MoonPay Buys an SEC-Registered Broker: Crypto Market Update, 24 September 2026

By Richter · Market Update · 2026-09-24

MoonPay agreed to buy North Capital, a private-markets platform with roughly $9 billion in primary and secondary transaction volume, in an all-stock deal valued at more than $60 million. North Capital's affiliates are registered with the SEC, which is the part that matters. MoonPay has spent years as the on-ramp at the edge of the market. Buying a regulated broker-dealer puts it inside the perimeter, with tokenization, custody and trading rails attached.

The deal still needs regulatory approval, and there is no token attached to it. So the near-term price impact on BTC or ETH is close to zero. What it does signal is where infrastructure money is going: toward regulated venues for tokenized real-world assets, not toward another exchange listing another memecoin.

The SEC Custody Rule Inches Forward

On Tuesday, the SEC's Crypto Task Force chief counsel, Taylor Lindman, said the agency's crypto custody proposal is sitting with the White House for review. Once the Office of Management and Budget clears it, the SEC can formally propose the rule and open a public comment period.

For anyone who has tried to explain to a traditional finance friend why their pension fund will not touch this asset class, the custody question is usually the first wall they hit. Broker-dealers need clear rules on holding non-security crypto, and investment advisers need to know where client assets can legally sit. That wall is being measured for a door.

This is a medium-term story. Nothing gets finalised this month, and the formal proposal itself is the next volatility checkpoint. In the meantime, macro and ETF flows are still doing the driving.

Strong PMIs, Hawkish Repricing

Wednesday's S&P Global PMI prints came in hot. Manufacturing hit 57.0 against a 53.6 forecast. Services hit 58.7 against 55.8. Both blew past expectations, and both landed above the prior month's readings.

Strong activity data gives the Fed less reason to ease. The market read it that way, and risk assets took the hit. Crude inventories added a small counterweight: a build of 2.969 million barrels against a forecast draw of 0.700 million, which nudges inflation expectations slightly lower. It was not enough to offset the PMI surprise.

Thursday brings Initial Jobless Claims at 12:30 UTC, forecast at 201K versus 196K prior, and New Home Sales at 14:00 UTC, forecast at 619K against 607K prior. Claims below 201K would reinforce the strong-labor read and keep pressure on crypto. A clear miss higher would soften rate expectations, though only if recession fear stays quiet.

A Red Three Days Across Majors

Every major we track is lower over the window. BTC sits at $83,444.80, down 3.62%. ETH at $2,645.63, down 4.65%. SOL at $113.28, down 4.72%. BNB at $769.30, down 3.72%. XRP at $1.4683, down 4.42%. DOGE at $0.09262, down 7.23%.

DOGE leading the downside is the familiar pattern: when the market gets nervous, the highest-beta names give back the most. What stands out is how evenly the pain is spread across BTC, ETH, SOL and BNB. That kind of uniform drawdown usually points to a macro driver rather than a story specific to any one chain.

Our scanners flagged eight symbols most often over the window:

• FIGHT, 9 flags, bullish, new longs building

• ORCL, 9 flags, coiling, longs accumulating

• XAG, 8 flags, coiling, volatility expected

• HOME, 8 flags, bearish, new shorts

• SPX, 7 flags, bearish, new shorts

• CORE, 7 flags, bearish, new shorts

• TIA, 7 flags, bearish, new shorts

• ZRO, 7 flags, bullish, new longs

The split is nearly even, four leaning long and four leaning short. Traders are not running from the market, they are picking sides. The two coiling names, ORCL and XAG, are worth noting because coiling setups tend to resolve in a single direction once the range breaks, and the scanner is flagging them for exactly that reason.

Buybacks Funded by Real Usage

Two buyback programs stood out this week, and both are funded by actual usage rather than treasury reserves.

NEAR Intents generated $446,000 allocated to NEAR buybacks during September 14 to 20, more than double the prior week. The mechanism is straightforward: fees captured from intent routing get spent buying the token. The absolute number is small relative to NEAR's market cap, so treat it as a signal of direction rather than a price catalyst.

Lighter bought back roughly $653,000 of LIT between September 16 and 22, with its Robinhood deployment generating 40% of protocol revenue. That is a distribution channel doing real work. The open question is what happens to that revenue when launch incentives fade.

Elsewhere in market structure, CME plans to launch cash-settled Bitcoin Cash and Uniswap futures on October 19, subject to review. Regulated futures open the door to institutional hedging and shorting without physical custody. That cuts both ways for price, but it deepens the market, and deeper markets are usually better markets.

A few smaller items worth filing away:

• Stellar was connected by Mastercard-owned BVNK to stablecoin payments across more than 130 countries, a solid enterprise win even if crypto-native demand stays thin.

• Coinbase now lets eligible U.S. retail users request IPO shares at the offering price, with a 30-day holding incentive attached.

• Kalshi disclosed that a trading firm is paid to replenish orders and that eligible participants receive net exchange fee refunds, which means reported volume there should not be read as organic revenue.

Momentum Algo Sweeps the Window

The Momentum Algo closed four longs at target over the window, all in the 2R range:

• GRASS long, +2.28R

• CAKE long, +2.13R

• ATH long, +2.12R

• CRV long, +2.08R

Four clean targets in a market that was down across the board is a reminder that the algo trades the setup, not the sentiment. None of these were home runs, and that is the point. Consistent 2R outcomes compound.

Community members had a strong window as well. archaos2872 held an LTC long for 24 days and closed it at +238.4% on 10x leverage with a 3.35 risk-reward. scalpcitymf caught UB long for +200.8% at 4.71R on 10x, and separately held an HBAR long for 12 days to +198.3%. jgrails took an AKE long to +221.9% on 7x in under five hours. pgbz closed a BTW long in four minutes for +148.9% at 4.65R.

The range of holding periods is the interesting part: from four minutes to 24 days, all profitable. There is no single right way to trade this market.

What to Watch Into Next Week

Thursday's jobless claims and new home sales will set the tone for the rest of the week. If claims come in soft and housing beats, expect the hawkish repricing to continue and watch whether BTC can hold the $83K area. If either misses, the rate-cut trade gets a second look.

Keep an eye on the SEC custody proposal moving through OMB review, and on the October 19 CME listing date for BCH and UNI futures. Both are slow-burn stories with real structural consequences. And watch whether the NEAR and LIT buyback flows persist into next week, because sustained usage-funded demand is a different animal from a one-off treasury spend.

This is market commentary, not financial advice. Always do your own research.