CaaS = SaaS + Blockchain: Powering Global Businesses and Making Crypto Invisible to the End User
VeradiVerdict - Issue #340
Summary
Crypto-as-a-Service (CaaS) is the “SaaS moment” for blockchain. Banks and fintechs no longer build crypto infrastructure from the ground up. They plug into APIs and white-label platforms, launching digital asset features in days and weeks instead of years.
Mainstream adoption is accelerating through three channels. Banks are partnering with custodians like Coinbase, Anchorage, and BitGo while aggressively exploring tokenized assets; fintechs are issuing their own stablecoins using platforms like M^0; and payment processors like Western Union ($300B annually) and Zelle ($1T+ annually) are now integrating stablecoins for instant, low-cost cross-border settlements.
Pantera is backing the infrastructure layer. We’re investing in the picks-and-shovels companies (custodians, wallets, APIs, and compliance tools) that make CaaS viable at scale. The institutions that treat blockchain as core infrastructure (not a side project) will capture the next trillion in value.
Crypto-as-a-Service (CaaS) really isn’t complicated. It’s just SaaS fueled by crypto and, with it, institutional and enterprise integration into crypto just got 100x easier. Banks, fintechs, enterprises, and more no longer need to struggle to build in-house crypto capabilities. Instead, they can plug and play, launching in days through time-tested APIs and white-label platforms. Organizations can stay laser focused on customers, rather than worrying about blockchain complexities. They can leverage existing infrastructure to more efficiently and cost-effectively participate in crypto transactions. In other words, they can smoothly integrate into the digital asset ecosystem without the hassle.
CaaS Positioned for Exponential Growth
CaaS is a cloud-based business model and infrastructure solution that enables businesses, fintechs, and developers to integrate cryptocurrency and blockchain functionalities into their operations without building or maintaining the underlying technology from scratch. CaaS provides ready-to-use, scalable services, often delivered via APIs or white-label platforms such as crypto wallets, trading engines, payment gateways, asset storage, custody, and compliance tools. This allows companies to quickly offer digital asset features under their own brand, reducing development costs, time, and technical expertise required. Like other as-a-Service offerings, this setup makes it cost-effective for businesses, ranging from startups to well-established enterprises, to participate. In September 2025, Coinbase Institutional called CaaS one of their company’s biggest growth areas.
At Pantera Capital, we’ve been enabling CaaS growth through our investments since 2013. We strategically pour capital into the infrastructure, tools, and technologies that make CaaS viable at scale. By accelerating the back end of treasuries, custodians, and wallets, we skyrocket the service layers of CaaS.
Benefits of CaaS
Numerous strategic and operational benefits exist when businesses use CaaS to transparently incorporate crypto functionalities into their systems in ways that are faster and more cost effective. They include the following:
Turnkey integration and seamless embedding: CaaS platforms eliminate the need for custom development cycles, allowing teams to activate features in days rather than months.
Flexible monetization models:Businesses can adopt subscription-based pricing for predictable costs or opt for pay-per-use billing that aligns expenses with revenue. Either way, this avoids large upfront capital investments.
Outsourced blockchain complexity: Companies offload technical management while benefiting from a robust, enterprise-grade backend, ensuring near-perfect uptime, real-time monitoring, and automatic failover.
Developer-friendly APIs and SDKs: Developers can embed wallet creation and key management, smoothly process on-chain settlements, trigger smart contract interactions, and create comprehensive sandbox environments.
White-label branding and intuitive interfaces: CaaS solutions facilitate customizations that allow non-technical teams to configure free structures, supported assets, and user onboarding flows.
Additional value-added capabilities: Leading providers bundle ancillary services such as fraud detection powered by on-chain analytics; tax reporting automation; mult-signature treasury management; and cross-chain bridging for asset interoperability
These features transform cryptocurrency from a technical novelty into a revenue-generating product line, all while preserving focus on core business competencies.
Three Core Use Cases
We believe that the world is rapidly evolving into a more crypto-native landscape where individuals and businesses increasingly interact with digital assets. This shift is driven by growing user comfort with blockchain wallets, decentralized applications, and on-chain transactions, fueled by improved user interfaces, educational resources, and real-world utility.
