Hyperlocalizing crypto access for broader adoption

TL;DR:

• Emerging markets account for much of global crypto usage but face basic barriers: limited card access, fragmented payment systems and complex compliance.

• TransFi bridges traditional money and crypto in 100+ countries, offering fiat‑to‑crypto on‑ramps, off‑ramps and fiat-stablecoin payments via 300+ local methods such as Interac, MoMo, DANA, M‑Pesa and GCash.

• This hyperlocal approach speeds onboarding, ensures local KYC compliance and lifts conversion rates. One Solana‑based dApp saw 50% faster onboarding and a 38% rise in funded wallets after adding local payment options.

• Businesses gain faster, more reliable settlement, lower FX costs and access to customer segments traditional gateways excluded, opening new revenue.

• The crypto on/off-ramp market is projected to grow about 17.8% annually to about $5.4B by 2031, driven by demand for faster, cheaper cross‑border transactions. Infrastructure like TransFi is well positioned to capture that growth.

The Hidden Friction in Global Crypto Adoption

Across Africa, Asia, and Latin America, converting cash or a bank balance into crypto remains hard, ironically, in regions where adoption is strongest. Chainalysis ranks India and Nigeria among the top markets (recently #1 and #6), with Indonesia, Vietnam, the Philippines, and Brazil also prominent. Interest here is driven less by speculation and more by necessity. Crypto is marketed as borderless. In practice, the first step (turning local cash into digital assets) is often the hardest. In these markets users face high fees, low trust, and slow settlement when buying crypto with local currency.

In Nigeria, for instance, a simple $50 transaction through an international payment gateway can cost 10% in fees before it even reaches its destination. This barrier, often described as the fiat onboarding problem, causes the vision of borderless finance to collapse at the exact moment users attempt to enter the ecosystem. Ironically, the friction is greatest in the very markets that could benefit most from crypto adoption.

In Argentina, annual inflation reached 117.8% in 2023, and in 2022, Turkey saw official inflation of 72.3%, a 52.7% increase from 2021. Such conditions push many to stablecoins as a lifeline for preserving value amid currency meltdown. In 2025, Kenya leads globally in mobile money usage with 91% market penetration countrywide. Platforms like M-Pesa and MTN Mobile Money dominate daily commerce, and crypto is now starting to piggyback on these networks for remittances, online commerce, and peer-to-peer transfers.

In the Philippines, money sent home by migrant workers is about 8.3% of GDP, amounting to $38B. Crypto is increasingly seen as a faster and cheaper alternative for moving these funds. Traditional channels remain expensive and slow. A $200 bank remittance can incur around 6.5% in fees on average, more than double the UN's 3% target.

In some corridors, especially in Africa, fees can climb into the double digits (for example, 15-20% or higher), eating away a significant chunk of low-income workers’ transfers. By contrast, local bank transfers and mobile wallet payments cost a fraction of that, so a crypto on-ramp that utilizes local rails can dramatically cut costs for end users.

The same users driving crypto’s global growth are those facing the steepest fiat-to-crypto barriers. Many in emerging markets lack access to international credit or debit cards, yet cards remain the default on-ramp for most exchanges. 1.3B adults remain unbanked worldwide, and even those with bank accounts often rely on local instruments like India’s UPI, Brazil’s PIX, Kenya’s M-Pesa, or Ghana’s MoMo. Many local mobile payment apps account for a significant portion of local transactions.

If a crypto platform doesn’t support these familiar payment methods, it effectively shuts out a large population of would-be users. The result is high drop-off rates, failed transactions, and lost trust whenever people in these markets try to convert their cash to crypto (or vice versa). Many crypto startups, eager to expand in these regions, end up integrating multiple third-party payment providers not built for local nuances, leading to slow, fragmented, and often frustrating user experiences.

This is the gap that TransFi addresses. It tackles the “fiat wall” head-on by focusing on the first mile of crypto: getting everyday money reliably in and out of the crypto ecosystem. TransFi is built for environments where global card networks are unreliable or irrelevant, providing an alternative infrastructure around the payment systems people already use daily.

TransFi’s Hyperlocal Stack for Real-World Payment Flows

TransFi operates at the infrastructure level as a modular, API-driven platform. It connects crypto businesses to the localized payment rails that matter in emerging markets. Through a single API integration, a project can tap into 300+ local payment methods across 100+ countries, from bank transfers and e-wallets to mobile money and cash pickup networks.

This includes national systems like DANA in Indonesia, GCash in the Philippines, Interac in Canada, M-Pesa in Kenya and PSE in Colombia, among many others. In effect, TransFi abstracts the complexity of each country’s financial plumbing and exposes it through a unified crypto-to-fiat gateway.

Critically, TransFi’s stack supports the full range of money movement between fiat and digital assets. Its capabilities are organized into a few core products:

• Ramp Crypto Onramp / Offramp: An on-ramp solution that lets users purchase and sell digital assets (e.g., stablecoins) using 300+ local payment methods via web or in-app widgets. Instead of relying on credit cards (which many users don’t have), Ramp supports local bank transfer, mobile wallet, voucher, or other domestic channels, depending on the country. It’s optimized for high conversion in wallets and apps, meaning smoother KYC, instant quotes, and familiar checkout flows that significantly reduce abandonment.

