Goldman Sachs has agreed to buy LCN Capital Partners for up to $410 million, adding about $3 billion in commercial real estate assets to its investment management business.

Goldman Sachs said in an Aug. 18 announcement that the transaction will bring LCN’s investment funds, corporate relationships, and real estate team into Goldman Sachs Asset Management.

Goldman Sachs will pay most of the LCN price in stock

Under the agreement, Goldman will provide about $260 million when the acquisition closes. LCN’s owners could receive another $150 million through deferred and conditional payments if the business meets long-dated performance targets and service commitments.

Approximately 80% of the full consideration will consist of Goldman stock, according to the bank. The final amount could therefore remain below $410 million if the conditions governing the additional payment are not met.

Expected to close by the end of 2026, the acquisition still requires regulatory clearance and must meet customary closing conditions. Goldman’s Global Banking and Markets division acted as the bank’s financial adviser, while Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz and DLA Piper provided legal advice.

RBC Capital Markets advised LCN on the sale. McDermott Will & Schulte served as the real estate manager’s legal counsel.

Based in New York, LCN was founded in 2011 by Edward V. LaPuma and Bryan York Colwell. Its investment team has more than 30 years of experience in triple-net lease transactions, according to Goldman.

LaPuma, Colwell, and other LCN employees will join the real estate division within Goldman Sachs Asset Management after the purchase closes. The bank did not disclose whether LCN’s brand will remain in use or provide details about possible changes to its investment funds.

“Our team, our strategy, and our commitment to our partners, both capital and corporate, remain unchanged — what changes is the scale of our ambition,” LaPuma said.

LCN adds $3 billion in commercial property assets

LCN had approximately $3 billion in assets under supervision as of June 30, with much of its capital supplied by institutions, insurance companies, and wealthy individuals. The firm operates in North America and Europe and has raised 10 investment funds since its creation.

Its portfolio covers industrial sites, offices, retail properties, and buildings created for specific corporate uses. LCN originates, negotiates, and manages sale-leaseback, build-to-suit, and net lease transactions, combining property ownership with an assessment of each tenant’s credit.

In a sale-leaseback, a company sells a building to an investor and immediately rents it under a long-term agreement. The company continues operating from the property while gaining access to cash that was previously tied up in the building.

Triple-net leases place several property expenses on the tenant. Along with rent, the tenant generally pays real estate taxes, insurance, and maintenance costs, reducing some operating expenses for the property owner.

Build-to-suit agreements involve constructing or adapting a building for a particular tenant, usually under a lease negotiated before the work is completed. Such contracts can give investors a known occupant and rental arrangement, although returns still depend on the tenant’s ability to meet its obligations.

Goldman said LCN’s strategy has produced an average annual net cash-on-cash return of 10.8% since inception across fully invested flagship funds. LCN calculated the figure as of March 31, using dollar-denominated returns for its North American funds and euro-denominated returns for its European products.

According to the bank, LCN’s funds have also ranked in the first or second quartile among closed-end real estate funds when measured by net multiple on invested capital and distributions to paid-in capital. Past fund performance does not guarantee comparable returns after the business joins Goldman.

The deal expands Goldman’s private real estate operation

Goldman oversees more than $4 trillion in assets across its investment businesses, based on figures reported as of June 30. Its alternatives division accounts for over $706 billion, covering private equity, credit, infrastructure, venture capital, real estate, and hedge fund strategies.

Within real estate, the bank said it has invested more than $65 billion since 2012. Its existing operation covers property equity, senior mortgages, mezzanine debt, and investments ranging from individual buildings to large portfolios.

LCN gives the division a dedicated sale-leaseback and triple-net lease platform. Goldman estimates that companies hold approximately $14 trillion of property on their balance sheets across North America and Europe, while only a small portion changes hands through net lease transactions each year.

American companies can use sale-leasebacks to obtain capital without leaving facilities needed for daily operations. For U.S. institutional investors, LCN’s funds offer exposure to rental income and corporate credit through private products rather than publicly traded real estate investment trusts.

David Solomon, Goldman’s chairman and chief executive, said LCN would offer asset and wealth management clients “diversified sources of returns” while providing corporate clients with additional financing choices.

“Their focus complements our private real estate team’s broad 30-year track record and will expand our ability to serve our insurance, institutional, and wealth client segments,” Solomon said.

