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Fee-based onramp routing is costing you business
The most popular method for connecting users to onramps is deeply flawed — for a number of reasons. Here's why you should be considering alternative solutions.
My user has multiple onramps available. I should automatically point them towards the one that offers the lowest fees.
On the surface, this is a great decision. It makes perfect sense to want to provide your users with the lowest fees, as it results in more crypto received.
In practice, though? The transactions fail the majority of the time. And, even when they do succeed, the fees aren’t what you think.
What’s up with onramp fees?
The top providers offer some very attractive percentages when it comes to their fees. Dig a little deeper, however, and you’ll find out that these figures only refer to the onramp’s cut.
In other words, there are other costs involved. Our recent report identified the culprits as conversion rates, bid-ask spreads and network fees.
These aren’t negligible, either: when we conducted a $200 USD → BTC swap on six different onramps, the crypto received varied by over 10% from solution to solution.
In short: price quotes are getting spoofed across the board. If lowering fees is your utmost priority, benchmark based on the crypto your users receive.
The critical flaw in fee-based routing
Let’s assume that fee-based routing does work as intended, and that it consistently matches your users with the cheapest onramp.
There’s still an excellent chance that this onramp isn’t actually able to complete the transaction. Owing to a range of factors, a given onramp is a poor fit for the majority of users. For instance, some solutions might be optimized only to cater to a limited European audience, while others may only be appropriate for a handful of Asian countries.
Even then, that’s a gross oversimplification. Transaction success hinges on over 70 factors, ranging from user location to their desired currency pair. With so much happening under the hood, transaction failure is basically a coin flip away when you don’t optimize your routing practices.
A strategy based on finding the lowest fees alone fails to take these factors into account — which is why you should consider the alternatives.
Which onramp routing strategy is best?
No method reigns supreme, though a handful stand out. In all cases, the more onramps available, the more effective your routing efforts can be:
- It means more options to point your users towards
- It means more sources to learn from and improve on the data collected
We advise that players in this space aim to aggregate at least 10-15 onramps. That way, you’ll have ample global coverage and plenty of fallback options should a single onramp go offline.
With that in mind, here are our top picks, based on over two years of onramping insights.
Success-based routing
This logic does what it says on the tin: it routes your users towards the onramp most likely to ensure transaction success.
Our engine does so by learning from previous transactions and matching users with onramps that have been successful for historical users matching their profile.
Return-user routing
Success-based routing is fantastic out of the box, but you’ll soon want to stack more precise routing rules on top of it to really push for high success rates.
Return-user routing doesn’t just make an informed decision based on industry-wide data. It actually recognizes the user if they’ve completed a transaction previously, and recommends the onramp they used.
Low-KYC routing
Know Your Customer regulations are in place for good reason — but the flows designed to identify users can be cumbersome and, often, needlessly complex.
With low-KYC routing, users are matched with the route that requires as little verification as possible for their desired transaction. This method is particularly effective, as KYC complications majorly impact success rates.
Route smarter with Onramper
Since our inception, we’ve made it our mission to create an onramping machine living up to the promise of the crypto revolution. That means a consistent fiat → crypto experience for all users, regardless of their location.
Time and again, success-based routing (paired with other logic) delivers phenomenal results for our clients and their users. Whether you’re just starting out and prefer a fully managed solution, or you’ve already got an in-house aggregator and want to expand your offering, our suite has you covered.
→ Download our latest success rate case study
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Umbra integrates Onramper to power private crypto access and payroll
Buy crypto with fiat and get paid in crypto — all without compromising your on-chain privacy.
We're excited to announce that Umbra has integrated Onramper, bringing private fiat onramping and crypto payroll to users directly inside the Umbra app.
Umbra is a privacy-first wallet built on Arcium's MPC encrypted execution engine and zero-knowledge proofs. It lets users send and receive crypto without exposing their financial activity onchain. Every transaction is designed to keep the sender, recipient, and transaction history private by default, giving users the kind of financial discretion that traditional finance takes for granted but that most crypto wallets still lack.
Buy crypto privately, in your currency
Umbra users can now buy crypto with fiat across 24 major currencies without leaving the app. Onramper aggregates the best onramp providers globally and automatically routes each transaction to the most competitive option based on location, payment method, and availability. Users get better rates and access to local payment methods, all inside a single, streamlined flow. The funds land directly in a wallet that is private by default.
Get paid without the exposure
Umbra Payroll, powered by Onramper, solves a problem that has no clean solution elsewhere. Users can receive crypto payroll and offramp directly to their bank account without linking that withdrawal back to their main wallet. On-chain activity and bank account details stay disconnected. For anyone who wants to be paid in crypto without compromising their financial privacy, this is a meaningful step forward.
Together, these two integrations address the most common friction points in private crypto usage: getting funds in, and getting paid out, both without leaving a traceable trail.
"Onramper was built to give any product access to the best global onramp coverage through a single integration," said Rick Thomas, co-CEO of Onramper. "Umbra is exactly the kind of app this infrastructure was designed for, privacy-native, user-first, and solving a real problem. Together we're making it possible to participate fully in crypto without sacrificing financial privacy."
"Privacy in crypto has always been about more than anonymity. It's about giving people genuine control over their financial lives," said Krutarth Shah, CEO of Umbra. "Integrating Onramper means our users can fund their wallets and receive payroll with the same level of discretion they expect from every other part of the Umbra experience."
Umbra with Onramper is available now. Open the Umbra app to get started.