• MCA (Multi-Currency Accounts) with named IBANs: A multi-currency wallet that enables businesses to hold and manage balances across 40+ fiat currencies and 130+ digital assets through a single account. Companies can centralize liquidity in USD or stablecoins, instantly convert or deploy funds across markets, and even issue named IBANs for receiving global settlements.

• BizPay - Conversational AI-based Payments: A lightweight, AI tool for cross-border collections that lets businesses and freelancers send payment requests directly via WhatsApp or Telegram, while merchants receive settlements in USD, stablecoins, or local currencies.

• Web Solution for Payouts and Collections: A unified cross-border money movement engine that lets businesses collect and disburse funds through a single API. Companies can accept local currency or stablecoins and settle in fiat or digital assets, while also sending payouts to bank accounts, mobile-money wallets, or supported payout channels.

• Unified Crypto Checkout for Ecommerce Merchants: A seamless, white-labeled checkout solution for merchants to accept both crypto and local fiat payments across 100+ countries. Businesses can offer global payment acceptance with local familiarity and settle in USD, stablecoins, or supported local currencies, without handling blockchain, liquidity, or regulatory complexity themselves.

TransFi’s Lego-like toolkit gives partners flexibility. A small startup might use a lightweight on-ramp widget to convert users’ fiat to crypto. A larger exchange expanding into new countries might leverage the full suite (on-ramps, off-ramps, compliance services, and treasury tools), to launch a localized version of their platform. This modularity means a partner can start with a single use case, such as fiat deposits or stablecoin payouts, and later expand into new markets or flows without refactoring their integration. It’s a stark contrast to trying to integrate a patchwork of payment processors and compliance vendors country by country.

Hyper-localizing for strategy: Faster Onboarding & Higher Conversions

The most significant innovation in local first financial infrastructure is not what the user sees. It is the backend system that maintains security, ensures compliance, and adapts to regulatory expectations across many countries.

For example, a Solana-based social dApp recently integrated TransFi to enable user top-ups via local channels (specifically, allowing Philippine users to fund their wallets through GCash and bank transfers rather than only credit cards). The results were dramatic: onboarding time dropped by more than 50% and the number of funded wallets jumped by 38% after the switch. Users who previously got stuck at the funding step were now able to start using the app within minutes.

Moreover, support tickets related to payments and withdrawals declined significantly, reducing the burden on the company’s customer support. The engineering team, meanwhile, saved time and effort; they avoided having to build and maintain separate integrations for each payment method or country. The product team could roll out in new markets without waiting on lengthy banking partnerships or custom legal compliance in each jurisdiction.

In short, TransFi’s infrastructure helped turn a previously fragmented onboarding process into a smooth experience, with clear boosts to user acquisition and retention.

TransFi’s value goes beyond just integration ease or faster onboarding. Localizing the first-mile user experience provides longer-term operational and strategic benefits for both startups and established enterprises. Key advantages include:

• Compliance Offloading: All the messy parts of regulatory compliance are handled by TransFi in the background. KYC, AML, sanctions checks, fraud monitoring, risk scoring and reporting are localized and baked into the service. Security and fraud prevention are adapted to local conditions. The infrastructure includes a dynamic risk engine that adjusts to region-specific patterns and threat signals. Every transaction is evaluated based on parameters like device identity, geolocation, transaction velocity, IP reputation, and regional risk indicators. This reduces the compliance burden for crypto businesses, allowing even lean startups to expand into markets with strict regulations without building out large legal teams. Companies remain fully compliant with local laws by default, without diverting focus from their core product development.

• Efficient Treasury Management: Businesses can manage liquidity in a more agile way by holding working capital in USD or stablecoins and instantly settling into local currencies across multiple markets whenever needed. This greatly reduces exposure to FX volatility and speeds up settlement cycles. For instance, a company can invoice in stablecoins and pay local expenses immediately in local currency, avoiding days or weeks of conversion delays. Overall capital efficiency improves, as funds aren’t tied up in multiple foreign bank accounts, and forex costs are minimized through TransFi’s smart routing (which finds the best conversion rates).

• Better User Experience: Ultimately, end-users get a more seamless experience at every step. Deposits and withdrawals clear faster, since transactions are executed on local rails rather than through slow correspondent banking networks. Apps and wallets can display local currencies and familiar payment options, making new users feel at home. Users can transact in their own language and currency, which makes crypto feel like a natural extension of their existing financial life, rather than an abstract concept. By meeting users where they are, TransFi helps make crypto a daily financial tool rather than a complicated process. This improves conversion and engagement metrics across the board.

