# MoonPay Is Buying Its Way Into Private Markets With North Capital Deal

> MoonPay’s North Capital acquisition would add regulated brokerage, custody and private-market infrastructure to its growing tokenized-asset platform.

By Lidia Yadlos · September 23, 2026

Canonical: https://blockster.com/moonpay-is-buying-its-way-into-private-markets-with-north-capital-deal

MoonPay made its name helping people move money between bank accounts, cards and crypto. Now it wants to move deeper into the financial machinery behind private investments and tokenized assets.

The company has agreed to acquire [North Capital](https://www.northcapital.com/), a U.S. private-markets infrastructure provider whose businesses include SEC-registered broker-dealers, an alternative trading system, a transfer agent and an investment adviser.

If regulators approve the deal, North Capital will become a wholly owned MoonPay subsidiary. The acquisition would give MoonPay something far more difficult to build than another crypto feature: regulated infrastructure for issuing, managing, holding and trading private securities.

That makes this less about adding one more service to the MoonPay app and more about expanding what the entire platform could eventually offer.

[Post from @moonpay on X](https://twitter.com/moonpay/status/2102744887305306524)

## MoonPay is moving beyond the crypto checkout

MoonPay already connects conventional payments with digital assets for more than 35 million customers across 180 countries. It also works with more than 1,500 enterprise clients across crypto and fintech, according to the company.

The North Capital deal pushes that model into private markets.

North Capital provides infrastructure for raising capital, onboarding investors, processing transactions, managing subscription escrow, custody and secondary trading. Its platform has supported more than $8.7 billion in primary and secondary transaction volume.

Its [PPEX alternative trading system](https://www.northcapital.com/ppex) has more than 1,250 approved assets available for secondary-market trading, including private and exempt securities.

For MoonPay, those capabilities could form the regulated backbone for bringing tokenized funds, private shares and other real-world assets into a more connected onchain experience.

MoonPay CEO Ivan Soto-Wright described the current securities infrastructure as fragmented across different technology stacks, providers and workflows.

> “At MoonPay, we’re building the regulatory foundation to support mass adoption of tokenized real-world assets.”
>
> — Ivan Soto-Wright, MoonPay co-founder and CEO

## What North Capital adds to the platform

Buying crypto is relatively simple compared with operating a securities marketplace.

Private investments require identity checks, investor-eligibility controls, brokerage infrastructure, transfer records, custody arrangements and rules governing who can trade an asset. Liquidity is also fragmented because many private securities do not trade on open public exchanges.

North Capital already operates across those layers.

Bringing that infrastructure into MoonPay could allow the company to connect asset issuers, investment platforms and eligible investors through the same broader system it uses to move value between traditional finance and blockchain networks.

That does not mean every private asset will suddenly become available to every MoonPay customer. Securities remain subject to investor-eligibility rules, jurisdictional restrictions and product-specific terms.

But it gives MoonPay more of the regulated plumbing needed to build products around them. The bigger prize is not another token—it is a regulated route into private markets

## MoonPay’s tokenized-asset strategy is already taking shape

This acquisition is not an isolated move. Blockster recently covered how [MoonPay is bringing tokenized Treasury funds to its 35 million accounts](https://blockster.com/moonpay-is-bringing-tokenized-treasury-funds-to-35-million-accounts-heres-why-that-matters).

That earlier rollout gave MoonPay users a route into blockchain-based versions of traditional financial assets. North Capital could take the strategy much further.

Instead of only distributing tokenized products created elsewhere, MoonPay could gain regulated infrastructure covering more of an asset’s lifecycle—from issuance and investor onboarding to custody and secondary trading.

For readers, that is the real significance of the deal: MoonPay is trying to evolve from a crypto payment gateway into a broader platform where eligible users may eventually discover, buy and trade a wider range of onchain financial products.

## Why this could matter to investors and founders

Private-market investing has traditionally been slow, paperwork-heavy and difficult to access. Even eligible investors can face scattered onboarding processes, limited liquidity and platforms that do not communicate smoothly with one another.

Tokenization can make ownership records and transfers more programmable, but putting an asset on a blockchain does not solve the regulatory, custody or distribution questions surrounding it.

MoonPay is betting that combining blockchain-based payment rails with North Capital’s regulated securities infrastructure can close more of that gap.

For investors, the long-term appeal would be a simpler route into eligible private-market and tokenized-asset opportunities.

For startups, funds and asset issuers, the combination could reduce the number of separate providers required to raise capital, onboard investors and support secondary transactions.

[Post from @SolanaFloor on X](https://twitter.com/SolanaFloor/status/2102752659086471427)

## A wider contest to rebuild financial markets onchain

MoonPay is not alone in chasing this opportunity.

Banks, asset managers, exchanges and crypto companies are all experimenting with tokenized Treasuries, funds, private credit and other real-world assets. The competition is gradually shifting from proving that an asset can be tokenized to building the regulated infrastructure that makes it genuinely usable.

North Capital gives MoonPay a stronger position in that second phase.

The acquisition has been unanimously approved by both companies’ boards, but it still requires regulatory approval and must satisfy customary closing conditions.

If it closes, MoonPay will no longer look like only a bridge between cards and crypto. It will be positioning itself as part of the infrastructure through which private and tokenized investments are issued, distributed and traded.

That is a much bigger business—and potentially a much more consequential one.