MoonPay has taken a notable step toward regulated onchain capital markets by agreeing to acquire North Capital Investment Technology, a US private-markets infrastructure firm active in the securities crowdfunding sector. The companies announced a definitive merger agreement on September 23, 2026.
Once the transaction closes, North Capital would operate as a wholly owned MoonPay subsidiary, folding its brokerage and investment advisory operations into MoonPay’s existing platform for moving value between traditional money and digital assets.
North Capital is built around API-first software paired with licensed financial services.
It serves private issuers, intermediaries, fund managers, and investors across the life cycle of exempt securities, including tokenized versions of those instruments.
That work covers investor onboarding, transaction processing, subscription escrow, custody, clearing, and secondary trading. Secondary activity runs through PPEX, its SEC-registered alternative trading system.
The platform has handled more than $8.7 billion in combined primary and secondary volume, and PPEX lists more than 1,250 approved assets available for resale.
The regulatory stack is central to the deal.
North Capital’s affiliated businesses include SEC-registered broker-dealers, the PPEX ATS, a registered transfer agent, and a registered investment adviser.
For MoonPay, those licenses offer a faster path into US private securities activity than building comparable registrations from scratch.
MoonPay, founded in 2019, already serves more than 35 million customers in 180 countries and more than 1,500 enterprise clients. Its products span payments, trading, commerce, and stablecoin infrastructure.
MoonPay founder and CEO Ivan Soto-Wright framed the combination as an answer to fragmented market plumbing.
He argued that financial markets are becoming more technology-driven while the systems behind them remain split across vendors and workflows.
North Capital, he said, has assembled a distinctive mix of software, licenses, and market infrastructure.
MoonPay’s stated aim is to create a regulatory foundation for broader use of tokenized real-world assets and to link parts of the financial system through programmable rails.
North Capital founder and CEO James P. Dowd described a similar logic from the other side.
He said the firm was created to expand access, liquidity, and transparency in private markets and that those goals depend on stronger technology and a smoother experience for issuers, intermediaries, and investors.
He pointed to MoonPay’s global reach and its ambition to modernize how value moves across markets. Both boards approved the transaction.
Closing still depends on regulatory approvals and customary conditions, so timing remains uncertain.
Industry reports describe the consideration as an all-stock package valued at more than $60 million, though the companies did not publish a price in the official announcement.
The acquisition fits a wider pattern.
Crypto payment firms have been looking beyond simple on-ramps and toward the regulated machinery needed to issue, hold, and trade tokenized funds, private shares, and other real-world assets.
North Capital already participates in that niche, including earlier work connecting alternative trading systems.
If the deal is completed, MoonPay would own more of that stack rather than only distributing products built elsewhere. The practical test will come after close: whether MoonPay can combine payment rails, custody, brokerage, and an ATS into products that issuers and investors actually use, while remaining inside US securities rules.
