On Wednesday, MoonPay announced it has acquired North Capital Investment Technology, a Utah-based firm that offers back-end brokerage services as well as tools to tokenize debt, equity and other assets.
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“At MoonPay, we’re building the regulatory foundation to support mass adoption of tokenized real-world assets and we believe bringing [North Capital’s] capabilities into the MoonPay ecosystem can help connect different parts of the financial system through modern, programmable infrastructure,” said MoonPay founder and CEO Ivan Soto-Wright in a statement.
MoonPay did not disclose the financial terms of the North Capital acquisition but a person familiar told Fortune the company paid over $60 million in an all-stock deal.
North Capital built its business around offering services like custody and secondary market sales. Earlier this year, it rolled out an initiative alongside the blockchain firm tZero to offer tokenized assets on the alternative trading systems (ATSs).
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According to the person familiar with the deal, North Capital’s extensive portfolio of SEC licenses was a key factor in MoonPay’s decision to purchase the company. Those licenses cover activities like broker dealer transactions, ATS trading, transfer agent services, and investment advisory.
The licenses are likely to help MoonPay add services to help its clients manage tokenized stocks. Such stocks can be issued and managed natively on a blockchain, or by means of special purpose vehicles that hold traditional stocks and issue corresponding tokens that have a claim on the shares.
While tokenized stocks are still a tiny sliver of the overall equities market, the category is growing fast. Last week, blockchain-based securities received a boost when the Securities and Exchange Commission deemed that companies can offer tokenized stocks under an “innovators exemption”. This allows companies to offer them without fear of violating certain SEC regulations.
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