MoonPay agrees to buy 27-year-old Utah broker North Capital

MoonPay agreed to buy North Capital, a 27-year-old Utah broker. The agreement was announced Wednesday. Regulatory approval is required before the deal closes. The terms were not disclosed. The acquisition would give MoonPay US securities licenses that it has obtained through partners. Last week, MoonPay opened access for its 35 million users to a tokenized Treasury fund from WisdomTree. WisdomTree Securities handled the brokerage because MoonPay did not have its own US broker-dealer. North Capital owns two SEC-registered broker-dealers. It operates a registered transfer agent. It operates an investment adviser. It owns PPEX, an alternative trading system for private securities with more than 1,250 approved assets. Its platform has moved $8.7 billion through primary raises and secondary trades. North Capital's infrastructure includes escrow, investor verification, shareholder records, and clearing. MoonPay CEO Ivan Soto-Wright said all financial markets are becoming more technology-driven. Soto-Wright said the infrastructure supporting those markets remains fragmented across technology stacks, providers, and workflows. MoonPay reportedly paid $100 million in stock for Solana router DFlow in May. That was MoonPay's sixth deal since early 2025. Most tokenized stocks on crypto apps are synthetic trackers. The SEC's proposed exemption would let those products trade without voting rights or dividends. A transfer agent would let MoonPay offer securities whose holders appear on an issuer's books. Private-market token products sold to retail investors usually provide no stake. North Capital supports Reg CF offerings. It supports Reg A+ offerings. These exemptions let non-accredited investors buy private shares. Accredited-only Reg D deals will remain gated. Private securities trade thinly. The number of crypto buyers does not automatically equal the number of private-market investors.