Pantera Partner: Crypto-as-a-Service is the SaaS moment in blockchain

Author:Paul Veradittakit, Partner of Pantera Capital; Compiled by: Bitchain Vision

Key points of this article

• Crypto-as-a-Service (CaaS) is the “Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) moment” in blockchain.Banks and fintech companies no longer need to build crypto infrastructure from scratch.They can simply plug into APIs and white-label platforms to roll out digital asset functionality in days or weeks, rather than the years it once took.

• Mainstream adoption of stablecoins is accelerating through three channels.Banks are partnering with custodians like Coinbase, Anchorage, and BitGo while actively exploring tokenized assets; fintech companies are leveraging platforms like M^0 to issue their own stablecoins; and payment processors like Western Union ($300 billion in annual transactions) and Zelle (more than $1 trillion in annual transactions) are now integrating stablecoins to enable instant, low-cost cross-border settlements.

Cryptozoology as a Service (CaaS) isn’t really complicated.It is essentially a cryptocurrency-based Software as a Service (SaaS) that makes it a hundred times easier for institutions and businesses to integrate into the cryptocurrency space.Banks, fintechs, enterprises, etc. no longer have to laboriously build in-house cryptocurrency functionality.Instead, they simply plug and play and deploy in days via proven APIs and white-label platforms.Businesses can focus on their customers without worrying about the complexities of blockchain.They can leverage existing infrastructure to participate in cryptocurrency transactions in a more efficient and cost-effective manner.In other words, they can easily and seamlessly integrate into the digital asset ecosystem.

CaaS is ready for exponential growth

Crypto-as-a-Service (CaaS) is a cloud-based business model and infrastructure solution that enables enterprises, fintech companies, and developers to integrate cryptocurrency and blockchain capabilities into their operations without having to build or maintain the underlying technology from scratch.CaaS provides ready-to-use, scalable services, typically delivered via APIs or white-label platforms, such as crypto wallets, trading engines, payment gateways, asset storage, custody and compliance tools.This enables businesses to quickly deliver digital asset capabilities under their own brands, reducing development costs, time and required technical expertise.Like other as-a-service offerings, this model enables businesses of all sizes, from startups to established enterprises, to participate cost-effectively.In September 2025, Coinbase Institutional listed CaaS as one of its company’s biggest growth areas.

Pantera Capital has been investing in CaaS since 2013.We strategically invest in infrastructure, tools and technology to ensure CaaS can run at scale.By accelerating the construction of back-end fund management, custody and wallets, we have significantly improved the service level of CaaS.

Advantages of CaaS

Enterprises using Crypto-as-a-Service (CaaS) to transparently integrate encryption capabilities into their systems can realize many strategic and operational benefits faster and more cost-effectively.These advantages include:

• One-stop integration and seamless embedding: CaaS platforms eliminate the need for custom development cycles, enabling teams to activate features in days instead of months.

• Flexible profit model: Businesses can choose subscription pricing for predictable costs or pay-per-use billing to align expenses with revenue.Either way, you avoid a large upfront capital investment.

• Outsourced blockchain complexity: Enterprises can offload technical management while benefiting from a powerful enterprise-grade backend that ensures near-perfect uptime, real-time monitoring, and automatic failover.

• Developer-friendly API and SDK: Developers can embed wallet creation and key management capabilities, smoothly handle on-chain settlements, trigger smart contract interactions, and create comprehensive sandbox environments.

• White label branding and intuitive interface: CaaS solutions are easily customizable, allowing non-technical teams to configure free structures, supported assets and user onboarding processes.

• Other value-added features: Leading vendors bundle ancillary services such as fraud detection based on on-chain analytics; tax filing automation; multi-signature funds management; and cross-chain bridging for asset interoperability.

These features transform cryptocurrency from a technological novelty into a revenue-generating product line while maintaining a focus on core business capabilities.

Three core use cases

We believe that the world is rapidly evolving into a cryptocurrency-native environment, with individuals and businesses increasingly interacting with digital assets.This shift is driven by increasing user acceptance of blockchain wallets, decentralized applications, and on-chain transactions, which is driven by ever-improving user interfaces, rich educational resources, and practical application value.

However, for cryptocurrencies to truly integrate into the mainstream and become widely adopted, a strong and seamless bridge must be built to bridge the gap between traditional finance (TradFi) and decentralized finance (DeFi).Institutions both pursue the advantages of cryptocurrency (speed, programmability, and global accessibility) while relying on trusted intermediaries to manage its underlying complexities: tools, security, technology stacks, and liquidity provision.

Ultimately, this ecosystem convergence has the potential to gradually bring billions of users on-chain.

Use Case 1: Bank

Banks are increasingly partnering with regulated cryptocurrency custodians such as Coinbase Custody, Anchorage Digital and BitGo to provide institutional-grade asset custody, insurance storage and seamless spot trading services for digital assets such as Bitcoin and Ethereum.These foundational services (custodial, execution and basic lending) represent the most achievable part of cryptocurrency integration, allowing banks to easily onboard customers without forcing them to leave the traditional banking system.

In addition to these basic elements, banks can also leverage decentralized finance (DeFi) protocols to earn competitive returns on idle Treasury assets or customer deposits.For example, they can deploy stablecoins into permissionless lending markets (such as Morpho, Aave, or Compound) or into the liquidity pools of automated market makers (AMMs) such as Uniswap, thereby receiving real-time, transparent returns that are often better than traditional fixed income products.

