14 years ago, a nine-page document was published on The Cryptography Mailing List. 

Penned by a mysterious entity we know only as Satoshi Nakamoto, it outlined the blueprint for a digital currency that required no banks, no middlemen, nor any centralized entity. 

This digital currency — Bitcoin — launched a month later. And in that moment, the spark that would ignite a financial revolution was created.

Now, few people haven’t heard of cryptocurrency. Depending on who you ask, Bitcoin's a speculative asset. A handy way to pay online. A store of value. Or even the foundation for a parallel economic system.

Of course, the industry is much bigger than Bitcoin today. Ethereum, XRP, Solana, and a whole slew of other protocols make up an industry which, at the time of this writing, boasts a market capitalization of over one trillion US dollars.

But entering this exciting new paradigm isn’t exactly easy. The mainstream still faces a glaring issue: accessibility. A lack of user-friendly bridges into the ecosystem leaves many on the sidelines, eagerly awaiting an easier path to the wonderful world of cryptocurrency.

Enter the fiat-to-crypto onramp.

What is a crypto onramp?

Your customers want to buy crypto. But all they’ve got is a bank balance denominated in USD, EUR, GBP or one of those other boring, old-school currencies.

💡 Fiat is Latin for “it shall be.” This refers to the fact that the currencies we use hold value because the issuing government says so.

Swapping fiat currency for another fiat currency is easily done — most banks will do it for you. To go fiat-to-crypto, though, you’ll need a third-party service that takes your money and exchanges it for your cryptocurrency of choice. This is what we call a crypto onramp, and they come in many forms:

Bitcoin ATMs

You’d be forgiven for mistaking these for regular cash machines. You can typically find them in public spots, and the premise is simple: you feed them cash (either physically or by card), and they send BTC to an address of your choosing.

Centralized exchanges

By far the most popular onramps. Here, you create an account, submit KYC information (identity documents, facial verification and proof of address) before getting access to the crypto markets. 

Depending on the venue, you can fund your account with fiat currency via bank transfers, card payments, and more. Kraken, Binance and Coinbase are all examples of centralized exchanges.

Peer-to-peer (P2P) exchanges

A peer-to-peer (P2P) exchange is an online venue, too, but it doesn’t work like its centralized counterpart. Rather, it connects buyers and sellers directly.  One party posts a listing (“I’d like to buy/sell BTC at a price of [price] per coin for [payment method]”), and the other can choose to accept it. 

P2P exchanges generally have a wider variety of payment methods — after all, it’s up to the user what they want to accept, be it cash, gift vouchers, PayPal or bank transfers.

LocalBitcoins is a popular player in this category.

Integrated fiat onramps

It doesn’t roll off the tongue like some of the others, but don’t let that throw you off: these are particularly valuable for crypto businesses that want to reduce the hurdles for first-time users.

Consider, for example, a decentralized application (dApp). Since they run on crypto, their users need to come prepared. To a new user, that can be a bit daunting. Do you really want to tell them to:

1. Sign up for a centralized exchange

2. Wait for KYC approval

3. Deposit fiat

4. Figure out how to buy the right crypto

5. Set up MetaMask

6. Withdraw their crypto

7. And, only after all that, finally start using your app?

A third-party solution can strip out most of the headache with an integrated widget. Once they land on your site/wallet/exchange, users can just choose their input currency (fiat), their output currency (crypto), and click a button to check out as they would on an e-commerce store. 

The third-party may require some additional information from them, but they’ll get it directly via the widget — ensuring that customers don’t get sidetracked on some laborious quest to purchase crypto.

For examples of this, look to services like MoonPay, Transak or Coinify.

What’s the best onramp solution?

There’s no one-size-fits-all answer. It depends on the user’s goal (are they buying once? Buying regularly? Trading dozens of pairs?), their country, and their tolerance for fees.

Cards on the table: we have a slight bias towards the integrated solution — particularly for businesses. It’s true of any wallet, app or platform: once you’ve captured a user’s interest, your number-one priority is to onboard them as seamlessly as possible.

In sending prospects away, even for a brief period, you risk losing them altogether. The right onramp, neatly available on your own website, can really make a difference if you implement it right. 

But why choose just one?

Onramper aggregates nine different crypto onramp providers to match your users with the one that will best work for them.

For your users, it means higher transaction success rates (wherever they are) and a streamlined portal into the crypto world.

For you? It’s a headache-free, plug-and-play add-on that instantly delivers greater value to your customers.

Let us do the heavy lifting, so you can focus on what you do best. 

Book a call with our experts to find out how Onramper can turbocharge your success rates.