Two ways to do it yourself. Both land on you.
Whether you build the whole stack or stitch point providers together, custody, licensing, and compliance stay your problem. The figures below are typical for standing up global money movement in-house.
Assemble the stack yourself
- —18+ months before you move a dollar.
- —$2M+ and 8–12 vendors to stand up.
- —Licensing and compliance liability stays on you.
- —Months to build a counterparty network, plus ongoing overhead to maintain it.
Stitch point providers together
- —5+ partners just for the basics: payments, compliance, wallets.
- —Custody, licensing, and compliance liability still land on you.
- —Months to integrate and clear compliance before moving a dollar.
- —You rebuild from scratch as money goes agent-operated.
The same capability, side by side.
Figures are typical for standing up global money movement in-house.
One regulated platform for the full loop.
The same capability an in-house build takes months to reach, exposed as programmable primitives you compose.
One integration, the whole loop
Payments, custody, issuance, FX, and cards behind a single API. No assembling banking, blockchain, custody, and compliance separately.
Compliance built in, not bolted on
KYB, AML, sanctions, and transaction monitoring run as platform primitives. Your compliance lead signs off on one system, not a separate vendor.
Live in a fraction of the time
Self-serve onboarding and fast KYB replace an 18-month build cycle. KYB for ICP-fit teams clears in about 24 hours.
Global from day one
130+ jurisdictions and multi-rail coverage through one integration, instead of a country-by-country buildout.
Built for what's next
As money goes agent-operated, you build on primitives designed for it, not a stack you have to rebuild.
“Our experience with Dakota has already exceeded our expectations: fast setup, transparent operations, and a team that genuinely cares about getting things right. It's exactly the kind of infrastructure partner we want as we scale HEVN globally.”
Questions from the build-vs-buy call.
You keep flexibility where it matters, your product and your customer experience, without owning banking partnerships, custody, licensing, and compliance. Dakota exposes the full loop as programmable primitives, so you compose what you need instead of maintaining the plumbing.