Yet, for crypto to achieve true mainstream integration and widespread adoption, a robust, seamless bridge must span the chasm between traditional finance (TradFi) and decentralized finance (DeFi). Institutions seek the upside of crypto (speed, programmability, and global accessibility) while relying on trusted intermediaries to manage the underlying complexity: tooling, security, technology stacks, and liquidity provision.
Ultimately, this ecosystem convergence has the potential to incrementally bring billions of users on-chain.
Use Case #1: Banks
Banks are increasingly partnering with regulated crypto custodians such as Coinbase Custody, Anchorage Digital, and BitGo to deliver institutional-grade asset safekeeping, insured storage, and seamless spot trading for digital assets like Bitcoin and Ethereum. These foundational services (custody, execution, and basic lending/borrowing) represent the low-hanging fruit of crypto integration, enabling banks to onboard clients without forcing them to exit traditional banking rails.
Beyond these essentials, banks can tap into DeFi protocols to generate competitive yields on idle treasury assets or customer deposits. For instance, they can deploy stablecoins into permissionless lending markets (e.g., Morpho, Aave, or Compound) or liquidity pools on automated market makers (AMMs) like Uniswap, earning real-time, transparent returns that often outpace legacy fixed-income products.
A transformative opportunity lies in real-world asset (RWA) tokenization. Banks can originate and distribute on-chain versions of traditional securities (tokenized U.S. Treasuries (e.g., via BlackRock’s BUIDL fund), corporate bonds, private credit, or even real estate funds) bringing off-chain value onto public blockchains like Ethereum, Polygon, or Base. These RWAs can then be traded peer-to-peer through DeFi protocols such as Morpho (for optimized lending), Pendle (for yield splitting), or Centrifuge (for private credit pools), all while maintaining KYC/AML compliance via whitelisted wallets or institutional vaults. RWAs also serve as high-quality collateral in DeFi lending markets.
Critically, banks can provide seamless stablecoin access without customer churn. Through embedded wallets or custodial sub-accounts, clients can hold USDC, USDT, or FDIC-insured digital dollars directly within their banking app (used for payments, remittances, or yield farming) all while never leaving the bank’s ecosystem. This “walled garden” approach mirrors neobanks but with regulated trust.
Looking ahead, leading banks will likely form consortiums to issue branded stablecoins backed 1:1 by pooled reserves. These could settle instantly on public chains while complying with regulations, thereby bridging legacy finance with programmable money.
The bank that treats blockchain as infrastructure, rather than a sidecar, will likely capture the next trillion in value.
Use Case #2: Fintechs and Neobanks
Fintechs and neobanks are rapidly integrating cryptocurrency 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 spot access to tokenized versions of traditional stocks, effectively bridging the gap between conventional finance and blockchain-based markets.
Beyond partnerships, fintechs are empowered to build and launch their own blockchain infrastructures using specialized providers like Alchemy, a dominant player in blockchain development platforms. Alchemy offers scalable node infrastructure, enhanced APIs, and developer tools that simplify the creation of custom layer-1 or layer-2 networks. This enables fintechs to tailor blockchains for specific use cases, such as high-throughput payments, decentralized identity verification, or RWAs, all while ensuring compliance with evolving regulations and optimizing for low latency and cost efficiency.
Fintechs can further deepen their crypto involvement by issuing proprietary stablecoins, leveraging platforms like M^0 that provide a decentralized protocol for minting yield-bearing, fungible stablecoins backed by high-quality collateral such as U.S. Treasury bills. By adopting this model, fintechs gain the ability to mint their own coins on demand, fully control the underlying economics (including interest accrual and redemption mechanisms), secure regulatory alignment through transparent on-chain reserves, and participate in shared governance via decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs). Additionally, they benefit from enhanced liquidity pools across major exchanges and DeFi protocols, reducing fragmentation and improving user adoption. This approach not only generates new revenue streams but also positions fintechs as innovators in programmable money, fostering customer loyalty in a competitive digital economy.
Use Case #3: Payment Processors
Payment companies are building stablecoin sandwiches: multi-layered, cross-border settlement stacks that ingest fiat at one end and output instant, low-cost liquidity in another jurisdiction, all while minimizing FX spreads, intermediary fees, and settlement delays. Elements of the sandwich include:
Top Slice (Onramp): A customer in the U.S. sends USD to the payment provider (e.g., Stripe, Circle, Ripple, or a neobank like Mercury).