Goldman expects its corporate relationships and Global Banking and Markets network to support LCN’s work with companies and developers. Its asset management distribution channels will also place the funds before pension plans, insurers, family offices, and wealthy clients.

In June, Goldman also entered blockchain-based real estate products through a tokenized property fund developed with Apex Group, Archax, Ownera, and LRC Group. Crypto.news reported that the fund represents real estate interests through Goldman’s GS DAP platform while retaining conventional administration, custody, and regulatory controls.

LCN follows Goldman’s $2.25 billion NEOS purchase

Six days before announcing the LCN agreement, Goldman disclosed a deal to acquire NEOS Investments for as much as $2.25 billion. NEOS managed about $30 billion across 19 options-based income ETFs as of June 30.

As previously covered in August, the NEOS purchase is expected to increase Goldman’s ETF assets beyond $130 billion, including about $80 billion held in actively managed products. NEOS co-founders Troy Cates and Garrett Paolella will become Goldman partners after that transaction closes.

NEOS also manages three U.S.-listed income ETFs connected to Bitcoin and Ethereum, giving the bank exposure to another area of investment management. The NEOS Bitcoin High Income ETF, Boosted Bitcoin High Income ETF, and Ethereum High Income ETF collectively held more than $1.1 billion when the acquisition was announced.

Unlike the LCN purchase, the NEOS transaction is scheduled to close during the first quarter of 2027. Its completion also depends on regulatory approval and customary closing requirements.

Goldman shares traded at approximately $1,029.55 on Tuesday, down about 2.1% from the previous close of $1,051.31. The stock moved between an intraday high of $1,052.98 and a low of $1,029.46.

MoonPay has added Cash App Pay as a funding option for cryptocurrency purchases, enabling eligible customers in the United States to use their Cash App balances to buy crypto directly through MoonPay’s checkout. The move is intended to reduce friction by letting users complete transactions without switching between apps or performing an additional login.

In an announcement shared with Cointelegraph, MoonPay said Cash App Pay is available both on MoonPay’s own checkout and through select partner integrations. Those partners include Trust Wallet, Bitcoin.com, MetaMask, Moonshot, Ledger, BitPay, Uniswap, Tangem, LOBSTR and Edge.

Key takeaways

• MoonPay’s integration allows eligible US users to fund crypto buys using Cash App balances via Cash App Pay.
• Users can complete purchases through MoonPay checkout and partner wallets without switching apps or creating an extra login.
• Cash App is already a direct on-platform Bitcoin buyer/seller; MoonPay’s integration expands the range of assets accessible through the Cash App-funded flow.
• MoonPay is positioning itself as more than a fiat-to-crypto onramp, adding broader payment and infrastructure capabilities in 2026.

A tighter path from mainstream payments to crypto

Cash App, operated by Block, already lets users buy and sell Bitcoin inside the app. MoonPay’s new Cash App Pay option expands the practical reach of that user base by routing funding through Cash App balances into MoonPay’s crypto purchase experience, including access through multiple third-party platforms.

According to Block’s second-quarter shareholder report, Cash App reported 59 million active users in June. While that figure does not measure how many of those users will adopt Cash App Pay for non-Bitcoin crypto purchases, it highlights the scale of the audience MoonPay is trying to reach through a familiar consumer payments interface.

MoonPay co-founder and CEO Ivan Soto-Wright framed the integration around usability and trust, saying that Cash App is where “tens of millions of Americans” already manage their money and that the partnership allows those users to access a wider digital asset ecosystem funded “instantly” from an app they already know.

Available through MoonPay and multiple wallets

MoonPay said Cash App Pay can be used through its own checkout experience and with select partners, including widely used consumer wallets and on-platform payment interfaces such as MetaMask, Trust Wallet, Uniswap and BitPay. The company also named hardware and app-based ecosystems like Ledger and Tangem, as well as platforms including Edge and Bitcoin.com.

For users, the practical difference is the ability to fund a crypto purchase using Cash App’s balance while staying within the same general transaction flow—rather than jumping to a separate app to complete funding, then returning to finish a purchase elsewhere.

MoonPay also noted that Cash App Pay joins its existing payment integrations, which already include PayPal and Venmo. PayPal was added in 2024, and MoonPay later expanded support to Venmo.

