MoonPay to Buy North Capital and Its 1,250-Asset Trading Venue

North Capital deal adds private-securities infrastructure

North Capital’s assets include registered broker-dealer businesses, a transfer agent, an investment adviser and PPEX, an alternative trading system, according to MoonPay. An ATS is a regulated venue for matching securities transactions outside a traditional stock exchange. Its broker-dealer operator must follow securities rules, including recordkeeping and customer protections; buying the parent company does not transfer an unrestricted securities-trading permission to every MoonPay app user.

The distinction is especially important for PPEX. North Capital says the venue offers approved assets for secondary trading, meaning eligible holders may seek to resell certain private securities after issuance. Private offerings can have investor-qualification and transfer restrictions, and an approved asset count is not evidence of liquid trading in each security.

North Capital’s own May 2025 submission to the SEC said its broker-dealer operates PPEX for exempt securities, including digital-asset securities, and has worked with digital securities since 2017. The document discussed custody issues for tokenized securities. It does not say every PPEX listing is represented on a blockchain.

The existing platform combines investor verification, subscription escrow and transaction processing with its trading venue. For a tokenized private security, these steps matter as much as the token itself: issuers still need a legal securities record, qualified buyers where required, custody arrangements and a way to enforce resale restrictions.

The announced purchase also differs from the NYSE and Blockchain.com plan. That memorandum concerns possible distribution of tokenized public stocks and ETFs through a future NYSE venue. MoonPay’s signed agreement is to acquire an existing private-markets operator, pending closing, with no comparable public-stock rollout announced.

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Reported $60 million price remains unconfirmed

MoonPay’s release did not disclose the financial terms. Fortune reported that an unnamed person familiar with the transaction put its value above $60 million in an all-stock deal. That figure is a media report, not a company-confirmed purchase price, and MoonPay has not disclosed its share valuation or how much equity would change hands.

Both boards unanimously approved the agreement, MoonPay said. Completion remains subject to regulatory approvals and customary conditions. Those conditions matter because North Capital’s regulated entities will continue to have their own obligations even after a change in ownership; the companies have not specified which approvals they need or a timetable.

North Capital’s trading history also needs context. Its $8.7 billion figure aggregates historical primary and secondary volume across the platform, rather than assets under management or current annual trading. Its 2.6 million transactions and 625,000 secondary trades likewise span an unspecified period. None of those totals is a forecast of revenue or activity after the acquisition.

The buyer’s commercial plan is still largely open. MoonPay did not identify a securities launch date, jurisdiction list, custody model for prospective MoonPay users, supported blockchains, token standards or a list of offerings to be distributed through its consumer interface. It also did not say whether North Capital’s existing institutional clients will see any immediate change.

Tokenized securities still face access limits

The deal comes as firms build several different routes into onchain securities. The SEC’s recent tokenized-stock exemption concerns certain public shares on qualifying venues. North Capital’s existing focus is private and other exempt securities, whose disclosure and transfer rules differ. The MoonPay acquisition announcement should not be read as an SEC authorization for a public-stock product.

The SEC’s ATS guidance and list explain that an ATS operates under a securities-law framework through a registered broker-dealer and required filings. A venue’s regulatory status is tied to its particular operator and activity. Future tokenized offerings would still have to fit the applicable issuer, investor and trading rules.

Private-market securities may carry fewer resale opportunities than exchange-listed stocks. A blockchain record can help with transfer and recordkeeping, but it does not remove eligibility checks, legal ownership questions or limits on who can buy. The useful test for any future MoonPay offering will be the published security terms and the entity responsible for custody and execution, rather than the word “tokenized” alone.

The acquisition news did not appear to set the broader crypto market’s direction. CoinGecko showed bitcoin near $83,864 with about $42.69 billion in 24-hour volume during the September 24 morning check, amid a wider pullback. Alternative.me’s sentiment index read 71, or Greed, at the same check. Neither measure indicates demand for a MoonPay securities service that has yet to launch.

The next verifiable milestones are the required approvals, completion of the acquisition and specific product terms. Until then, MoonPay has a signed plan to buy an established private-markets platform, while the reported price and any customer rollout remain unconfirmed.