The tokenization of real world assets (RWA) holds transformative opportunities.Banks can originate and distribute on-chain versions of traditional securities (e.g., tokenized U.S. Treasuries, corporate bonds, private credit, or even real estate funds issued through BlackRock’s BUIDL fund), bringing off-chain value to public blockchains such as Ethereum, Polygon, or Base.These RWAs can then be traded peer-to-peer via DeFi protocols such as Morpho (for optimized lending), Pendle (for revenue splitting) or Centrifuge (for private credit pools), while ensuring KYC/AML compliance via whitelisted wallets or institutional vaults.RWA can also serve as high-quality collateral in the DeFi lending market.

Crucially, banks can provide seamless stablecoin access without losing customers.Through an embedded wallet or custodial sub-account, customers can hold USDC, USDT, or FDIC-insured digital dollars (for payments, remittances, or yield farming) directly within the banking application without leaving the bank’s ecosystem.This “walled garden” model is similar to a neobank, but with regulated trust.

Going forward, major banks may form an alliance to issue branded stablecoins backed 1:1 by centralized reserves.These stablecoins can be settled instantly on public chains while complying with regulatory requirements, thus connecting traditional finance with programmable money.

If a bank treats blockchain as infrastructure, rather than an ancillary tool, it will likely capture the next trillion dollars in value.

Use Case 2: FinTech Companies and Neobanks

Fintech companies and neobanks are rapidly integrating cryptocurrencies into their core offerings through strategic partnerships with established platforms such as Robinhood, Revolut and Webull.These collaborations enable seamless usage and secure custody of digital assets while providing instant trading of tokenized versions of traditional stocks, effectively bridging the gap between traditional finance and blockchain-based markets.

In addition to partnerships, fintech companies can also build and launch their own blockchain infrastructure with professional service providers such as Alchemy.Alchemy is a leader in blockchain development platforms, providing scalable node infrastructure, enhanced APIs, and developer tools that simplify the creation of custom Layer-1 or Layer-2 networks.This enables fintech companies to tailor blockchains for specific use cases, such as high-throughput payments, decentralized authentication or RWA, while ensuring compliance with changing regulatory requirements and optimizing for low latency and cost-effectiveness.

Fintech companies can further deepen their involvement in the cryptocurrency space by issuing their own stablecoins and leveraging decentralized protocols offered by platforms like M^0 to mint profitable, fungible stablecoins that are backed by high-quality collateral such as U.S. Treasuries.By adopting this model, fintech companies are able to mint their own tokens on demand, fully control the underlying economic mechanisms (including interest accumulation and redemption mechanisms), ensure compliance with regulatory requirements through transparent on-chain reserves, and participate in shared governance through decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs).Additionally, they benefit from enhanced liquidity pools across major exchanges and DeFi protocols, reducing fragmentation and increasing user adoption.This approach not only creates new revenue streams, but also positions fintech companies as innovators in programmable money and fosters customer loyalty in a competitive digital economy.

Use Case Three: Payment Processor

Payments companies are building stablecoin “sandwiches”: multi-layered cross-border settlement systems that receive fiat currency on one end and export instant, low-cost liquidity in another jurisdiction while minimizing FX spreads, intermediary fees and settlement delays.The components of the “sandwich” include:

1. Upper slice of bread (deposits): US customers send USD to a payment provider such as Stripe, Circle, Ripple or neobanks like Mercury.

2. Middle Filler (Minting): USD is instantly exchanged at a 1:1 ratio into a regulated stablecoin – typically USDC (Circle), USDP (Paxos) or a bank-issued digital dollar.

3. Lower bread slices (withdrawals): Stablecoins become local currency stablecoins through bridging or exchange – for example, aARS (Argentine peso peg), BRLA (Brazil) or MXNA (Mexico) – or directly into central bank digital currency pilot projects (for example, Brazil’s Drex).

4. Settlement: Funds arrive at local bank account, mobile wallet, or merchant payment at T+0 (instant), with total costs typically less than 0.1% versus 3-7% via SWIFT + correspondent banking.

Western Union, the remittance giant with a history of 175 years and an annual remittance processing volume of more than 300 billion US dollars, recently announced that it will integrate stablecoins into its ecosystem.CEO Devin McGranahan admitted in July 2025 that the company has historically been “cautious” about cryptocurrencies, concerned about its volatility and regulatory issues.But the introduction of the Genius Act changed this situation.

“As the rules become increasingly clear, we see real opportunities to integrate digital assets into the business,” McGranahan said during the 2025 third-quarter earnings call.The upshot: Western Union is now actively testing stablecoin solutions for Treasury settlements and customer payments, leveraging blockchain technology to get rid of the cumbersome processes of correspondent banking.

The bank-backed P2P payment giant Zelle (part of Early Warning Services, a consortium composed of JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, Wells Fargo, etc.) has conducted more than $1 trillion in fee-free transfers in the United States every year through a simple mobile phone number or email address. It currently has more than 2,300 partner institutions and 150 million users.However, cross-border payments have not been realized before.On October 24, 2025, Early Warning announced a stablecoin plan aimed at bringing Zelle to the international market and providing “the same speed and reliability” overseas.

As banks, fintech/neobanks and payment processors integrate cryptocurrencies in an intuitive, plug-and-play, compliant way (with as few regulators as possible), they can continue to expand their global reach and strengthen relationships.

Conclusion

CaaS is not hype – it represents an infrastructure change that makes cryptocurrencies invisible to end users.Just as people don’t think of AWS when watching Netflix and don’t think of Salesforce when looking at CRM, consumers and businesses don’t think of blockchain when making instant cross-border payments or accessing tokenized assets.

The winners of this revolution will not be those companies that add cryptocurrencies as an afterthought to traditional systems, but those institutions and enterprises that treat blockchain as infrastructure, and the investors who support the underlying technology that underpins it all.