Filling (Minting): The USD is immediately converted 1:1 into a regulated stablecoin—typically USDC (Circle), USDP (Paxos), or a bank-issued digital dollar..
Bottom Slice (Offramp): The stablecoin is bridged or swapped into a local-currency stablecoin—e.g., aARS (Argentinian peso-pegged), BRLA (Brazil), or MXNA (Mexico)—or directly into CBDC pilots (e.g., Brazil’s Drex).
Settlement: Funds land in a local bank account, mobile wallet, or merchant payout in T+0 (instant), often at <0.1% total cost vs. 3–7% via SWIFT + correspondent banking.
Western Union, the 175-year-old remittance behemoth processing $300B+ annually, recently announced the integration of stablecoins into its ecosystems. CEO Devin McGranahan admitted in July 2025 that the firm historically approached crypto with “caution,” wary of volatility and regulations. But the Genius Act flipped the script.
“With clearer rules now in place, we are seeing real opportunities to integrate digital assets into our business,” McGranahan said during the Q3 2025 earnings call. The result: Western Union is now actively testing stablecoin solutions for treasury settlements and customer payouts, leveraging blockchain to ditch correspondent banking’s drag.
Zelle, the bank-backed P2P powerhouse (owned by Early Warning Services, a consortium of JPMorgan, Bank of America, Wells Fargo, etc.), already moves $1T+ annually in no-fee U.S. transfers via simple phone numbers or emails, enrolling 2,300+ institutions and 150M+ users. But cross-border was a non-starter until now. On October 24, 2025, Early Warning announced a stablecoin initiative to internationalize Zelle, delivering “the same speed and reliability” abroad.
As banks, fintech/neobanks, and payment processors integrate crypto in intuitive, plug and play, compliant ways (involving the least number of regulation parties possible) they can continue to scale their global reach and enhance relationships.
Conclusion
CaaS isn’t hype—it’s the infrastructure shift that makes crypto invisible to the end user. Just as no one thinks about AWS when they stream Netflix or Salesforce when they check their CRM, consumers and businesses won’t think about blockchain when they send instant cross-border payments or access tokenized assets. The winners in this transformation won’t be the companies that bolt crypto onto legacy systems as an afterthought. They’ll be the institutions and enterprises that recognize blockchain as foundational infrastructure and the investors backing the picks-and-shovels layer powering it all. At Pantera, we’re not just predicting this future—we’re building the on-ramp that brings billions on-chain.
- Paul Veradittakit
Important Disclosures – Certain Sections of This Letter Discuss Pantera’s Advisory Services and Others Discuss Market Commentary. Certain sections of this letter discuss the investment advisory business of Pantera Capital Partners LP and its affiliates (”Pantera”), while other sections of the letter consist solely of general market commentary and do not relate to Pantera’s investment advisory business. Pantera has inserted footnotes throughout the letter to identify these differences. This section provides educational content and general market commentary. Except for specifically-marked sections of this letter, no statements included herein relate to Pantera’s investment advisory services, nor does any content herein reflect or contain any offer of new or additional investment advisory services. This letter is for information purposes only and does not constitute, and should not be construed as, an offer to sell or buy or the solicitation of an offer to sell or buy or subscribe for any securities. Opinions and other statements contained herein do not constitute any form of investment, legal, tax, financial, or other advice or recommendation.
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Hi, I’m Paul Veradittakit, , a Managing Partner at Pantera Capital, one of the oldest and largest institutional investors focused on investing in blockchain companies and cryptocurrencies. I’ve been in the industry since 2014, and the firm invests in equity, early-stage token projects, and liquid cryptocurrencies on exchanges. I focus on early-stage investments and share my thoughts on what’s going on in the industry in this weekly newsletter.
If you have any projects that need funding, feel free to DM me on twitter.
I’m working on a project for blockchain myself this article I will definitely take into consideration
The WeBull integration exaple really highlights how fintechs are bridging TradFi and DeFi seamlessly. Their approach to making crypto invisible to end users while maintaining robust infrastructure is exactly what mainstream adoption needs. The partnerships with established custodians give retail investors confidence without the complexity of managing private keys themselves. This CaaS model could accelerate WeBull's growth significantly as more users seek exposure to digital assets.