Regulatory footing and MoonPay’s broader build-out

MoonPay’s announcement also comes as the company continues shifting from a straightforward onramp model toward a wider set of crypto services and infrastructure. From a compliance standpoint, MoonPay said it is licensed by the New York State Department of Financial Services via a BitLicense and Limited Purpose Trust Charter, and is authorized under the European Union’s Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation in the Netherlands.

That regulatory posture matters because payment integrations typically require clear jurisdictional control—especially when partnering with mainstream consumer finance apps and embedding checkout or funding options across different platforms.

MoonPay has also been active on the acquisition and product-expansion front in 2026. It acquired Solana trading infrastructure provider DFlow in May, after an April deal for crypto security firm Sodot as part of a broader push into institutional services. In July, MoonPay acquired cross-chain infrastructure startup Glide and launched PayBox, a vault intended to let ChatGPT and Claude users authorize crypto transactions while keeping custody of their assets.

Taken together, the Cash App Pay integration fits into a wider theme: MoonPay is working to make crypto buying more accessible through familiar consumer payments while simultaneously building capabilities that extend beyond simple fiat-to-crypto transfers.

What to watch next

For users, the key question is rollout: which US customers are eligible for Cash App Pay inside MoonPay’s checkout and partner integrations, and whether the offering expands to more partners over time. For the market, investors and builders will likely watch whether “mainstream payments as crypto rails” continues to spread beyond Bitcoin-focused in-app buying, turning payments apps into broader gateways for multiple crypto assets.

In news that will shock anyone who’s been involved in the crypto industry for any significant amount of time, Tether announced last week that it had finally received the audit it had been promising for almost a decade.

While traders celebrated and critics scoffed, the audit, which was certainly a step in the right direction, doesn’t put all the questions involving Tether to bed.

The good, the bad, and the unanswered

First of all, it’s important to recognize that an audit of any kind involving Tether is a notch above the quarterly reserve reports they’ve been provided through BDO Italia.

Think of reserve reports as little more than single snapshots into a company’s financials, while an audit would be more akin to a video, recording everything for more than a moment.

It’s also worth pointing out that the audit was carried out by KPMG, which along with Deloitte, PricewaterhouseCoopers, and Ernst & Young, is one of the so-called “Big Four” accounting firms.

Tether received its audit from KPMG’s US arm, the firm’s most esteemed wing.

Of course, the Big Four was once the “Big Eight,” proving that, despite these entities having stronger reputations than their lesser known competitors, they’re still prone to making mistakes and occasionally going bankrupt as a result.

Many commentators have been quick to point out that the KPMG audit was for Tether International not Tether’s parent company, Tether Holdings or Digfinex.

Digfinex is an umbrella corporation that has owned equity for Tether and the crypto exchange Bitfinex, so while it would be nice to see Digfinex get an audit as well, it doesn’t affect the results in relation to Tether.

Tether’s reserves have previously been used to cover Bitfinex customer fund shortfalls, so it’s entirely possible that these reserves could be used similarly in the future or even right now.

While it would be nice to be able to say that Tether and Bitfinex funds are absolutely not comingled, Tyler Menzer, a CPA assistant professor at Texas Christian University, told Protos, “The audit is uninformative without the financial statements that were provided to KPMG.”

He added, “Since the year 2000, 99.93% of reported audits have received unqualified opinions.”

Kraken has expanded its regulated brokerage offering by launching trading in more than 7,000 US-listed stocks for eligible customers in the European Economic Area (EEA). The move adds traditional equity exposure to the exchange’s existing focus on cryptocurrencies and its growing tokenized-assets lineup.

According to Kraken, the service is available to EEA users through Kraken Pro and its mobile app under the firm’s Markets in Financial Instruments Directive II (MiFID II) authorization. The company says customers can trade US-listed shares alongside crypto markets and tokenized equity products from a single platform.

Key takeaways

• Kraken now supports trading of 7,000+ US-listed stocks for eligible EEA customers under its MiFID II authorization.
• The offering is accessible via Kraken Pro and Kraken’s mobile app.
• US shares can be held alongside tokenized equity exposure (“xStocks”) within the same ecosystem.
• Kraken says eligible customers can trade commission-free, subject to applicable conditions.
• Kraken plans to expand its integrated equities offering to additional markets in the coming months.

