MoonPay Buys North Capital for $60m: Cheap Regulated Rails for Tokenised Private Deals
North Capital brings SEC-registered brokerage, trading, transfer-agent and advisory entities for an all-stock price of more than $60 million. Securitize, which holds similar licences, listed at a $1.25 billion pre-money valuation. The first combined subscription-to-settlement product will show whether MoonPay can use them.
MoonPay has agreed to acquire North Capital, a U.S. securities and capital-markets firm, extending its crypto payment business into regulated issuance and trading. The all-stock deal, valued at more than $60 million according to CoinDesk, is subject to regulatory approval. North Capital’s affiliates hold SEC broker-dealer, trading-system, transfer-agent and investment-adviser registrations, and provide investor onboarding, offering tools and escrow. The acquisition announcement and CoinDesk’s report set out the terms.
The strategic asset is the operating machinery around a securities transaction: licensed entities, compliance staff, issuer relationships, investor checks and records. Those take years to assemble. MoonPay can add payment and digital-asset services around a business that already handles private offerings, while North Capital keeps the specialist processes securities require.
North Capital’s platform lists 3,520 deals, 2.6 million transactions and $8.7 billion of volume, about $2.5 million per deal. It also lists 1,250-plus approved assets and 625,000 secondary trades on its platform page. Those numbers describe infrastructure built for many small private transactions: private placements, Regulation A offerings, private funds and resale of their units. That is the business MoonPay is buying into, and it fits a company whose strength is moving small amounts of money for many users.
The market MoonPay enters already has buyers of the same licences. Securitize, which holds a transfer agent, a broker-dealer, a trading system and an investment adviser, listed on the NYSE in July through a merger with Cantor Equity Partners II at a $1.25 billion pre-money valuation. Ondo bought the broker-dealer, trading system and transfer agent of Oasis Pro in October 2025. Republic closed its acquisition of INX, with a broker-dealer, trading system, transfer agent and money-transmitter licences, in November 2025. Figure runs its own trading system and completed its first tokenised equity trades there in February. tZERO has operated a broker-dealer and trading system for digital securities since 2019. Securitize’s listing, Ondo’s acquisition, Republic’s, Figure’s trades and tZERO’s company page set out the field.
Against that field, MoonPay’s price looks cheap. For a little over $60 million in stock, it gets most of the registrations Securitize holds, plus an operating record of thousands of deals. The difference is where each platform is aimed. Securitize has focused on tokenised funds for large asset managers; Figure on credit and its own equity; Ondo on tokenised Treasuries and stocks. North Capital’s base is small issuers and their investors. MoonPay is buying the cheapest route into the least institutional end of the market, which suits its retail payment base but will not bring large mandates.
The retail competition sits offshore and in a different product. Kraken’s xStocks are tokenised listed shares issued from Jersey for non-U.S. users, and Kraken is buying the issuer, Backed. Robinhood sells stock tokens in the EU as derivatives through its Lithuanian entity. Coinbase launched tokenised stocks for non-U.S. users on its Base network in August, issued through an Abu Dhabi vehicle with the shares held at a U.S. broker-dealer. All three give non-U.S. retail customers on-chain exposure to public companies. North Capital gives MoonPay something none of them offers: a U.S.-registered route for private securities, where issuers raise new money. That is a narrower market, but one where the crypto exchanges have not yet built a position. Kraken’s Backed acquisition, Robinhood’s launch and Coinbase’s debut set out the offshore offers.
Kraken’s $1.5 billion agreement to acquire NinjaTrader in 2025 offers a related precedent: a crypto company bought a regulated futures operation to enter an adjacent market. Both deals buy permissions, experienced teams and established workflows instead of building them. Kraken’s announcement described its expansion.
The customer overlap is the hard part. A crypto-wallet user may not qualify for a private placement, and a company seeking capital may have little connection to MoonPay’s retail base. Cross-selling lowers distribution costs only where eligibility and customer needs align. North Capital’s APIs and white-label portals give MoonPay a route through broker-dealers, fund managers and private issuers, though those intermediaries may keep the customer relationship.
The all-stock structure links the price to MoonPay’s own equity value through closing. It avoids an immediate cash outlay, and it gives North Capital’s owners a stake in making the integration work. The larger cost is operational: MoonPay has to retain North Capital’s specialist staff and keep the platform compliant while engineering teams connect payment and securities workflows. A compliance lapse at the broker-dealer would cost more than the purchase price.
The release sets no closing date or product roadmap. The desk expects the deal to close in the first half of 2027, followed by a subscription and settlement flow for tokenised private offerings that connects MoonPay payments with North Capital’s investor screening and escrow.
That first product should prove the full chain: an issuer opens an offering, eligible investors subscribe, funds settle and ownership records update under the securities operator’s controls. After launch, the measures to watch are funded offerings, repeat issuers and fees per transaction, split between new capital and resale activity. A wallet integration alone would measure reach. Repeat issuer activity and fee income would show that MoonPay has built a capital-markets business, and that it bought the right end of the market for it.