• Scalable Global Expansion: For crypto companies eyeing emerging markets, TransFi dramatically lowers the operational hurdles. Teams don’t need to hire local banking experts or maintain dozens of country-specific partnerships. TransFi has already integrated the local banks, payment service providers, and mobile wallets. Nor do companies need to retain lawyers in every jurisdiction for payment licensing. TransFi’s backend ensures each transaction is compliant with local regulations. This means even a small startup can launch in, say, Nigeria, Vietnam, the Philippines, and Brazil in parallel without drowning in operational overhead. Expansion becomes more about understanding user needs and less about fighting the dull frictions of payments and compliance.

By solving these pain points, TransFi positions itself as more than a payments API - it becomes a strategic enabler for crypto businesses to reach new markets quickly and confidently.

The First Mile Opportunity

The emergence of local-first crypto infrastructure like TransFi signals a broader maturation in the industry. For years, the crypto world excelled at moving value across blockchains, but struggled to connect that value to local financial systems.

That is now beginning to change. Providers are building what you might call the “first mile” of crypto: the rails that link digital assets to everyday money in emerging economies. It’s the classic “think globally, act locally” approach: leverage crypto’s global liquidity and 24/7 markets, but deliver it in a form factor that feels local to the end user.

The competitive landscape for on-and-off ramps is heating up, especially as the focus shifts to emerging markets. A handful of well-known crypto fintechs (e.g. MoonPay, Ramp Network, Transak) made buying crypto easy with a card, but they largely catered to users in North America and Europe with Visa/Mastercard access.

The real growth opportunity, however, lies in the vast user base of Asia, Africa, and Latin America that has so far been underserved. We are now seeing a race among infrastructure providers to plug into systems like GCash, DANA, MoMo, PIX, SPEI, Mobile Money, and other country-specific networks. This isn’t just adding a feature; it represents a structural shift in how the crypto industry approaches new user acquisition.

The industry is shifting its approach to on-ramp the next billion users. Crypto platforms are realizing that to win in emerging markets, they must integrate deeply with local payment culture and regulations.

The opportunity at this first mile is enormous. Every week, we hear stories of freelancers in South Asia opting to be paid in stablecoins to bypass capital controls and high remittance fees. In sub-Saharan Africa, gig workers convert earnings to crypto to hedge against rapidly inflating local currencies.

Migrant families are discovering they can send money home in minutes using stablecoin transfers that cost pennies, achieving speeds and costs far better than what traditional banks allow. These grassroots use cases are driving real volumes. It’s no surprise that stablecoin usage in emerging markets is surging, and crypto transaction volumes in regions like Latin America hit record highs in 2024.

All of this underpins a strong growth outlook for the crypto-fiat gateway sector. Analysts project the crypto payments and on-ramp market to expand at 17.8% annually, reaching around $5.4B by 2031. This growth is fueled by the unmet needs in cross-border payments, remittances, and digital commerce in developing economies.

In other words, solving the fiat access problem could unlock millions of new crypto users and billions in transaction volume. Companies like TransFi, by positioning themselves as the bridge between stablecoins and local currencies, stand to capture a significant piece of this rising tide.

Driving force behind TransFi

Raj Kamal, the CEO and founder of TransFi, brings over two decades of leadership experience across finance and technology. He previously served as CEO of OYO Vacation Homes in Europe (a top-3 global vacation rental platform) in 2020–2021, and held senior roles at Naspers/PayU, leading fintech investments, and led the Payments Practice in Asia-Pacific at McKinsey.

This background gives him first-hand insight into both the complexities of international payments and the fast-paced world of tech startups. Under his leadership, TransFi has emphasized a proactive approach to regulation and security from day one.

The company is creating a “trust bridge” between the traditional financial system and the crypto economy. Compliance is baked into TransFi’s core products, which have helped the company forge partnerships with major exchanges and even secure backing from traditional fintech investors.

Closing the Gap Between Innovation and Adoption

Today, TransFi is operational across 100+ countries, 40+ fiat currencies and 130+ digital assets, serving clients that range from crypto exchanges and wallets to gaming platforms and fintech apps. By handling the messy local details, from real-time bank connections and mobile wallet integrations to currency conversion and identity verification, TransFi lets its partners focus on building great user experiences. Each integration effectively upgrades a crypto platform’s capabilities to local-bank-level convenience in the target market.

As emerging markets continue to dominate crypto adoption metrics, one thing is increasingly clear: the next phase of growth in Web3 will be defined by how easily new users can cross from the world of fiat into the world of crypto.

Bridging that gap at scale requires building local rails for global crypto, whether it’s enabling a student in Lagos to buy stablecoins with a mobile wallet or allowing a gamer in Manila to cash out earnings to a local bank account. TransFi and similar infrastructure players are doing the unglamorous but critical work of connecting these dots. In doing so, they are helping ensure that crypto’s promise of an open, inclusive financial system truly reaches those who need it most.

For more information on TransFi’s supported regions and payment solutions, click here.

This story was originally published by TheStreet on Nov 26, 2025, where it first appeared in the Innovation section. Add TheStreet as a Preferred Source by clicking here.