How Kraken’s integrated equities push works

Kraken’s announcement positions the new US-stock access as part of a broader strategy to combine conventional market instruments with tokenized representations. The company says customers can trade directly through Kraken’s brokerage framework while also retaining the option to use its tokenized equity products.

Kraken also highlighted that its equities offering aligns with its existing product slate: more than 600 crypto assets plus over 700 xStocks. xStocks are tokenized versions of publicly listed equities and are designed to allow users to gain exposure to those underlying assets through tokens.

By pairing traditional share trading with tokenized equity offerings, Kraken is effectively reducing the need for users to switch between different platforms or infrastructures to pursue both “native” crypto exposure and conventional equity exposure. For traders and portfolio builders, that matters because it can simplify custody, account access, and execution pathways—at least within Kraken’s ecosystem—while offering a single interface for multiple asset types.

Regulation and operating structure

Kraken said the service is delivered by Payward Europe Digital Solutions, the company’s Cyprus-based investment firm. The regulatory framing is an important part of the story: Kraken’s ability to offer traditional stock trading in Europe hinges on its MiFID II authorization.

Kraken stated that eligible customers can trade US-listed stocks commission-free, while also noting that the offer remains subject to applicable conditions. The practical detail for users is that commission-free pricing may not be identical to “no costs”—spreads, fees tied to execution, and other terms can still apply depending on the product and account type. Kraken’s statement indicates the company is leaning into cost competitiveness as a way to attract liquidity and retail usage alongside its crypto business.

xStocks growth underscores Kraken’s tokenized-equity ambitions

While the headline is about US-listed stocks, Kraken’s tokenized-equities business provides context for why the exchange is making the integration step now. Kraken launched xStocks in 2025, offering tokenized exposure to US equities and exchange-traded funds, and it says xStocks has since generated more than $38 billion in total transaction volume.

Kraken further claims xStocks has become one of the largest tokenized stock issuers. Based on Token Terminal data shared in the announcement, xStocks is the second-largest tokenized stock issuer by market capitalization as of Monday, at roughly $609 million. Token Terminal places Ondo Finance ahead, at about $974 million, and notes that Binance’s bStocks is currently third-largest with around $544 million.

For investors watching the tokenized-assets sector, the ranking matters because tokenized equities are still in an evolving phase—liquidity, issuance, and market structure differ across products. Issuer scale can affect how easily users enter and exit positions and how closely token prices track their underlying reference assets. Kraken’s inclusion among the top issuers suggests its xStocks product has traction, but it also sets expectations: as Kraken expands into conventional equities, market participants will likely compare which portion of trading volumes remains token-focused and which portion shifts toward standard share execution.

What to watch next as Kraken expands beyond the EEA

Kraken said it plans to extend its integrated equities offering to additional markets in the coming months. That matters because access decisions often depend on regulatory clearances and operational readiness. It also raises a key question for users: whether Kraken will replicate the same stock universe size and commission structure as it expands, or tailor offerings by region.

Another practical item to monitor is how Kraken will position tokenized equities relative to conventional trading as product adoption grows. If Kraken’s platform increasingly captures both share trading and xStocks activity, investors may see tighter cross-asset workflows—while regulators and market observers will continue to scrutinize how tokenized products are marketed, priced, and risk-managed compared with their underlying markets.

For now, EEA customers get a broader “all-in-one” access point for US equities, crypto, and tokenized stocks via Kraken’s Pro platform and mobile app—setting the stage for what could be a more competitive next phase in regulated digital asset brokerage. The next developments to watch are Kraken’s rollout timeline to other regions and the ongoing balance between traditional share volumes and tokenized equity demand.

MoonPay has added Cash App Pay to its checkout, giving eligible US customers a way to purchase cryptocurrency using funds from their Cash App balance. The payments provider says the option is available both on MoonPay’s own platform and through select partner integrations, removing the need to move between apps or complete additional logins.

In an announcement shared with Cointelegraph on Tuesday, MoonPay said Cash App Pay is now live for users across its network of wallet and payments partners, including Trust Wallet, Bitcoin.com, MetaMask, Moonshot, Ledger, BitPay, Uniswap, Tangem, LOBSTR, and Edge.

