The ramps race is leaving customers behind

Over the last four years, the evolution of the crypto ramps space has been driven mostly by non-custodial wallets looking for ways to monetize their customer base. This has been a runaway success for many wallets, whose largest source of income (by far) is from ramps.

As the ecosystem grew to include DEXs, token issuers, gaming, and more, and ramps providers jostled with each other to put more money in their partner’s pocket, it became increasingly clear that there was a third wheel in this equation: the retail customer.

The retail customer, the one who actually buys/sells crypto, is ultimately a ramp's ONLY customer. Shouldn't they be the primary focus? Wouldn't a delightful experience for them ultimately be more fruitful for all parties involved?

Three is NOT a crowd

The retail customer experience has been poor in crypto. It’s riddled with technical jargon that’s intimidating and the customer gets punched in the face the first time they put a foot wrong. 

The ramps space is no different: almost all ramps providers optimize their funnel for the customer’s first (and often only) transaction. This needs to change. 

Customers using a ramp are signing up to a financial service, like opening a bank account. These are long-term relationships built on a foundation of trust, security, and safety.

There is so much more a ramps provider can do to provide a delightful experience to the customer. I’d argue that some of it isn’t even optional, yet most ramps seem to ignore it. 

1. Personal information. Why don’t most ramps provide a place for customers to manage their personal information, from basics like change of address / telephone number to providing additional KYC that ensures they can continue transacting? This is NOT something platforms should force their customers to do during the buy process. That’s disastrous for conversion rates.
2. Limits. Every ramp has limits on how much a customer can transact in a day (or week or month), which varies by payment method and transaction type. Yet this information is never easily available to the customer. Most customers find out about their limits as they attempt a transaction. That’s a poor customer experience. 
3. Payment methods. Most ramps save their customers’ previously-used payment methods, yet they don’t offer an easy-to-access administration page for adding / removing payment methods. Another conversion killer: expecting customers to shuffle around looking for their card or bank details during the checkout process.  

The customer is king (or queen)

A ramps product isn't complete or fit-for-purpose if all it provides is a checkout page. 

Instead, it's a far better customer experience to provide users with easy access to accounts where they can keep their personal information up to date, level up KYC to increase account limits, and manage their payment methods. All of this leads to a smoother checkout experience.

At MoonPay, we realized this early and developed the MoonPay App & Web Account: a place where customers can manage everything from a single place. I don’t mean to gloat (okay, maybe a little), but we often hear from partners that, based on their data, MoonPay offers the best conversion rate in the industry. Our secret sauce is our focus on getting consumers transaction-ready BEFORE the transaction. This is what we feel the ramps space needs most: a focus on building a delightful customer experience. 

We  aim to build long-term relationships with our customers that continue to deliver real value over time. We’re even leveraging the MoonPay App & Web Account beyond the crypto ecosystem to power e-commerce checkout experiences for major Web2 brands, helping new customers make their first crypto purchase.

While we are still at the start of this journey, our goal is to turn the MoonPay App & Web Account into a powerful companion to our ramps products. We aim to drive net new customers to our partners, giving them a delightful checkout experience that ensures customers keep coming back.

This is how we - all of us: customers, partners, and ramps - win. This is what my team obsesses over every day we come to work.