From Payments to Infrastructure: Why More FX Brokers Are Rethinking Digital Asset Operations

Cregis says larger brokers are increasingly looking beyond payment acceptance as digital asset operations become more complex. 

Unlike crypto exchanges, FX brokers have traditionally competed on client acquisition, regional expansion, and operational efficiency rather than building technology stacks from scratch. As a result, much of the industry’s infrastructure has evolved around specialist providers. Trading runs on platforms such as MetaTrader, CRM systems are commonly outsourced, and digital asset payments have largely followed the same model through third-party payment gateways.

That division of labour has made commercial sense for years. Even some of the industry’s largest firms rely on external providers for parts of their digital asset capabilities, allowing internal teams to stay focused on growth, customer experience and global operations.

But as digital asset activity grows, some firms are beginning to revisit where outsourced payments end and internal building begins. 

According to Shawn Yan, Founder and CEO of Cregis, an enterprise digital asset infrastructure platform serving a growing number of FX brokers, that conversation is now beginning to evolve. 

“Five years ago, most discussions centred on enabling crypto payments. Today, brokers are asking broader questions around treasury management, internal controls and how digital assets fit into their operating model,” said Yan.

When Scale Changes the Equation

For many brokers, payment gateways remain an efficient solution. They are fast to integrate, require limited engineering resources and work well for firms building out their digital asset offering.

The discussion tends to change as volumes grow.

Based on its work with FX brokers across multiple markets, Cregis is seeing larger firms place greater emphasis on how digital assets are managed across the business, from treasury and settlement to internal approvals and liquidity management.

Yan sees this as a natural evolution rather than a replacement of one model by another. “As transaction volumes grow, firms naturally begin focusing on efficiency, governance and how digital asset operations can scale alongside the business,” he added.

Based on Cregis’ experience, the shift tends to surface in three areas. 

One is economics. Payment providers typically charge based on transaction volume, a model that is straightforward at a smaller scale but becomes more material as settlement volumes grow.

Another is operational oversight. Under traditional payment service providers(PSPs) models, parts of the payment flow remain outside the broker’s direct environment, which can limit flexibility in treasury management and internal processes.

The third is customer experience. As competition intensifies, settlement speed and operational transparency increasingly become part of the client proposition rather than purely back-office considerations.

None of this means payment gateways are losing relevance. For many brokers, they remain the most practical solution. What is changing, in Yan’s view, is that a growing number of larger firms are evaluating where payment services end and digital asset infrastructure begins.

ATFX Group: A Gradual Approach to Building Digital Asset Infrastructure

ATFX Group offers one example of how larger brokers are approaching this shift. Operating across Europe, the Middle East, Asia-Pacific, Latin America and Africa, the broker has steadily expanded its global footprint while supporting a growing range of digital asset use cases. 

Across its international operations, the ATFX Group has explored ways of expanding its digital-asset infrastructure as these assets become more integrated into brokerage operations.

Within certain international operations, ATFX has used third-party payment infrastructure to support digital-asset-related payment flows, while focusing internal resources on its core business. As digital assets became a more established part of its business, ATFX began exploring how greater visibility and control over digital asset flows could support future growth.

Rather than replacing existing systems outright, the company adopted a phased approach, introducing enterprise wallet capabilities alongside existing payment processes and expanding their use gradually based on operational needs. 

According to Cregis, the collaboration has included areas such as wallet management, approval workflows and the operational management of digital-asset flows within the relevant ATFX Group entity. The objective is not simply to adopt new technology, but to build a more flexible operating model as digital assets become a larger part of the business. 

ATFX’s approach reflects a broader pattern emerging among larger financial institutions. Greater ownership of digital asset operations can offer more flexibility, but it also requires stronger governance, clearer approval structures, and more sophisticated internal processes. For many firms, the transition is therefore less about replacing a payment provider and more about building the capabilities needed for the next stage of growth. 

Ownership Comes With New Responsibilities

Beyond technology, the ATFX example also illustrates another challenge emerging across the FX industry.  also illustrates another challenge emerging across the FX industry. For larger institutions, adopting wallet capabilities is rarely just a technology upgrade. It also changes how digital assets are managed across the business.

Unlike traditional payment gateways, where much of the operational complexity sits with the service provider, self-managed infrastructure places more responsibility on the institution itself. Treasury operations, approval workflows, permission controls and risk policies become part of the broker’s own operating model rather than something handled by a third party.

That helps explain why many firms are taking a phased approach. Rather than replacing existing systems all at once, they are introducing new infrastructure gradually, validating operational processes alongside the technology before expanding into additional use cases.

ATFX Group has followed a similar path. Yan explained that the collaboration has focused not only on deploying enterprise wallet capabilities, but also on helping establish the governance framework required to support them. The objective is not simply to introduce new infrastructure, but to ensure it can be operated effectively as digital asset activity continues to grow.

“The real transition isn’t from one payment model to another,” Yan said. “It’s from outsourcing digital asset operations to building the capabilities to manage them internally. That’s a much bigger shift, because it changes not only the technology stack but also how an institution operates.”

Overall, the evolution is unlikely to happen overnight, and payment gateways will continue to play an important role across much of the industry. But as digital asset activity becomes more integrated into brokerage operations, the discussion is gradually moving beyond payment acceptance toward how those assets are governed, managed and scaled.

“The real transition isn’t from one payment model to another,” Yan said. “It’s from outsourcing digital asset operations to building the capabilities to manage them internally. Technology is only one part of that journey.”

As digital assets become a more established part of global brokerage operations, the firms that stand out may not be those that adopt new infrastructure first, but those that build the operational capabilities to make that infrastructure work.