MoonPay has agreed to acquire North Capital, a US securities infrastructure firm, in an all-stock transaction reported to be worth more than $60 million, as the crypto payments company builds out regulated capabilities for tokenized securities.
Fortune, which first reported the deal on September 23, attributed the valuation to a person familiar with the transaction. Closing timing and any regulatory approvals required were not disclosed in that report.
North Capital provides back-end brokerage services and tokenization tools for debt, equity and other assets, along with custody and secondary-market sales capabilities. Its SEC registrations cover broker-dealer activity, alternative trading system (ATS) operations, transfer agent services and investment advisory. It has previously partnered with tZERO on tokenized asset offerings run through alternative trading systems.
MoonPay founder and chief executive Ivan Soto-Wright said the company is "building the regulatory foundation to support mass adoption of tokenized real-world assets."
The announcement follows the SEC's recent approval of an exemption that lets companies offer tokenized stocks without breaching certain existing rules, a change that has pushed crypto firms to line up the licensed plumbing needed to issue, trade and settle tokenized securities in the US.
For MoonPay, buying a registered stack is an alternative to applying for each registration itself. Owning a transfer agent, broker-dealer and trading venue in one group would let it handle issuance, custody and secondary trading in-house.
Because the price rests on a single unnamed source and the deal has yet to close, the headline figure should be treated as indicative until the companies publish terms.