Build Your Own Crypto On-Ramp, or Use a Provider?

• A crypto on-ramp lets your customers buy crypto from your app, and it depends on four parts working together, namely payments, pricing, purchase handling with support, and compliance.

• An in-house build suits companies whose core business is the on-ramp and that already run payments and compliance where they operate.

• Wallets and apps that add crypto buying as one feature among many can launch it sooner by integrating, with payments and compliance handled from the start.

• Integrating with Mercuryo gives your customers coverage in 150+ countries and 62 fiat currencies, with KYC, AML, and chargebacks handled by us as merchant of record.

The catch is that building's advantages are front-loaded, and its costs are permanent. Control and ownership are assets you keep, but you pay for them for as long as the system runs.

That running cost is what the rest of this guide walks through, layer by layer, so the trade-off above is made against what an on-ramp actually is.

From the buyer's side, an on-ramp looks like a single screen where they pick a coin and pay. It relies on four parts working together, and each one has to respond whenever someone buys.

Building in-house means setting up each of these parts yourself and maintaining them over time. Integration connects your product to a system where all of this works today.

Those four parts also have to keep up with how people buy crypto today. Our report on H1 2026, based on accepted purchases on our on-ramp, shows how buyers paid and what they bought.

• Nine in ten purchases were made on mobile devices.
• Apple Pay and Google Pay were used for about half of all purchases, while cards accounted for 66% of volume.
• Stablecoins reached 60% of on-ramp volume and 47% of first purchases, up from 43% and 33% six months earlier.

For an in-house build, that means launching with a phone-ready checkout and wallet payments, along with stablecoins on the networks buyers hold. We adjust our purchase flow as these habits change, and our overall conversion rate rose 75% year on year in the first half of 2026.

Mercuryo provides all four parts described above and keeps them running for your product.

Mercuryo's on-ramp covers 150+ countries and 62 fiat currencies. Payment options include Visa, Mastercard, Apple Pay and Google Pay, along with local methods such as Interac in Canada. Before confirming, buyers see the rate and fees in the widget.

We take care of the compliance behind each transaction we process, including KYC and AML checks. Buyers can skip full verification in the following cases.

• Fast Track lets eligible new users buy crypto without completing full KYC first for purchases up to €700 in total. US users have their own simplified verification flow.
• Returning users who have completed KYC with Mercuryo don't need to verify again.
• KYC sharing allows platforms that verify customers with Sumsub to apply to reuse their ID and selfie checks with Mercuryo.

On the security side, card payments run with PCI DSS protection and 3D Secure, and Mercuryo is ISO 27001 certified for information security. That certification shortens the security review your team has to run.

As merchant of record, Mercuryo takes responsibility for chargebacks, fraud, and disputes. Run in-house, the same dispute work would need a dedicated team of its own.

Support is covered in the same way. Your customers get 24/7 live chat support from Mercuryo, and your staff works with a dedicated Merchant Support team on any questions you have. Matching that in-house would mean support agents on duty day and night.

The widget can be themed to match your brand with your colours and fonts, and your logo can appear on the login screen. For a fully custom look, your integration manager can implement a design you create, with light and dark variants.

Once the design is set, the same widget can run as a redirect, inside your web page, or in your iOS or Android app. With the options inside your web page or app, users stay in your product throughout the purchase.

The purchase itself can be set up in advance by pre-selecting the coin, network, amount, or payment method. People signed in to your platform can open the widget without a separate login. Your integration manager helps you choose which of these settings to use.

You can earn a commission on purchases and follow earnings live in the Merchant Dashboard, alongside transactions, user trends and performance by location and currency.

Mercuryo powers crypto payments for 200+ companies, including wallets such as Trust Wallet, MetaMask and Telegram Wallet. When you integrate, you join the same on-ramp these companies use.

An in-house on-ramp is a good investment for a company whose business is the on-ramp itself. Such a company works with card acquirers and local payment partners in the countries where it operates.

Its compliance team carries out KYC, AML, and fraud checks, and its support desk handles customer cases daily. For that company, an on-ramp is an extension of its current operations.

A business without that setup would have to create a payments operation just to ship one feature. Integration removes that step.

1. Is the on-ramp your product, or a feature of it? If it's a feature, integrating is the more practical choice.
2. Do you already run payments and compliance for your markets? Without them, integrating with Mercuryo covers both.
3. Where should your engineers spend the next year? When the answer is your core product, integration lets them stay focused on it.

If the answers point to integration, the next decision is whether to connect through a ready-made widget or a full API. Crypto On-Ramp Widget or API: Which Should You Choose? compares the two.

With Mercuryo, your customers can buy crypto from your app in 150+ countries while we handle compliance and chargebacks. A dedicated integration manager works with your team from the first test to launch.

Tell us about your product, and we'll suggest a setup for it.

What does it take to build a crypto on-ramp? An on-ramp needs payment methods, live pricing, purchase handling with user support, and KYC and AML compliance. A company that builds one sets up and operates each of these itself.

When should a company build its own on-ramp? When the on-ramp is its core business and the company already handles payments and compliance on its own.

What does integrating with Mercuryo cover? We cover payments in 150+ countries and 62 fiat currencies and handle KYC and AML checks. Buyers get 24/7 support. As merchant of record, we are responsible for chargebacks, fraud, and disputes. The widget shows your branding.

Do users have to verify their identity every time? Users who have completed KYC with Mercuryo keep their verification for later purchases. Fast Track allows eligible new users to buy without full KYC first for purchases up to €700 in total, and US users have their own simplified flow.

Platforms that verify users with Sumsub can also apply to share those verifications with us.