Key takeaways

• MoonPay’s checkout now supports Cash App Pay, allowing US users to fund crypto purchases directly from their Cash App balance.
• The integration is also available through select MoonPay partners, including major wallet and onchain platforms such as MetaMask and Uniswap.
• MoonPay’s payments stack already includes integrations with PayPal and Venmo, after adding PayPal in 2024 and expanding to Venmo later.
• Cash App, operated by Block, supports buying and selling Bitcoin in-app—MoonPay’s integration broadens the range of crypto options available to users who prefer Cash App funding.
• The company is licensed in New York and authorized in the Netherlands under EU crypto rules, reflecting its ongoing push to expand beyond traditional onramps.

A simpler path from Cash App funds to crypto

For users, the practical change is convenience. MoonPay says customers can buy cryptocurrency by using their Cash App balance through MoonPay’s checkout flow, without switching apps or completing a separate login. The goal is to reduce friction at the moment money changes hands—an area where crypto purchases have often struggled against the “just don’t make me do it twice” expectations of mainstream payment users.

Cash App already offers in-app Bitcoin buying and selling, which helped make it a familiar onramp for millions of people. MoonPay’s integration extends that funding method beyond Bitcoin, potentially making it easier for Cash App users to access a wider selection of assets via partner wallets and platforms.

Block’s shareholder reporting indicates Cash App had 59 million active users in June, according to its second-quarter shareholder letter linked by Cointelegraph. As MoonPay plugs into that user base through Cash App Pay, the integration could improve discovery and conversion for assets accessible through its supported partners.

Available across MoonPay’s checkout and partner ecosystem

MoonPay positioned the rollout as part of its broader distribution strategy—pushing payment options not only through its own interface, but also through third-party applications. In Tuesday’s announcement, the company named a range of partners where Cash App Pay is supported, spanning self-custody wallets, crypto services, and payment/commerce tools.

These include wallets and ecosystems such as Trust Wallet, MetaMask, Ledger, Tangem, and Bitcoin.com, as well as platforms like Uniswap and BitPay. For users, that matters because it means they may not need to choose between a wallet they already use and a payment provider they trust; instead, the funding method can travel with the interface.

MoonPay’s payments expansion: PayPal, Venmo, and now Cash App Pay

The Cash App Pay addition continues MoonPay’s ongoing effort to broaden the range of mainstream payment routes it can offer. Cointelegraph notes that MoonPay supports payment integrations with PayPal and Venmo as well—PayPal was added in 2024, and MoonPay later expanded to Venmo.

By stacking familiar consumer payment brands on top of its crypto checkout infrastructure, MoonPay is effectively targeting a recurring user need: the ability to fund crypto purchases through everyday financial accounts. Cash App Pay is a particularly notable fit because Cash App is already designed around balance management inside a single app, which may reduce friction for users who don’t want to learn a new payment flow.

Regulatory footing and a shift beyond simple onramps

MoonPay said its operations are backed by licensing and authorization frameworks. The company is licensed by the New York State Department of Financial Services through a BitLicense and Limited Purpose Trust Charter, and it is authorized under the European Union’s Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (MiCA) in the Netherlands.

The integration also arrives during a period when MoonPay has been broadening its focus beyond a pure “fiat-to-crypto onramp.” Cointelegraph reported that the company has pursued multiple acquisitions and product moves during 2026.

Earlier in the year, MoonPay acquired Solana trading infrastructure provider DFlow in May, following an April deal for crypto security firm Sodot. In July, MoonPay acquired cross-chain infrastructure startup Glide and launched PayBox, described in prior Cointelegraph coverage as a vault designed to let ChatGPT and Claude users authorize crypto transactions while keeping custody of their assets.

While Cash App Pay is still fundamentally about payments, MoonPay’s larger pattern suggests it is building a wider platform that can support not just entry into crypto markets, but also execution and infrastructure for services that operate across chains and applications.

What to watch next

As Cash App Pay rolls out through MoonPay and partner apps, users and builders should watch for which cryptocurrencies become available through each partner interface and whether MoonPay continues expanding to additional mainstream payment rails. The broader question is whether these integrations translate into sustained conversion—turning “one more checkout option” into a reliable default for new crypto buyers.