Off-Ramp Terms: A Working Glossary

Off-ramp. A service converting crypto into ordinary money and settling it to a bank account.

Settlement. The arrival of funds in the destination account. Distinct from execution, which is the sale itself and is instant.

Cut-off time. The hour after which a payment is processed the next business day. Missing it over a weekend means three days.

Instant payment scheme. A regional system settling in seconds including outside business hours. Coverage depends on both the provider’s and the recipient bank’s participation.

Correspondent bank. An intermediary institution in a cross-border payment chain. Each may deduct a fee and add a day, and any may decline.

Lifting fee. A deduction taken by a correspondent from the payment in transit, so the amount arriving is less than the amount sent. Explains discrepancies between a provider’s record and a bank statement.

FX margin. The difference between the rate applied to a currency conversion and the interbank rate. Typically 0.5 to 2 percent, and usually the largest cost in a cross-currency settlement.

Interbank rate. The wholesale rate between financial institutions, used as the reference against which a margin is measured.

Beneficiary name matching. Verification that the receiving account holder matches the expected name. The most common cause of a returned payment, particularly where a trading name differs from a registered name.

Source of funds, at the receiving end. Evidence a bank may request for an inbound payment. Distinct from the provider’s own checks.

Advance notice. Informing a receiving bank of an expected payment before it arrives. Not a formal mechanism and highly effective in practice.

First withdrawal verification. Additional checks applied the first time funds are sent to a new bank account. One to three business days at most providers, once.

Fiat balance. Money held with a provider after a sale and before withdrawal. A credit exposure to that provider.

Safeguarding. A requirement on authorised payment and electronic money institutions to hold relevant funds separately or under equivalent protection. Distinct from crypto client asset segregation.

Where these terms appear

The settlement vocabulary above is used most precisely in a provider’s own operational documentation rather than in its marketing. A crypto to fiat provider with published settlement times states cut-offs, rails and expected arrival windows per currency, which is the information that makes the terms usable for planning.

The banking half of the vocabulary, correspondent chains and lifting fees, belongs to the receiving institution rather than to the provider, and it is worth asking your own bank which of these apply to inbound payments.

Matching the settlement currency to the receiving account removes the FX margin entirely, which on any meaningful amount is the largest single item in this glossary. A provider settling in multiple currencies makes that matching possible without a second conversion.