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From Niche to Necessity
If you’re not processing crypto, it might be time to rethink.
What began as a fringe experiment has matured into a global powerhouse. Driven by the rise of stablecoins, crypto is now delivering scale, speed, and certainty, especially in cross-border payments, where traditional banking rails often fall short. Reliance on multiple centralized banking systems is the single biggest barrier to payment completion.
Stablecoins combine the stability of fiat with the efficiency of blockchain. More than just a bridge, they’ve become the foundation layer of the broader crypto economy, fueling everything from DeFi and global commerce to centralized exchanges. Their growing utility signals a financial system that’s becoming faster, more interoperable, and more inclusive—a maturing crypto economy where digital assets operate within a more frictionless and connected finance system.
In 2024 alone, stablecoin transfers exceeded $28 trillion, overtaking the combined volumes of Visa and Mastercard. This isn’t just a trader’s game anymore. Institutional adoption is accelerating, especially in B2B. Businesses in high-friction markets are using crypto to bypass inefficiencies, cut costs, and access new revenue opportunities.
Take Africa, where fintechs and exchanges use USD-backed stablecoins like USDT to cut through red tape and simplify B2B transactions across borders. The UAE follows suit, where proactive regulation and innovation are transforming the region into a global crypto hub. In just the first half of 2024, exchanges there processed nearly $9.8 billion in stablecoin transactions—a staggering 55% increase compared with the previous year.
Banks, acquirers, processors and fintech are now racing to launch crypto services, while giants like Walmart and Amazon are exploring digital tokens. Stablecoins such as USDT, now the largest by market capitalization, have become trusted channels for moving value across borders and industries. But with this unstoppable momentum comes a crucial challenge.
Governments and regulators worldwide are forging clear rules and cross-border standards, while institutions embed compliance and real-time monitoring at the core of crypto’s future. As stablecoins become trusted tools for global value transfer, regulation is now the next frontier.
A New Frontier
The “Wild West” days of crypto, where innovation ran ahead of regulation, are over. Today, high-risk merchant accounts are under continuous scrutiny, with frequent KYC/KYB updates and in-depth reviews of wallet ownership and fund provenance. Compliance teams blend traditional ID verification with cutting-edge blockchain analytics—on-chain tools flag suspicious behaviour instantly, tracing fund flows with a precision that fiat systems simply can’t match.
In the U.S., the FDIC and OCC have paved the way for banks to offer crypto custody and execution services without requiring additional approvals, removing major barriers for traditional finance to enter the space. Meanwhile, legislation such as the STABLE and GENIUS Acts are rewriting the regulatory playbook, aiming to ensure digital assets operate with the same safety, transparency, and accountability as fiat.
Across the Atlantic, U.K regulators are also doubling down. The Financial Conduct Authority is pushing crypto firms to meet the same standards as banks, from capital reserves to AML protocols. With stablecoins now surpassing traditional networks in volume, the pressure on firms to elevate transaction monitoring and risk controls has never been greater. What’s rising is a regulated, resilient payments infrastructure designed to protect consumers, reduce fraud, and enable mainstream adoption.
Rethinking Risk
As crypto's popularity soars, so do the risks (and the volume). Regulatory pressure is mounting, fraud is evolving, and legacy onboarding systems are beginning to show their cracks. They were never built for this: not for the speed, the complexity, or evolving regulatory nuance. Trying to patch new rules into rigid forms and workflows only slows everything down, raising overheads and delaying go-lives.
And it’s going to get worse. Crypto’s rapid growth is flooding PSPs and Payfacs with high-risk applications. They’re not just checking IDs anymore but vetting entire digital footprints. Manual reviews, siloed tools and cross-border implications—it all adds up to a fragmented, disjointed mess. For providers, it's costly. For merchants, it’s frustrating. For both, it’s unsustainable. Every delay is a missed opportunity.
Many providers are stuck cobbling together a patchwork of legacy systems, just to onboard a single merchant. One for merchants’ applications, another for AML, something else for risk management. It’s clunky, disjointed, and it breeds risk instead of reducing it. In cross-border settings, it can even erode trust between partners.
That’s why forward-thinking players are rethinking their onboarding stack. Consolidating processes, embedding real-time risk intelligence, and building infrastructure for what's next. One of those “next”? Decentralized identity.
It’s not a silver bullet, but it represents a fundamental shift: portable, secure credentials that streamline trust across platforms. This model can reduce friction, particularly in ecosystems built on interoperable trust frameworks. But for PSPs dealing with rising volumes of high-risk applications, decentralized identity must be part of a broader shift. MVSI is already laying the groundwork for this shift, exploring how decentralized identity and interoperable trust frameworks can be integrated into enterprise-grade onboarding flows.
To meet the demands of crypto-era onboarding, PSPs need agile solutions purpose-built for high-risk crypto merchants. That means onboarding platforms that support unlimited entity types, automatically route riskier profiles into deeper due diligence, and enable continuous monitoring in real-time. With the right infrastructure, payments providers can scale faster, reduce operational drag, and stay ahead of evolving compliance expectations.
Global Trust Engine
The crypto payments revolution is no longer a distant promise; it’s reshaping how value moves, how trust is built, and how compliance is delivered. It is the future of paying and being paid, and the future is here, right now. But the real breakthrough isn’t just crypto itself—it’s mastering trust at scale. That means seamless, bulletproof onboarding that flips friction while satisfying even the sharpest regulatory gaze.
This is where digital onboarding transcends from a process to a strategic powerhouse. By fusing blockchain transparency with cutting-edge identity verification and risk automation, your onboarding solution becomes the Trust Engine that powers the future of payments. It’s not about slowing down to check boxes; it’s about accelerating with confidence, reducing fraud, and unlocking new markets without sacrificing compliance.
In a world where stablecoins outpace Visa and crypto’s tentacles reach every corner of global finance, the winners won’t be those who chase hype. They’ll engineer trust into every transaction, every handshake, every customer interaction. Digital onboarding isn’t just a tool; it’s the backbone of transformation, the gateway for banks and fintech to turn crypto’s wild promise into a smooth, scalable, and unstoppable force.
Crypto might be the honeypot, but trust is the queen bee.
What Is OnBoard by MVSI?
OnBoard by MVSI is redefining B2B onboarding with a fully automated, end-to-end platform that eliminates friction, reduces risk, and accelerates growth. From the first interaction through ongoing customer due diligence (OCDD) and beyond, we streamline the entire journey—seamlessly, securely, and at scale.
Our all-in-one solution covers everything: offer generation, digital applications, opportunity management, risk and credit assessment, AML and KYC, contract creation, underwriting, and OCDD. It’s fully white-labelled to reflect your brand and provide a consistent experience.
By combining advanced automation with real-time risk intelligence and expert in-house verification, MVSI enables businesses onboard customers faster, maintain compliance, and confidently scale without bottlenecks. OnBoard isn’t just onboarding—it’s a competitive advantage.
Ready to onboard smarter, faster, and with total confidence?
Discover how OnBoard can transform your onboarding process into a strategic growth engine—start the conversation today.
