while Reg D offerings will remain restricted exclusively to accredited investors.
The ultimate uncertainty surrounds consumer demand. Private securities have historically suffered from low liquidity, and MoonPay’s base of 35 million crypto traders will not inherently translate into private-market investors. Whether MoonPay can successfully translate this compliance framework into transactional volume will be measured through future PPEX metrics rather than public announcements.