Onramp vs Strike: An Honest Comparison for Bitcoin Holders

Onramp and Strike both let you buy and hold Bitcoin in the United States, and both are Bitcoin-native rather than multi-asset. But they are built for fundamentally different holders. Strike is a payments-first platform built around the Lightning Network, global remittances, simple DCA, and Bitcoin-backed loans. Onramp is a Bitcoin-only financial platform built on a Multi-Institution Custody foundation, spanning custody, brokerage, an earn account, the Onramp Card, Bitcoin-backed loans through Arch Lending, an optional Bitcoin IRA, integrated inheritance, and the Onramp Terminal, structured across three tiers that begin with a free Finance account and scale to institutional-grade custody. Here is how they actually compare.

Key Takeaways:

• Strike is a Bitcoin-native payments platform with best-in-class Lightning Network integration, Send Globally for international remittances, competitive DCA pricing, and Bitcoin-backed loans. Strike is optimized for using Bitcoin as a payment rail and accumulating it efficiently. Strike does not offer a Bitcoin IRA, a research and data terminal, an earn account, integrated inheritance planning, or Multi-Institution Custody.
• Onramp is a Bitcoin-only financial platform built on a custody foundation it has operated since 2023. It spans three tiers: a free Finance account ($0/month) with Bitcoin brokerage at 0.85%, an earn account paying up to 3% (Onramp-funded rewards, not interest), the Onramp Card with 0.5% Bitcoin cash-back, Bitcoin-backed loans through Arch Lending, custody at BitGo Trust with Lloyd's of London insurance, and the Onramp Terminal; Onramp Core ($250/month), which adds Multi-Institution Custody, an included Bitcoin IRA, integrated inheritance, individual-vault Proof of Reserves, and Lloyd's coverage up to $100 million per incident; and Onramp Private, which adds dedicated account management and Virtual Family Office access. You enter free, and the platform scales with your position.
• The custody philosophies differ. Strike is a single custodian that encourages holders to auto-withdraw Bitcoin to their own self-custody wallet, which is a legitimate and Bitcoin-native answer. Onramp offers Multi-Institution Custody as a service through Onramp Core, where three independent regulated institutions each hold one key in a 2-of-3 architecture and the client bears no key-management burden. Strike's answer to custody risk is self-custody. Onramp's is institutional distributed custody without becoming your own bank.
• The right platform depends on how you use Bitcoin. If your Bitcoin life is centered on payments, Lightning, and remittances, Strike is the more native fit. For a platform built to custody and grow a Bitcoin position over decades, with a defined path from a free account to institutional-grade custody, an included IRA, and inheritance, Onramp is the more appropriate choice. The two platforms are not competing on the same dimension.

The Fundamental Difference

Strike and Onramp are both Bitcoin-native, which puts them in the same broad camp. They diverge on what Bitcoin is primarily for. Strike treats Bitcoin as something you use: a payment rail, a remittance network, a medium of exchange over Lightning. Onramp treats Bitcoin as something you hold and grow: a long-term savings asset with a financial services suite built around accumulating and protecting it.

Strike's product roadmap, engineering attention, and design all reflect a payments-first orientation. The Lightning integration, Send Globally, and low-fee DCA are the value proposition for holders who want to move and accumulate Bitcoin efficiently. A serious Strike user who wants tax-advantaged Bitcoin exposure, a research and data platform, integrated inheritance planning, or institutional-grade custody typically ends up running additional services alongside Strike.

Onramp was built on a custody foundation it has operated since 2023. The brokerage, the earn account, the Onramp Card, the loans through Arch Lending, the Onramp Terminal, and the tier structure that runs from a free Finance account up to Multi-Institution Custody at Onramp Core are all designed to serve a holder whose Bitcoin position is the center of the financial relationship. Onramp meets you at a free tier that matches Strike on buying and holding Bitcoin, and then it does not stop: Core adds Multi-Institution Custody, an included IRA, and inheritance, and Private adds a family office.

The strategic distinction matters. Strike is built payments-first and treats custody as a function of the app, encouraging self-custody as the destination. Onramp is built custody-first, with Multi-Institution Custody operated since 2023 and the financial services layered on top. Both models are legitimate. They produce two different products for two different kinds of Bitcoin activity.

Strike at a Glance

Strike is a Bitcoin-native financial app built around the Lightning Network. Founded by Jack Mallers, Strike gained prominence through its role in Bitcoin adoption in El Salvador and its focus on making Bitcoin usable as a payment and remittance rail. Strike and its team have real credibility in the Bitcoin payments space.

Strike features as of 2026:

• Best-in-class Lightning Network integration, with over two million monthly Lightning transactions and low routing fees
• Send Globally: international remittances that route dollars to Bitcoin over Lightning and back to local currency, with active corridors including Mexico, the Philippines, Vietnam, and several African nations
• Competitive DCA pricing with low fees on recurring Bitcoin purchases
• Bitcoin buying, selling, and on-chain withdrawals, with auto-withdraw to push Bitcoin to a self-custody wallet you control
• Bitcoin-backed loans, centralized with no rehypothecation, tiered APR (from around 7.49% for the largest loans up to around 10.5% for smaller loans), backed by a Tether-supported credit facility, with lending Proof of Reserves published on a quarterly basis
• A Visa card for spending, in select markets

What Strike does not offer:

• No Bitcoin IRA
• No research and data terminal comparable to the Onramp Terminal
• No earn account with rewards comparable to Onramp's
• No integrated inheritance planning
• No Multi-Institution Custody (Strike is a single custodian; its answer to custody risk is to encourage self-custody via auto-withdraw)

Strike is a strong fit for holders whose Bitcoin activity is payments-centric: sending money internationally over Lightning, paying merchants, receiving payments, and accumulating Bitcoin efficiently through low-fee DCA. The Send Globally remittance product is genuinely differentiated, and Strike's Lightning integration is among the best in the industry. For holders who want Bitcoin specifically as a long-term position to custody, grow, borrow against, and pass on, the payments orientation and the single-custodian model are tradeoffs worth examining.

