A fiat on-ramp can be integrated to allow users to buy cryptocurrencies on your app or website. But what is the best fiat onramp? In this guide, we’ll find out for you.
Many parties need a fiat on-ramp. Without an onramp, wallets have to send users away to buy crypto elsewhere and hope that they come back later. Crypto-to-crypto exchanges face the same problem.
For crypto-businesses, fiat on-ramping equals user onboarding.
For other apps or websites, fiat on-ramps can be a way to monetize users. Parties that provide fiat on-ramps allow you to set a referral fee to earn a commission on every transaction.
Which fiat on-ramps are there?
Several parties provide fiat on-ramps that can be integrated into your website. Each of these is different. The most famous on-ramps are:
Moonpay, BTCDirect, Mercuryo, Ramp.network, Simplex, Xanpool, (Send)Wyre, Banxa, and Onramper (which is Moonpay, Wyre, Xanpool, BTCDirect, and Mercuryo in one)
We’ll explain which of these on-ramps is the best below.
Choosing between fiat on-ramps for your website
When we say that each fiat on-ramp differs, we mean it. Many fiat gateways specialize in a certain region. A party like BTCDirect or ramp.network is great for Europe, but not for many other locations.
There are many things to pay attention to when choosing a fiat on-ramp. The most important factors are: supported countries,supported fiat-currencies and cryptocurrencies,supported payment methods,fee structures,KYC requirementstransaction limitstheir user experience and ntegration costs. Many on-ramps charge $5,000 to $10,000 to integrate!
Because each is different, an increasingly popular option is to integrate multiple on-ramps. Binance has over 10 on-ramps integrated. The same applies to parties like OKEX and Edge Wallet. Because integrating multiple on-ramps is a lot of work, fiat onramp aggregators have emerged.
Onramp aggregators allow for integration of multiple fiat-to-crypto payment gateways in one widget and ensure you get the best coverage and fees for the user.
Comparing fees of fiat on-ramps
Comparing fees of fiat on-ramps is difficult, because they all use different conversion rates between fiat currencies and cryptocurrencies.
Let’s say there are two fiat gateways that a user can use to buy Bitcoin for $1000:
- The first says it only has 2%, but uses a conversion rate of $21,000/Bitcoin.
- The second quotes 3% fees, but uses a conversion rate of $20,000/Bitcoin.
While the first seems cheaper when only judging based on fees, the user would only receive 0.0467 Bitcoin, compared to the 0.0485 Bitcoin that the user would receive when using the second on-ramp.
The first gateway is about 3.7% more expensive than the second, while quoting a lower fee!
Some gateways are notorious for quoting low fees while providing terrible conversion rates, so pay close attention to this! This is why fiat on-ramp aggregators such as Onramper allow the user to compare gateways based on the cryptocurrency that the user would receive.
What is the best fiat on-ramp?
It depends’ on your website or app.
If you have a global userbase and want to allow users to buy crypto with the lowest fees, Onramper is likely the best fiat on-ramp for you. It supports all the payment methods and countries of the individual fiat gateways that are integrated within it. Onramper takes the best aspects of all on-ramps and wraps it in a single widget that is easy to implement.
If you only have European users, you might want to go for a fiat on-ramp that supports European payment methods and SEPA transactions, such as BTCDirect. If you are only active in South East Asia, Xanpool might be a better option, as it provides the local payment methods used in the region. If you want global reach and a lot of supported currencies, and you do not care about users pay high fees and integration costs, Simplex is a viable option, although there are better alternatives.
Perhaps the best option for processing debit cards in the U.S. is Sendwyre, who is also licensed to do so on both the federal and state level. When reviewing Sendwyre’s (or Wyre’s) strengths, it’s important to mention that they allow users to buy under $1000 without having to upload identity documents, which is better than most alternatives.
Moonpay also has the required licenses for the U.S.. Although its fees are a bit higher than most alternatives, it does support a lot of cryptocurrencies (over 70!) and might be a decent option if you don’t mind their integration fees and mediocre credit card conversion rates. The same counts for Mercuryo, which has better fees than moonpay, but doesn’t support as many locations and currencies.
Onramper offers Moonpay, Wyre, BTCDirect, Xanpool and Mercuryo all in one, so users get best aspects of all of them.
Because Onramper does not charge an integration fee to integrate its widget, it also offers a way to easily integrate these parties without having to pay their integration fees. They also make it easy to set your own fee on top of their integrated fiat-to-crypto payment gateways.
In-depth overview and comparison of fiat-onramps
On Onramper’s website, there’s an overview of all the fiat onramps that are included within their widget. As this is a great source to compare gateways, I’ll provide this overview here.
Conclusion:
Fiat on-ramps are crucial for user onboarding, and apps/websites should offer their users a choice between multiple in order to provide the best coverage of payment methods, currencies, and give users the lowest fees. Onramper provides a single plug for all fiat gateways, which ensures you get the advantages of them all, without the integration effort and costs.
About the author: I’m a co-founder of Onramper, where we aim to help build and access a decentralized world. We are solving fiat onramps in order to bridge the current and future financial system.