What Are the Use Cases for a Crypto On-Ramp?

A crypto on-ramp works like a currency exchange desk inside a shop. It lets someone pay with a card or a local payment method and get crypto back, either within the product or on a page the provider hosts.

The technology underneath is a fiat-to-crypto gateway, the payment infrastructure that converts ordinary money into crypto. It handles the payment, runs the required identity and compliance checks, and delivers the coins to the user's wallet, so the product does not have to.

That payment step can run through local systems as well as cards. The methods Mercuryo supports, for instance, list PIX in Brazil and QRIS in Indonesia next to Visa and Mastercard. Those options decide which buyers a product can reach.

A self-custody wallet lets people hold their own crypto and control access to it themselves. Historically, these wallets sent new users elsewhere to get crypto, so they bought it on another platform and moved it back in. An on-ramp brings that purchase into the wallet.

With purchases inside the wallet, other features can follow. In November 2025, Mercuryo announced it was the first to offer Mastercard Crypto Credential, which lets people send crypto using a verified username, to self-custody wallet users, together with Mastercard and Polygon Labs, a blockchain infrastructure company. An app that also offers an on-ramp can then handle both buying and sending.

An app with its own on-ramp also gives blockchain networks a way to reach new buyers. Stellar, a network designed for low-cost payments, and LOBSTR, a Stellar wallet, ran a cashback campaign in November 2025 that gave users 5% back when they bought USDC, a stablecoin pegged to the U.S. dollar, through Mercuryo inside the app. The wallet's purchase flow became a place for Stellar to run promotions.

In a blockchain-based game, or an NFT marketplace where people buy digital collectibles, a newcomer's first purchase is part of onboarding. A guide to fiat-to-crypto gateways describes Web3 games that let players pay with ordinary money and receive tokens or in-game assets directly. So the purchase has to be simple enough for someone who has never bought crypto.

Without an on-ramp, that player would first have to open an exchange account, buy crypto there, and move it into the game. Each extra step adds friction, so the purchase should feel like any other in-app payment.

Apple Pay is one way to get there, and Mercuryo has offered native Apple Pay inside apps since February 2026. The integration checklist describes a lighter identity check (KYC) for purchases under €700 when nothing looks unusual, with no documents to upload. For a game, that keeps a first purchase close to a tap and a confirmation.

An exchange can only take payments through the methods it accepts. Adding Brazil's PIX transfers or Indonesia's QRIS QR codes opens the checkout to people who pay that way. Setting up each of those payment connections in-house takes time and licenses, so many exchanges add them through a gateway instead.

In February 2026, Bybit, a global crypto exchange, ran a first-purchase campaign with Mercuryo as its payment provider for users in Japan, the Philippines, South Korea, Taiwan, Turkey and Vietnam. Buyers started in Bybit's buy section, and the partner handled the payment.

Some fintech apps and online marketplaces want to offer crypto purchases next to their main product. Doing it alone would mean running payment processing and compliance alongside everything else.

The fiat-to-crypto gateway guide notes that fintech platforms offer crypto purchases as a feature while the provider's regulated infrastructure carries much of the work. Depending on the setup, the coins go to a wallet the user controls or show up as a balance in their account on the platform. That setup covers buying, while letting shoppers pay for goods with digital assets belongs to a separate category, crypto payment processing.

Paying a contractor or a partner abroad by bank transfer often means passing through correspondent banks, intermediaries that relay money between institutions with no direct link. Each step can add fees and delay the money by days. Stablecoins, by comparison, move on blockchains that process payments around the clock, including weekends. Paying people this way can involve both an on-ramp and an off-ramp, its reverse, which turns crypto back into local money.

• Getting money in (on-ramp). If a company pays from a bank account, the on-ramp is where it turns euros or dollars into stablecoins. The Bank for International Settlements, an organization owned by central banks, estimated in its 2026 Annual Economic Report that stablecoin transaction volume reached $28 trillion in 2025, though the figure drops sharply once people moving money between their own wallets are left out. The number is best read as a rough measure of size.

• Getting money out (off-ramp). Recipients can keep the stablecoins or switch to local money, and those who need cash for rent make that switch. Since January 2026, Mercuryo has used Visa Direct, Visa's payment network, to send a crypto cash-out to the user's Visa card within minutes. For a contractor, the payment then ends in the currency they use every day.

Three questions tell you where your product sits. Who is paying? What do they already hold? Where does the crypto end up?

The five cases differ in who pays and where the crypto lands, while the work behind the button stays the same. Someone pays in the money they already have, a provider handles the payment and the checks, and the coins arrive at the address the product gives. The design question is how much of that a buyer should see.

Those are also the questions to put to a provider. Ask which payment methods it covers in the markets you sell to, and how the purchase screen sits inside your product. Mercuryo's on-ramp for businesses lists its coverage and has a form for the rest.

• What is the difference between an on-ramp and an exchange? An exchange is a venue where people trade one asset for another. An on-ramp is the entry point that converts government-issued money into crypto, and it can sit within an exchange, a wallet, a game, or a fintech app. Trading platforms plug in outside providers to accept payment methods they do not process themselves.

• What is an off-ramp? An off-ramp does the reverse, turning crypto back into money a person can spend, for example by sending funds to a bank card. Payroll and settlement cases need both directions when the recipient pays bills in local currency.

• Does the user need a crypto wallet before buying? The coins always need somewhere to go, so the buyer needs a wallet or an account. In a wallet app or an exchange, that can be the one the person already uses there.

• How does a company add an on-ramp to its product? A company can send users to a purchase page run by the provider, or show that purchase screen inside its own website or app. Teams that want payments tied more closely to their own accounts and checks can connect through an API, a direct software link to the provider. Crypto On-Ramp Widget or API compares the two paths.