How a crypto on-ramp works
The customer chooses an amount, sees the price, passes identity checks the first time, and pays by card or bank transfer. The crypto-assets then arrive in a wallet. An off-ramp runs the other way: the customer sells, and the money is paid out to a bank account or a card.
Often the service is a widget or an API inside another company's app. The UK's Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) describes that model: the firm behind the widget onboards the consumer and is the counterparty to the purchase, though not necessarily the custodian of the crypto-assets.
The rules behind an on-ramp in the EU
- Exchange of crypto-assets for funds: buying or selling them with clients for money, using the firm's own capital (MiCA, Article 3)
- Authorisation as a CASP, with capital of EUR 125,000 or a quarter of the previous year's fixed overheads, if higher
- A firm price or a published pricing method, and execution at the price displayed when the order is final (Article 77)
- Custody: a separate service, where the operator holds the customer's crypto-assets or keys
- Payment services: from a firm authorised under PSD2, the operator or a third party, and the client is told which (Article 70)
- Travel Rule: a delivery to the customer's own wallet is a transfer to a self-hosted address
Who holds the licence when a widget is embedded
The operator of the service does, not the app that shows it. Under MiCA, a firm that is not a CASP may not use a name or marketing that suggests it is one. A partner whose own screens take orders and pass them on for execution may be receiving and transmitting orders, which is a MiCA service of its own.
In the UK, exchanging cryptoassets for money by way of business, or arranging that exchange, makes a firm a cryptoasset exchange provider under the Money Laundering Regulations 2017, the firms the FCA registers. In Dubai, VARA's Exchange Services cover conversion between virtual assets and fiat currency. Soliciting or accepting orders and taking the money for them is one of its Broker-Dealer Services.
On-ramp, exchange or checkout?
- Crypto exchange
- Runs an order book where many customers' orders meet, a trading platform under MiCA. An on-ramp sells at a quoted price, one customer at a time.
- Stablecoin checkout
- A merchant is paid in crypto-assets for goods or services. In an on-ramp, the crypto-asset is the product being sold.
- Wallet
- Holds the keys to the customer's crypto-assets. An on-ramp sells into a wallet, often the partner's app or the customer's own.
- Order transmission
- A front end that passes a customer's order to another firm for execution is receiving and transmitting orders, a different MiCA service from exchange.
Where a crypto on-ramp shows up in a platform
Modules that do the work
- CheckoutA hosted checkout for cards, wallets, bank payments and crypto, routed to the best provider.
- Card acquiringCard acceptance on the phone, in store and online, through the acquirer you choose.
- FXCurrency conversion with live rates, your margins and the liquidity provider you choose.
- Custody & walletsWallets on every major chain, with MPC custody from leading providers or your own keys.
- KYC / AMLIdentity checks, screening and ongoing monitoring, with the verification provider you choose.
- Fraud & riskReal-time fraud scoring, limits and case management, with the risk engines you already trust.
- PayoutsMoney out to bank accounts, cards and wallets, on the rail that fits each payment.
- Compliance reportingTransaction monitoring, the Travel Rule and regulatory reports, ready for your regulator.
Platforms that need it
Guides that go deeper
- Crypto on-ramps: how a buy widget works and who needs the licenceHow a fiat-to-crypto buy widget works inside another company's app, who the regulated party is, and the rules on UK promotions, card fraud, the Travel Rule, MiCA and VARA.
- FCA cryptoasset registration: what UK crypto firms needWhat FCA registration under the Money Laundering Regulations asks of a UK crypto business, how crypto promotions are controlled, and what changes on 25 October 2027.
- MiCA checklist: launching a crypto exchange in the EUWhat the EU's Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation asks of an exchange: authorisation, capital, governance, client assets, the trading platform rules, and the laws that sit beside it.
- What a crypto exchange licence costs: fees and capital by regulatorThe application fee, the yearly fee and the capital a crypto exchange needs under MiCA, the FCA, VARA, ADGM and the DFSA, as each regulator publishes them, and when each falls due.
Where it is written
The laws and standards this page's facts come from.
- Regulation (EU) 2023/1114, MiCA, Articles 3, 59, 70 and 77 and Annex IV (EUR-Lex)
- Regulation (EU) 2023/1113, the Transfer of Funds Regulation (EUR-Lex)
- FCA, Cryptoasset financial promotions and fiat-to-crypto on/off ramp services
- Money Laundering Regulations 2017, regulation 14A (legislation.gov.uk)
- VARA, Virtual Assets and Related Activities Regulations 2023, Schedule 1, VA Activities
General information, not legal advice: what applies to you depends on your services and your market.