About Onramper
Onramper is the leading fiat-to-crypto payments aggregator, providing a turnkey API-based solution for dynamically routing fiat-to-crypto onramp flows based on algorithms optimizing for conversion, fees and payment methods. Onramper’s platform allows users of clients to buy 2000+ digital assets, in over 190 countries with over 130 payment methods in 120 currencies, with advanced routing options and unified analytics. The company is based in the Netherlands. To learn more about Onramper, visit www.onramper.com.
About Umbra
Umbra is a privacy-first wallet on Solana, built on Arcium's encrypted execution engine. It lets people send, receive, and swap crypto with the sender, recipient, and amount private by default, while keeping compliance tooling like viewing keys and risk screening intact. Umbra was the first live application on Arcium's Mainnet Alpha and ships an SDK that extends the same privacy infrastructure to developers building on Solana
ELLIPAL Integrates Onramper to Expand Access to Self-Custody Assets
ELLIPAL users around the globe can now move from fiat to fully offline crypto storage in a single flow.
June 4, 2026 — Onramper, the world's leading fiat-to-crypto onramp aggregator, today announced its integration with ELLIPAL, one of the most secure hardware wallets in crypto. Through the integration, ELLIPAL's 1M+ users can now fund their wallets using 130+ payment methods across 190+ countries, with a direct path from fiat to cold storage and zero added friction. ELLIPAL will also roll out offramping exclusively through Onramper, giving users a complete on and off ramp experience without ever leaving the wallet.
For users who prioritize direct, offline ownership of their assets, ELLIPAL was built to deliver exactly that — a user-friendly solution that upholds the original intent of crypto: complete, uncompromising ownership. Its air-gapped hardware wallet technology is designed without Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, USB, or network connections of any kind – QR codes handle all communication, and private keys never leave the device. With Onramper's global payments coverage and smart routing engine, ELLIPAL users now have a streamlined, localized entry point into cold storage.
"ELLIPAL represents everything self-custody should be: secure, simple, and fully in the user's hands,” said Rick Thomas Co-CEO of Onramper. “Our role is to make sure the path to getting there is just as seamless, no matter where in the world that user is starting from."
ELLIPAL's design eliminates every online attack vector by default, making it one of the most uncompromising self-custody options on the market. For users ready to take full control of their assets, this integration makes that first step simpler than ever.
“Our goal at ELLIPAL is to give everyone the tools to be their own bank,” said Fate Liang, Head of Product at ELLIPAL. “With Onramper integrated, users can now fund their wallets directly using their preferred local payment method, taking full ownership of their assets from the very first step."
*This integration is not available in the United Kingdom and OFAC sanctioned countries.
Learn more at onramper.com and ellipal.com.
About ELLIPAL
ELLIPAL is a Hong Kong-based company pioneering air-gapped hardware wallets that put users in full control of their digital assets. Designed to stay completely offline, ELLIPAL products combine strong security with simple, intuitive user experiences.
About Onramper
Onramper is the leading fiat-to-crypto payments aggregator, providing a turnkey API-based solution for dynamically routing fiat-to-crypto onramp flows based on algorithms optimizing for conversion, fees and payment methods. Onramper’s platform allows users of clients to buy 2000+ digital assets, in over 190 countries with over 130 payment methods in 120 currencies, with advanced routing options and unified analytics. The company is based in the Netherlands. To learn more about Onramper, visit www.onramper.com.
Moonshot Unlocks 180+ Payment Methods for Traders with Onramper Partnership
Through the integration, Moonshot users* can now access more than 180 local payment methods across over 190 countries.
AMSTERDAM, April 6, 2026 — Onramper, the world's leading fiat-to-crypto onramp aggregator, announced a partnership with Moonshot, the self-custodial trading app built on Solana, to remove one of the biggest barriers to entering onchain markets: funding accounts across different markets.
Through the integration, Moonshot users* can now access more than 180 local payment methods across over 190 countries, making it easier to move between fiat and crypto using familiar payment methods. The result is faster onboarding, higher conversion rates, and expanded access to onchain trading worldwide.
“Moonshot is one of the fastest-growing platforms in crypto,” said Thijs Maas, CEO of Onramper. “By expanding localized payment options, we’re making the platform accessible to more users globally and unlocking broader participation in onchain trading.”
Moonshot is designed for users looking for direct exposure to the digital asset market without the friction of traditional crypto platforms. The app combines a self-custodial wallet with no seed phrases, real-time market data, and a mobile-first experience optimized for speed and simplicity. Since launch, Moonshot has grown to more than two million users and reached the top of the App Store in multiple countries.
“Access has always been the bottleneck for global adoption,” said a spokesperson at Moonshot. “Every new payment method we add unlocks new users, and this partnership turns previously hard-to-reach regions into active onchain markets.”
Onramper’s aggregation layer automatically routes users to the most competitive onramp provider based on location, payment method, and availability, optimizing for conversion and reducing drop-off at the point of deposit. For Moonshot, this means broader global coverage while maintaining a frictionless in-app experience.
Learn more at onramper.com and moonshot.com.
*The integration is live and available to users globally, excluding the United States.
About Onramper
Onramper is the leading fiat-to-crypto payments aggregator, providing a turnkey API-based solution for dynamically routing fiat-to-crypto onramp flows based on algorithms optimizing for conversion, fees, and payment methods. Onramper's platform allows users to buy 2,000+ digital assets in over 190 countries with over 130 payment methods across 120 currencies, with advanced routing options and unified analytics. The company is based in the Netherlands. To learn more, visit www.onramper.com.
About Moonshot
Moonshot is a leading mobile application for discovering, buying, and selling digital assets on the Solana blockchain. With a self-custodial wallet, a curated token experience, and support for familiar payment methods like Apple Pay, Moonshot has onboarded millions of users into on-chain trading, establishing itself as one of the fastest-growing apps in the market.
