MoonPay has agreed to acquire North Capital, an SEC-registered broker-dealer, in a $60 million all-stock transaction, according to a CoinDesk report on the deal.

The acquisition hands MoonPay a set of regulated financial licenses that would otherwise take years to obtain through organic applications. North Capital operates as a broker-dealer registered with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and holds memberships with FINRA and SIPC, the industry bodies that supervise securities firms and protect client assets. For a company built on crypto payments, that license stack opens a direct path into tokenized securities issuance, secondary trading, and other capital-markets activity that sits squarely inside the SEC's perimeter.

The all-stock structure signals how MoonPay intends to pay for it: with its own equity rather than cash on hand. Stock-based consideration also aligns North Capital's existing shareholders with the combined entity's long-term performance, a common approach when a fast-growing private firm absorbs a regulated intermediary whose value lies in its licenses and compliance infrastructure rather than revenue scale.

Strategically, the deal positions MoonPay to compete in the market for tokenized real-world assets, where demand for compliant issuance and trading infrastructure has grown as traditional financial institutions move on-chain. Owning a broker-dealer allows MoonPay to intermediate securities transactions directly rather than routing through third parties, capturing more of the fee stack and shortening the chain of counterparties involved in each transaction. It also gives the firm a regulated wrapper for products that regulators may classify as securities, reducing reliance on external partners for compliance-critical functions.

The transaction adds to a broader pattern of consolidation between crypto-native companies and licensed U.S. financial institutions. Firms across the sector have pursued broker-dealer, transfer-agent, and exchange registrations as the regulatory environment for digital assets has shifted, with the SEC under new leadership retreating from several enforcement positions it took during prior years. Acquiring an already-registered entity remains faster than building a compliance operation from scratch and winning approval directly.

For North Capital, the deal provides access to MoonPay's consumer distribution and payments volume. The firm has operated as an infrastructure provider for private securities markets, supporting issuance and trading platforms that need a registered intermediary to handle transactions in regulated instruments.

The purchase remains subject to standard closing conditions, including regulatory review of the change of control at the broker-dealer. FINRA must approve transfers of control over its member firms, a process that typically involves scrutiny of the acquirer's financial condition, business plan, and compliance history. Until that review concludes, North Capital continues to operate under its existing registration.