At some point every bank CTO hears the same sentence in a boardroom:
“Let’s just plug into a crypto exchange, how hard can it be?”
Spoiler: hard. And expensive. And fragile. 😅
Meanwhile, Crypto-as-a-Service (CaaS) quietly offers the same outcome with a very different architecture.
Option 1: Direct Exchange Integration 🧱
Looks simple on a slide:
- Connect to exchange API
- Map accounts → wallets
- Add “Buy BTC” button
In reality you’re building:
- Custody logic (who holds what, where, with which keys)
- Risk & limits per client, per asset, per region
- Reconciliation between core banking ledger and exchange balances
- Vendor lock-in to one exchange’s quirks, rate limits and downtime
Congrats, you didn’t “add crypto” - you added a second shadow core-banking stack.
Option 2: Crypto-as-a-Service 🧩
With CaaS, the picture changes:
- One API layer that handles wallets, trades, settlement
- Pluggable access to multiple exchanges/liquidity sources
- Built-in KYC/AML hooks, reporting, event streams
- Cleaner mapping: bank account ⇄ CaaS balance ⇄ on-chain / CEX
As Paul Bennett put it:
“Crypto-as-a-Service isn’t just about ‘slapping on a crypto payment button.’ It’s a catalyst that transforms your business from a local player into a global predator.”
From architecture view, that “catalyst” is literally an extra domain:
Core Banking ↔ CaaS Layer ↔ Crypto Rails, instead of Core Banking trying to be all three.
So What Should a Bank Architect Do? 🧠
If your job is:
- minimise blast radius
- avoid rewriting your core
- keep compliance people mostly calm
…then CaaS is the sane default, and direct exchange hookups are the exception you justify, not the baseline you start from.
You can stay a local feature-factory.
Or you plug into global rails and let CaaS handle the sharp edges. Your call, ser 🚀
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