MoonPay to buy North Capital, adding SEC registrations for its tokenization push

Crypto payments firm MoonPay plans to acquire North Capital, a Salt Lake City private-markets investment platform, in an all-stock deal, the company said in an emailed announcement on Wednesday reported by CoinDesk. The stated goal: fold North Capital's securities-tokenization plumbing and its regulatory licenses into MoonPay's operations.

The headline number — "more than $60 million" — comes not from MoonPay's announcement but from unnamed "sources familiar with the matter" cited by CoinDesk. MoonPay did not put a public price on the deal, so treat the figure as reported, not confirmed.

What MoonPay is actually buying is the registrations. North Capital's affiliates hold broker-dealer, trading, transfer-agent and investment-adviser registrations with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, per CoinDesk, and its platform provides the infrastructure to tokenize private securities — capital raising, asset management, clearing, custody and secondary trading. North Capital's platform has handled about $9 billion in primary and secondary transaction volume, a figure attributed to North Capital's own platform and not independently verified. On close, North Capital becomes a wholly owned MoonPay subsidiary, subject to regulatory approval.

The deal continues an acquisition run. CoinDesk reports MoonPay has bought Solana trading-infrastructure provider DFlow and security startup Sodot earlier this year, and recently launched a "Trade" platform pitching banks and fintechs on tokenized assets, DeFi and stablecoin liquidity.

Key facts

• Buyer/target: MoonPay acquiring North Capital, Salt Lake City private-markets platform (CoinDesk, Sept. 23, 2026).
• Price: All-stock, "more than $60 million" — attributed to sources familiar, per CoinDesk; not disclosed by MoonPay.
• What's included: North Capital affiliates' SEC broker-dealer, trading, transfer and investment-advisory registrations; securities-tokenization infrastructure (CoinDesk).
• Scale claim: ~$9 billion in primary and secondary transaction volume — North Capital's own figure (CoinDesk).
• Status: Subject to regulatory approval; North Capital to become a wholly owned subsidiary.
• Prior deals: DFlow and Sodot acquired earlier in 2026 (CoinDesk).

The real-world read

The value driver here is a license, not a product. Acquiring an SEC-registered broker-dealer and transfer agent is a well-worn shortcut for a crypto firm that wants to touch regulated securities without building its own compliance stack from scratch — the "regulatory foundation" language in Soto-Wright's quote is doing exactly that work. Note also what's soft: the $60 million rests on anonymous sources, not a filing, and MoonPay declined to state a price publicly. The $9 billion volume figure is the target's self-reported number, the kind of stat an interested party has every incentive to present favorably; no third-party confirmation was offered. And the broader tokenization framing — a "multi-trillion dollar" future for real-world assets — is industry forecast, not fact.

Opinion, and whose

MoonPay CEO Ivan Soto-Wright frames the deal as "building the regulatory foundation to support mass adoption of tokenized real-world assets" and connecting "different parts of the financial system through modern, programmable infrastructure." That is the acquirer's pitch. The multi-trillion-dollar tokenization projection cited in CoinDesk's coverage is an unattributed industry expectation, not a MoonPay commitment or a settled outcome.

Sources

• CoinDesk (Tier 2, secondary), "MoonPay to acquire SEC-registered North Capital in $60 million all-stock deal," Sept. 23, 2026 — the sole basis for this report; provided the deal structure, CEO quotes drawn from MoonPay's emailed announcement (an interested party), the $9 billion volume figure (North Capital's own), and the ">$60 million" price attributed to unnamed sources. MoonPay's underlying announcement is company communication and reads as such.

This is news reporting, not investment advice.