Cryptocurrency payment company MoonPay agrees to acquire private market infrastructure platform North Capital in an all-stock deal
Cryptocurrency payment company MoonPay has agreed to acquire private market infrastructure platform North Capital in an all-stock transaction valued at over $60 million. Upon completion of the deal, North Capital will become a wholly-owned subsidiary of MoonPay. MoonPay positions this acquisition as a compliant foundation for tokenizing real-world assets.
North Capital is headquartered in Utah, founded and led by CEO James P. Dowd. Its most valuable asset is a complete set of U.S. securities licenses: it includes a broker-dealer registered with the SEC, an alternative trading system (ATS) called PPEX, a transfer agent, and an investment advisor, and is a member of FINRA and SIPC. Each stage of issuance, trading, registration, and custody has a corresponding licensed entity.
In terms of business scale, North Capital's platform has supported approximately $8.7 billion in primary and secondary transactions. Over 1,250 assets have been approved for trading on PPEX. Services cover private securities fundraising, asset management, clearing, custody, secondary trading of exempt securities, investor account opening and trade processing, as well as subscription fund custody. Recently, it also partnered with tZERO to trade tokenized assets on an alternative trading system.
On the buyer's side, MoonPay was established in 2019, with CEO Ivan Soto-Wright, serving over 35 million users and more than 1,500 enterprise clients across 180 countries. Its business includes payment, trading, merchant collection, and stablecoin infrastructure. This year, it has completed two acquisitions: DFlow, a trading infrastructure provider on the Solana blockchain, and Israeli crypto security firm Sodot (a $100 million stock deal). North Capital is its third acquisition this year.
The transaction has been unanimously approved by both boards but still awaits regulatory approval and the fulfillment of customary closing conditions. Ivan Soto-Wright stated that this acquisition lays the regulatory groundwork for the large-scale adoption of tokenized real-world assets. James P. Dowd noted that North Capital was established to bring access, liquidity, and transparency to the private market.
In terms of market mechanisms, this is a license-driven strategic acquisition that does not involve secondary market trading. The all-stock payment means MoonPay does not spend cash; North Capital's shareholders will become MoonPay's shareholders, betting on the combined valuation. Beneficiaries are tokenized issuers and private fund managers who need compliant channels, as they can complete fundraising, trading, and custody through the same entry point. Those under pressure are crypto platforms without U.S. securities licenses: Robinhood and Kraken are both expanding their tokenized securities businesses, and licensed channels are becoming a scarce resource, forcing them to rely on partner platforms, which will worsen costs and negotiation positions.
Source: Public information
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MoonPay started with fiat currency deposits, completing a $555 million financing in 2021 with a valuation of $3.4 billion, led by Tiger Global and Coatue. During that bull market, it deeply engaged in celebrity NFT promotions, and by the end of 2022, it was embroiled in a collective lawsuit related to Bored Ape promotions associated with Yuga Labs, accused of participating in marketing arrangements for celebrities to purchase NFTs. After the bear market, its focus shifted from the consumer side to the infrastructure side.
Its investments are concentrated on "licenses + payment pipelines." In January 2025, it acquired Solana payment company Helio for about $175 million; in the same year, it acquired Berlin-based stablecoin infrastructure company Iron and fiat deposit/withdrawal company Meso, and obtained a BitLicense in New York and an EU MiCA license. The transactions of DFlow, Sodot, and North Capital in 2026 fill in trading execution, key security, and U.S. securities licenses, respectively. The acquisition path is clear: first occupy the entry point from fiat to crypto, then extend that entry to securities issuance and trading, aiming to ensure that every asset flow occurs within its licensed system.
Similar strategies have emerged intensively. In 2025, Robinhood completed the acquisition of Bitstamp for about $200 million; that same year, Kraken acquired futures broker NinjaTrader for $1.5 billion and partnered with Backed to launch tokenized stocks xStocks; Coinbase acquired options exchange Deribit for $2.9 billion; Stripe acquired stablecoin company Bridge for $1.1 billion in 2024. These transactions are about buying time through acquisitions: applying for U.S. broker-dealer, ATS, and transfer agent licenses can take years, while buying a licensed company only requires one approval cycle. MoonPay is currently in the process of transforming from a payment tool to a comprehensive financial platform, with North Capital being its first ticket into the securities business.
This transaction structurally represents a reconstruction of the industry chain. For tokenized assets to materialize, issuance, registration, trading, custody, and clearing must have licensed entities, and these stages are traditionally dispersed among different institutions, requiring multiple intermediaries for settlement, which can negate the efficiency advantages of on-chain assets. Whoever can consolidate the licenses for the entire chain into one entity can convert dispersed intermediary income into internal revenue and set the standards for asset tokenization. Thus, the focus of competition among crypto platforms is shifting from user numbers and trading volume to the completeness of licenses, with private markets, which originally had the least liquidity, being the first to undergo tokenization reconstruction.
ABAB News · Cognitive Laws
In regulated markets, licenses are the strongest moat.
The fastest way to buy time is to acquire those who have already completed the approval process.
Entry determines traffic, and licenses determine pricing power.