Table of Contents
What is a BIN Sponsor?
A BIN Sponsor is a company that has gained membership to a card scheme (Visa, Mastercard), and as a member has permission to sponsor other companies for them to have a BIN. A Banking Identification Number (BIN) is the 4 – 6 digits at the start of a card’s number. Without legitimate access to these numbers, it is not possible to issue cards. In brief, BIN Sponsors control these numbers, and allow their clients to use them.
Examples of them are Moorwand and Monavate, though there are many others.
What is Crypto Banking as a service (Crypto-BaaS)?
Crypto banking-as-a-service refers to companies that provide banking infrastructure —usually both crypto & fiat— for other companies to integrate into their products. Crypto-BaaS usually offer features regarding:
- Crypto
- Echanges de crypto-monnaies
- IBAN accounts for individual users
- Virtual and Physical Cards
- KYC & AML controls
Examples of them are Striga, Solid, and Synapse
Where do they overlap?
There is no overlap of functions, just of what they enable: card issuing. A BIN Sponsor provides one of the key components for card issuing. A Crypto-BaaS like Striga relies on the BIN Sponsor —or even on a banking service provider with a BIN Sponsorship— for this component, and also connects to a Card Bureau and Card Processor to manufacture the cards and process the transactions. Then, it bundles them and offers “card-issuing” to its clients.
Striga Vs. Monavate:
Time to Market
How long does it take to go live using Moonavate?
Monavate: It claims a time to market as low as 3-4 months. That said, it is common knowledge that integrating into a BIN Sponsor may even take over a year, in part due to the company having to implement processes and acquire documents to apply successfully.
How long does it take to go live using Striga?
Striga: It takes between 6 weeks and 3 months to fully deploy a product, from the moment you make the decision, through the integrations, until going live. The simplest features may be deployed even in 2 weeks.
Verdict: Striga, even at its slowest, would be the faster option.
Striga
Monavate
Time to Market
1.5 – 3 months
3 – 12 months
Striga Vs. Monavate:
Financials
The usual commercial structure is broken down into two: an upfront cost, and a monthly minimum or subscription fee. Then there are transactional costs, but we won’t get into those right now, as they should be evaluated on a case-by-case basis, given how many and how variable they are.
How much does it cost to deploy Monavate?
Monavate: Their costs are not publicly available, but the industry standard is usually an upfront cost between USD 50,000-100,000, and a monthly cost of around USD 15,000-20,000.
How much does it cost to deploy Striga?
Striga: The Crypto-BaaS platform of Striga charges EUR 5,000 as an upfront/integration cost, plus EUR 3,000 monthly.
Verdict: Striga is considerably cheaper both upfront and monthly than a BIN sponsor, likely Monavate included.
Financials
Striga
Monavate
(industry benchmark)
Upfront Cost (EUR)
5,000
50,000 – 100,000
Monthly Minimum / Subscription Fee (EUR)
3,000
15,000 – 20,000
Striga Vs. Monavate:
Services Offered
What services does Monavate offer?
Monavate: The company is exclusively focused on enabling card issuing, though their BIN range is only one of the components for said issuing. A processor and manufacturer are also needed.
What services does Striga offer?
Striga: On the other hand, Striga’s Crypto-BaaS has a full list of services including, but not limited to:
- White label infrastructure
- Native crypto support
- Crypto Wallets
- Crypto exchange features
- Individual IBAN accounts
- Physical and Virtual Card Issuing
- Apple Pay & Google Pay support (Tokenization)
- Product lifecycle management via a dashboard
Services
Striga
Monavate
White Label Infrastructure
Yes
No
Native Crypto Support
Yes
No
Crypto Wallets
Yes
No
Crypto Exchange Features
Yes
No
Individual IBAN accounts
Yes
No
Physical and Virtual Card Issuing
Yes
Partially
Apple Pay & Google Pay
Yes
No
Product lifecycle management via dashboard
Yes
No
Striga Vs. Monavate:
Technical Setup
While financials and services are essential to make a product great, you need to integrate the APIs first. Ask any developer team: if the technical setup is not properly designed, a simple —even enjoyable— setup, can become a months-long nightmare.
Besides the documentation being high-quality, the 4 following elements make the technical setup friendlier:
- Publicly available sandbox
- Number of partners required to build crypto & fiat Neobank
- Interactive setup guide
- Public API Documentation
What technical setup is required by Monavate?
Monavate:
- Monavate does not appear to have a publicly available sandbox
- It requires as many as 7 partners to launch a full crypto Neobank (itself, a card bureau, card processor, IBAN provider, wallet provider, exchange provider, and KYC/AML, at the least)
- It does not appear to have an interactive setup guide, just a static one
- It does not appear to have publicly available API documentation
What technical setup is required by Striga?
Striga:
- Striga has a publicly accessible sandbox
- It takes 1 partner (Striga itself) to launch a full crypto Neobank platform
- Striga has an interactive setup guide
- Striga shares publicly its API documentation
Verdict: The sheer amount of partner integrations required to deploy a neobank with Monavate makes it a daunting task when compared to Striga. On top of that, the information does not appear to be as readily available. Striga is arguably friendlier in terms of technical setup.
Technical Setup
Striga
Monavate
Publicly Available Sandbox
Yes
No
Number of Partners Required to Go Live
1
7
Interactive Setup Guide
Yes
No
Public API Documentation
Yes
No
Striga Vs. Monavate:
Regulation & Compliance
What does the compliance and regulatory process look like for Moonavate and Striga?
Once you launch a platform with the services you want and profitable financials, the only thing to worry about beyond growing your business in compliance. There are 3 core points to consider in that regard:
- KYC: Either the provider or the client company has to handle the responsibility of onboarding users and recording their data
- AML: Either the provider or the client company has to handle the responsibility of monitoring transactions to report potential money laundering
- Licenses: Either the provider or the client company has to hold a license to manage and hold virtual assets
Monavate: Monavate requires its clients to handle KYC and AML processes. To operate with them, the client does need to have a license of their own, especially to handle virtual assets (VASP License).
Striga: Striga handles both KYC and AML for its clients (outsourcing it isn’t an option). The client does not need to have any license or registration to handle or custody of digital currencies, as Striga takes care of that*.
- Striga is currently according to the newly updated (March 2022) Virtual Asset Service Provider License in Estonia.
Verdict: Monavate requires more dedication in terms of setting up processes and getting licenses, but offers more flexibility as a result. Striga handles everything for you, but you don’t get the option of doing the processes yourself. Who’s best depends on each client’s needs. Flexibility? Monavate. Cost efficiency and low effort approach? Striga.
Regulation & Compliance
Striga
Monavate
Outsourceable KYC
No
Yes
Outsourceable AML
No
Yes
Licenses or Commercial Registrations NOT Required
Yes
No
Verdict
Is Striga better than Monavate?
It depends on what you’re looking for.
If what you’re looking for is to build your Neobank from scratch and want to have as much flexibility to choose partners and build every component as desired, then Monavate is a good partner. Be advised, that it will take a long time and extensive resources, but it is possible.
If what you want is a ready-made solution that you can integrate cheaply and quickly so you can focus on growing the Neobank, not building it, then Striga is the way to go.
Striga Crypto-native Banking as a Service:
Your path to building and launching financial products
Join the financial businesses that use Striga’s cloud platform to delight their customers and launch their own products without the complexities that come when dealing with core banking solutions’ relationships, licensing, compliance and payments methods.
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