North Capital’s PPEX ATS hands MoonPay a US securities stack

North Capital, the Salt Lake City firm behind the PPEX ATS, is being bought by MoonPay, and MoonPay is paying for licences rather than a product. MoonPay’s September 23, 2026 announcement lists what comes with it: SEC-registered broker-dealers, an SEC-registered alternative trading system (ATS), an SEC-registered transfer agent and an SEC-registered investment adviser. Put together, those four registrations cover issuing a security, recording who owns it and trading it on a secondary venue. That is the stack a tokenization platform needs before it can handle securities rather than payment tokens.

What North Capital and the PPEX ATS bring

According to the release, North Capital’s platform has supported more than $8.7 billion in primary and secondary transaction volume, and PPEX has more than 1,250 approved assets available for secondary trading. The venue is operated by North Capital Private Securities Corporation (NCPS), which the release describes as “an agency broker and clearing and carrying firm”. PPEX handles private and other exempt securities, registered unlisted securities and digital asset securities. A second broker-dealer, North Capital Agency Brokerage, LLC, is also part of the group. Both are FINRA and SIPC members.

The two businesses each explain a gap at MoonPay. Under Regulation ATS Rule 301(b)(1), an ATS must itself be registered as a broker-dealer, so a crypto payments firm cannot simply open a venue. A transfer agent keeps the official record of who owns a security. In a tokenised issue, that is the link between the on-chain token and legal title. TIS covered the same issue in its piece on Bullish and Equiniti building tokenised stocks on the share register, and when Superstate registered a digital transfer agent with the SEC.

Related:Quant now sits under both US and UK tokenised deposit rails

What still needs sign-off

The deal has not closed. The release says completion “is subject to the receipt of required regulatory approvals”. The boards of both companies approved it unanimously. For the broker-dealers, the relevant process is FINRA Rule 1017. It requires a member to apply for approval when one entity will own or control 25% or more of its equity, and to file at least 30 days before the change. Separately, Rule 301(b)(2)(ii) requires an ATS to file a Form ATS amendment at least 20 calendar days before any material change to its operation.

Neither company has disclosed a price. CoinDesk reported, citing “sources familiar with the matter”, that the all-stock deal is worth more than $60 million. That figure does not appear in the release, and CoinDesk rounded the volume figure to “around $9 billion”.

The Agora question

The less obvious part of the deal is Agora. On July 7, 2026, tZERO and North Capital announced that the first order had been routed through the Agora Network. The companies called it the first network linking ATSs for tokenised and private securities. Its first phase connects tZERO’s ATS with PPEX. Eligible customers of each firm can discover trading interest and route orders across the two venues without directly accessing the other firm’s ATS.

“Our objective has been to create common infrastructure to enable greater connectivity to potential liquidity and transparency, while allowing ATSs and issuers to maintain control of their businesses,” Jim Dowd, Chief Executive Officer of North Capital, said at the time. Ledger Insights noted that the acquisition raises a governance question: one of Agora’s two founding ATSs will now sit inside a group that also owns order-routing and payment rails. MoonPay’s announcement does not mention Agora, or what happens to tZERO‘s role in it.

CoinDesk places the deal in a run of acquisitions that includes DFlow, a Solana-based trading infrastructure provider, and the security startup Sodot. MoonPay has also launched a Trade platform to connect banks and fintechs to tokenised assets and stablecoin liquidity.

What MoonPay says it is building

“At MoonPay, we’re building the regulatory foundation to support mass adoption of tokenized real-world assets,” said Ivan Soto-Wright, CEO and Founder of MoonPay, in the release. MoonPay says it serves more than 35 million customers in 180 countries and more than 1,500 enterprise clients. It has been adding US licences for some time, including its New York BitLicense in 2025.

The limits matter too. PPEX is a venue for exempt and unlisted securities, not listed equities. Tokenised versions of exchange-listed shares follow a separate route, set out in the SEC’s innovation exemption for tokenised NMS stocks. The next things to watch are the FINRA change-of-control filing and any amendment to PPEX’s Form ATS. The Form ATS amendment may show whether PPEX’s Agora routing changes under MoonPay ownership.

This article is informational analysis only and is not financial, investment, or trading advice. Cryptocurrencies are highly volatile and can lose substantial value rapidly. Past performance and historical patterns do not guarantee future results. Do your own research and consult a regulated financial adviser before making any investment decision.