Direct Fiat On-Ramps vs Third-Party Gateway Integration

Complete ownership of user experience: You control the entire flow, from KYC to final settlement, allowing for deep brand integration. This matters for consumer-facing dApps like exchanges or wallets where a seamless, native feel is critical for user retention.

Higher initial cost, lower marginal cost: Building the infrastructure requires significant upfront investment in compliance (e.g., licenses, KYC providers like Onfido) and banking relationships. However, for high-volume platforms, the per-transaction fee can be significantly lower than a third-party's markup. This matters for high-throughput protocols where fee optimization directly impacts profitability.

You own all user data and transaction fees: No sharing of sensitive user data or revenue splits with an intermediary. This matters for enterprise applications and financial services where data sovereignty and capturing the full fee revenue are non-negotiable requirements.

Constrained UX and embedded costs: You are locked into the gateway's flow, branding, and supported regions. Their fee (often 1-4%) is baked into the exchange rate. This matters for budget-conscious projects where initial cost is paramount, but can become a scaling bottleneck as volumes grow.

Full custody and compliance ownership: You manage KYC/AML flows, user data, and treasury settlement directly. This enables higher potential margins by avoiding gateway fees (typically 0.5%-2% per transaction). Critical for protocols with massive volume (e.g., $100M+ monthly) where fee leakage is material.

Seamless, native UX: Users never leave your dApp. You control the entire purchase flow, branding, and error handling. This reduces drop-off rates and strengthens user loyalty. Essential for consumer-facing apps where onboarding friction directly impacts growth metrics.

Integration in days, not quarters: Use providers like MoonPay, Ramp Network, or Stripe to bypass 12-18 months of licensing, banking, and compliance work. Their pre-built SDKs support 100+ countries and 50+ payment methods instantly. Ideal for MVPs or teams needing to validate product-market fit.

Offload compliance burden: The gateway acts as the regulated Money Services Business (MSB), handling licenses, transaction monitoring, and sanctions screening. This reduces legal liability and operational overhead for your core dev team. A pragmatic choice for protocols expanding into new jurisdictions.

High upfront capital and ongoing overhead: Requires $1M+ in legal/licensing fees, dedicated compliance team, and deep banking relationships. You are directly responsible for fraud, chargebacks, and regulatory audits. A significant distraction from core protocol development.

User context switching and aggregated fees: Users are redirected to a third-party site, increasing abandonment. You pay gateway fees + network fees + spread, which can total 3-5% for small transactions. Limits ability to offer competitive pricing or custom financial products.

Direct user experience: Transactions settle directly on-chain (e.g., via Circle's CCTP or Solana Pay), bypassing intermediary wallets. This matters for high-frequency, low-latency applications like in-game purchases or point-of-sale systems where sub-5 second finality is critical.

Lower long-term costs: Eliminates per-transaction fees to a third-party aggregator. While initial integration with providers like Stripe Crypto or Sardine requires dev work, the marginal cost per transaction can be <1%, making it superior for protocols with high-volume, predictable fiat flows.

Rapid integration: Use a single SDK from providers like MoonPay, Ramp Network, or Transak to access 100+ payment methods and 200+ countries in weeks, not months. This matters for startups needing to launch an MVP quickly or protocols expanding to new, regulated markets like Brazil or Turkey.

Offloaded KYC/AML: The gateway provider (e.g., Banxa, Onramp Money) handles all regulatory checks, licensing, and fraud monitoring. This is critical for teams without a dedicated legal/compliance unit, as managing global money transmitter licenses can cost $500K+ and 18 months.

Multiple integrations required: To match a gateway's global coverage, you must integrate and maintain connections with several regional providers (e.g., Mercado Pago for LatAm, UPI for India). This leads to fragmented user flows and increased engineering overhead for support and reconciliation.

Higher variable costs: Aggregators typically charge 3-5% per transaction, significantly impacting margins for high-volume applications. You also cede control over the user's checkout experience and custody flow, which can conflict with branding or specific UX requirements like gasless onboarding.