The capacity XRPaynet customers have for currency conversion is one of the key features of the system and card we offer. It means that you can increasingly access every possible means of capitalising on your crypto investments by converting them seamlessly into fiat money – and also back again.
You can do this through a process called on-ramping and off-ramping. This might sound like something you do with a car ferry, but it simply refers to the conversion facility that gives you extraordinary flexibility in using crypto. It means you can turn it into the currency of your own country, that of other nations, or turn fiat currency back into crypto if you can pay with that.
Ramping Up The Benefits
This form of crypto currency conversion uses a device known as a crypto ramp. Unlike the car ferry, when you board In the vehicle you already own, this is a purchasing transaction carried out using a ramping platform or a cryptocurrency exchange, in which crypto is bought using fiat currency. This buying of crypto with fiat currency is known as on-ramping.
When the reverse happens, you sell the cryptocurrency and receive the equivalent value of fiat currency for it, which will then be paid into your account. This is off-ramping.
It may be said that on-ramping is about entering the crypto market and off-ramping is about exiting it. In an absolutist sense, this is true; your first ever crypto purchase turning fiat into crypto is indeed an entry, while if you sold all your crypto for fiat and did no further crypto trading, that would be a very final exit.
However, the situation can be a lot more complex than that for those who use crypto widely alongside fiat currency, where it can be useful to switch some crypto to fiat at different points (or back again), as well as trading between different cryptocurrencies.
A ‘Ferry’ Convenient Way To Use Crypto
This situation is more complex but conveniently so, as it reflects a situation where you can get just the sort of money you need, when you need it. An obvious case in point is when you need to off-ramp some crypto to obtain a local currency for use on a trip there. Who knows – maybe you have driven there and did slide off a ferry ramp too.
However, making international transactions is not always about having money to hand to pay for goods and services, although XRPL debit and credit card users will be able to do that using both crypto (where accepted), or otherwise using off-ramped fiat currency. Instead, many international transactions are made electronically from all over the world.
This is done through the international banking number (IBAN) system, which was established in 1997. It was originally designed for banks to make transfers to each other, but then expanded to be used by individuals and companies.
Quite simply, an IBAN number is an extra number that each bank account has that can be quoted alongside the account number itself to facilitate an international transaction. This was, of course, designed for fiat currency, but it can now be used for crypto as well. Such transactions will use the SWIFT global payments system, or SEPA in Europe.
This is a transformational development, because it does more to bring crypto into the mainstream. It means that the on and off-ramping between crypto and fiat currencies is no longer just a method of investing and divesting, but offers a new, agile means of carrying out currency conversions to enable you to carry out transactions in the currency you want.
As such, it adds extra flexibility in comparison with a situation in which an individual or firm might have a stock of different fiat currencies and seek to convert some of that into a particular fiat currency. Being able to convert crypto into fiat or fiat into crypto adds a whole new dimension.
Flexibility In An Uncertain World
To push that (somewhat inaccurate) ferry analogy a bit further, there are, of course, such things as choppy waters, both on the seas and in the world of finance and currency trading. One only has to look at the turbulence on world markets after Donald Trump’s tariff announcements to see this.
What this means is that it could be very advantageous to do some currency trading between different currencies that are doing better or worse out of the situation, which may extend not just to different fiat currency pairs, or indeed different crypto pairs, but between fiat and crypto and vice-versa.
Ultimately, however, the biggest benefit of the use of on-and-off ramping, combined with IBAN transactions, is to ensure that crypto investors can make transactions in a manner that is most suitable and convenient, using whatever currency (fiat or crypto) is best at the time.