Crypto on- and off-ramps: Bridging traditional finance and Open Money

One of the big things we talk about all of the time with the Open Money system is that mass adoption will only really happen when crypto becomes as easy or easier to use than the traditional financial system.

Historically, and still, one of the biggest sticking points for crypto remains moving money back and forth between the traditional financial system and newer forms of digital assets.

For a long time, the only real option to move money between the legacy system and emerging digital systems was to use a specialized crypto exchange (this isn’t entirely true, peer-to-peer transactions were also popular in the early days, as were things like crypto ATMs, but it’s safe to say that most of the movement between fiat currencies and cryptocurrencies happens on exchanges).

The issue with crypto exchanges as the primary on- and off-ramp is they are usually complex entities, complete with things like order books, trading pairs, and other kinds of overhead that make them hard to integrate with other kinds of apps and services that benefit from easy in-app money exchange functionality.

Apps like games, payment services, or even store fronts or service providers can all benefit from the efficiency and flexibility of easy-to-use on- and off- ramps.

To meet this need for special-purpose and user-friendly ways to enter and exit crypto, new kinds of companies are forming that make moving money between systems simple, seamless, and cost-effective.

Examples of modern crypto on- and off-ramps

1. Ramp Network – A non-custodial service that integrates directly into apps and wallets, allowing users to buy and sell crypto using traditional payment methods like credit cards or bank transfers. Ramp is designed with developers in mind, offering easy SDKs and APIs to embed crypto-fiat exchange into any experience.
2. MoonPay – A consumer-facing on-ramp that provides crypto purchasing capabilities through card payments, Apple Pay, and other familiar methods. MoonPay is known for its fast KYC flow and widespread integration across NFT platforms, wallets, and apps.
3. Transak – Built with compliance and localization in mind, Transak allows users in over 100 countries to convert between fiat and crypto while supporting a wide variety of local payment methods. It’s a go-to tool for apps seeking global reach with minimal regulatory friction.
4. Mesh – A newer player focused on secure connections between web2 banks and web3 wallets. Mesh enables programmable finance use cases where users can move money from a bank account to a self-custodial wallet in just a few clicks.

Why this matters for Open Money

In the vision of Open Money, value should move freely between people, apps, and systems—without bottlenecks or unnecessary complexity. On- and off-ramps are the invisible infrastructure that make this kind of frictionless movement possible. They allow crypto to interact with the legacy economy, enabling everything from remittances to e-commerce to creator payments.

More importantly, these ramps lower the barrier to entry. They abstract away the hard edges of crypto — wallet management, trading UX, gas fees — and let users participate in decentralized systems without needing to become technical experts.

As Open Money continues to develop, the existence of seamless, embedded on- and off-ramps will be one of the clearest indicators that crypto has gone from experiment to infrastructure. It’s not just about buying and selling coins — it’s about integrating financial sovereignty into everyday digital life.