There are multiple types of financial institutions and banking service providers out there. A group of them focus not on investments, but on providing infrastructure. Crypto-as-a-Service (CaaS) and Crypto-banking-as-a-Service (Crypto-BaaS) —like Striga’s platform— fall within that category, and though they sound quite similar, they are in fact quite different.
Crypto-as-a-Service (CaaS) traditionally refers to companies that allow other companies to use their exchange platform to trade as a company. The client company can then break down its own account into multiple smaller accounts to provide exchange features to its own users. So, in brief, CaaS provides exchange features to companies, and the liquidity to back them up.
Examples of them are Bitstamp, Bitpanda, and Zero Hash, though there are many others.
Crypto banking-as-a-service (Crypto-BaaS) refers to companies that provide banking infrastructure —usually both crypto & fiat— for other companies to integrate into their own products. Crypto-BaaS usually offer features regarding:
Examples of them are Striga in Europe or Solid and Synapse in the US.
They share the exchange features, but not in the same way. Usually, Crypto-BaaS actually partners with a CaaS to be able to provide its features. The Crypto-as-a-Service provider is usually the one who holds control over the liquidity and sets the spread/fees for exchanging cryptocurrencies, while the Crypto-BaaS acts as an intermediary and infrastructure integrator.
But moving on to the actual article: How does Striga’s Crypto BaaS platform compare with Bitstamp’s Crypto-as-a-Service platform for those who want to build a crypto Neobank?
Bitstamp: The time it takes to integrate CaaS depends on two things: Going through a round of calls with the provider (in this case Bitstamp) to get approval and exchange documentation, and developing the technical integrations. The expertise required to do the latter is usually high. The full process usually takes between 2 and 6 months, and the size and experience of the client’s developer team play a big role in it.
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 is the faster option, though these two categories are the fastest to set up among financial infrastructure providers in general.
Time to Market
1.5 – 3 months
2 – 6 months
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.
Bitstamp: The revenue model of a CaaS company is usually reliant on exchange spread or fees. They tend to charge no money either up front or as a subscription/monthly minimum. In brief, integrating them tends to be free.
Striga: The Crypto-BaaS platform of Striga charges EUR 5,000 as an upfront/integration cost, plus EUR 3,000 monthly.
Verdict: Bitstamp takes the win. Though they can get expensive at a transactional level, they are free to start with.
Upfront Cost (EUR)
5,000
0
Monthly Minimum / Subscription Fee (EUR)
3,000
0
Bitstamp: As mentioned above, a CaaS company focuses exclusively on providing crypto liquidity to enable exchange features. Bitstamp does just that, it provides access to their exchange infrastructure.
Striga: On the other hand, Striga’s Crypto-BaaS has a full list of services including, but not limited to:
Verdict: Striga far outstrips Bitstamp in terms of a range of services, which is expected, given the different business models. When it comes to exchanging features though, CaaS providers are likely the experts.
White Label Infrastructure
Yes
No
Native Crypto Support
Yes
Yes
Crypto Wallets
Yes
No
Crypto Exchange Features
Yes
Yes
Individual IBAN accounts
Yes
No
Physical and Virtual Card Issuing
Yes
No
Apple Pay & Google Pay
Yes
No
Product lifecycle management via dashboard
Yes
No
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:
Bitstamp:
Striga:
Verdict: Connecting to Striga requires substantially less effort given the availability of resources and simplicity of connecting to just 1 partner, as opposed to 7.
Publicly Available Sandbox
Yes
No
Number of Partners Required to Go Live
1
7
Interactive Setup Guide
Yes
No
Public API Documentation
Yes
Yes
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:
Bitstamp: AML and KYC are handled by Bitstamp, and they require their clients to be licensed or registered to hold digital assets legally.
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*.
Verdict: Though equivalent in KYC & AML, Bitstamp does have one extra roadblock when compared to Striga due to requiring a license to operate. So, Striga is more convenient compliance-wise.
Outsourceable KYC
No
No
Outsourceable AML
No
No
Licenses or Commercial Registrations NOT Required
Yes
No
It really depends on what you’re looking for.
If what you exclusively want is direct access to cryptocurrency liquidity to offer exchange features with great flexibility, you have a solid development team to back you and are ready to wait up to 6 months, Bitstamp makes sense.
If what you want is to build a full-fledged neobanking platform or integrate banking features into your own product, and you want to deploy it quickly, then your best bet is Striga.
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.
Cookie | Durée | Description |
---|---|---|
cookielawinfo-checkbox-analytics | 11 months | This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Analytics". |
cookielawinfo-checkbox-functional | 11 months | The cookie is set by GDPR cookie consent to record the user consent for the cookies in the category "Functional". |
cookielawinfo-checkbox-necessary | 11 months | This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookies is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Necessary". |
cookielawinfo-checkbox-others | 11 months | This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Other. |
cookielawinfo-checkbox-performance | 11 months | This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Performance". |
viewed_cookie_policy | 11 months | The cookie is set by the GDPR Cookie Consent plugin and is used to store whether or not user has consented to the use of cookies. It does not store any personal data. |