Onramp at a Glance

Onramp is a comprehensive Bitcoin financial platform structured across three tiers, all built on a custody foundation Onramp has operated since 2023. You enter through a free Finance account and the platform scales as your Bitcoin position grows.

The free entry point: Onramp Finance ($0/month). The Finance tier is free forever and consolidates the core of a Bitcoin financial life on one platform. This is the honest like-for-like against Strike on buying and holding Bitcoin:

• Bitcoin brokerage at 0.85% on one-time buys in all 50 US states, with limit orders, ACH funding, and zero-fee recurring buys for dollar-cost-averaging. Brokerage is also available internationally in many countries.
• Earn account paying up to 3% (Onramp-funded rewards from corporate revenue, eligibility tied to completing at least one bitcoin trade per month, not interest or yield). Earn rewards are not currently available to clients in New York, but a Finance account can still be opened there.
• The Onramp Card, a Visa debit card with 0.5% cash-back paid in dollars and convertible to Bitcoin in one click, accepted anywhere Visa is accepted
• Bitcoin-backed loans through Arch Lending, where Arch is the lender and holds the Bitcoin collateral with Anchorage, a regulated qualified custodian. Bitcoin-only collateral (Arch supports other digital assets but Onramp does not), up to 50% loan-to-value, fixed rates for the loan term, no rehypothecation, and an optional deferred interest payment structure where interest is paid at the end of the loan rather than monthly
• Custody at BitGo Trust, a regulated qualified custodian under South Dakota and New York trust banking law and one of the most established Bitcoin custodians in the United States, with Lloyd's of London insurance
• The Onramp Terminal: a Bitcoin-only research and data platform with thousands of interactive charts covering on-chain metrics, macro overlays, miner economics, ETF flows, and derivatives positioning, included free with every account
• Direct human client service through Onramp Client Services
• Bitcoin IRA available as a $100/month add-on at the Finance tier (custodied at BitGo Trust, the qualified custodian)

The custody upgrade: Onramp Core ($250/month). Core adds Multi-Institution Custody (MIC), where three independent regulated institutions (Onramp, BitGo Trust, and CoinCover) each hold one key in a 2-of-3 architecture. Transactions are initiated from the client's Onramp account, and two of three institutions work at the client's direction to execute. No single institution, including Onramp itself, can move client Bitcoin without the client's direction. Core also includes a Bitcoin IRA in a Multi-Institution Custody vault, integrated inheritance planning with a built-in beneficiary designation, Lloyd's of London coverage up to $100 million per incident, Guardian Plus security services, real-time Proof of Reserves at the individual vault level, brokerage at 0.65%, earn rewards up to 4%, and 1% Bitcoin cash-back on the Onramp Card.

The top tier: Onramp Private (0.04% of AUM per month). Private adds a dedicated account manager, reduced trading fees, Virtual Family Office access for estate and dynasty trust planning, brokerage at 0.32%, earn rewards up to 5%, and 1.5% Bitcoin cash-back.

The thesis: Bitcoin is savings, dollars are working capital. Onramp is built around a specific framing: dollars in the platform are working capital, not savings. They earn rewards, enable spending through the Onramp Card, facilitate borrowing through Arch Lending, and ultimately flow into Bitcoin accumulation. Bitcoin in custody is the savings account. Everything else is a tool to help clients accumulate more of it. Clients typically start on Finance and upgrade to Core when their Bitcoin position grows to the point where Multi-Institution Custody, an included IRA, integrated inheritance, and the higher-coverage Lloyd's policy matter more.

Payments and Lightning: Where Strike Leads

It is worth being clear about where Strike genuinely leads, because it is a real strength that Onramp does not try to replicate.

Strike owns the Bitcoin payments and Lightning use case. The Lightning integration is among the best in the industry, with millions of monthly transactions and low routing fees. Send Globally is a genuinely innovative remittance product: it routes dollars into Bitcoin over Lightning and out to local currency in the recipient's country, which makes international money transfer faster and cheaper than traditional remittance rails for the corridors it supports. For holders who send money internationally, pay merchants in Bitcoin, or use Bitcoin actively as a medium of exchange, Strike is the more native platform.

Onramp is not a payments platform. It is a wealth platform. Onramp's Bitcoin activity is oriented around holding, accumulating, borrowing against, and passing on a Bitcoin position, not around using Bitcoin as a day-to-day payment rail. For holders whose Bitcoin life includes meaningful payment activity, Strike is the better fit for that part of it, and the two products can be used together.

The Custody Foundation: Why It Matters

The strongest structural argument for Onramp over Strike is also the least obvious one. Onramp built its custody architecture first and added the financial services on top. Strike built a payments app and treats custody as a function of that app, encouraging self-custody as the destination. Both approaches to custody risk are legitimate, and the difference is philosophical.

Strike is a single custodian. Customer Bitcoin is held by Strike until the holder withdraws it. Strike's answer to single-custodian risk is to encourage holders to move Bitcoin off the platform into their own self-custody wallet, including through an auto-withdraw feature that automatically pushes accumulated Bitcoin to a wallet the holder controls. This is a legitimate and Bitcoin-native answer: the platform is a buying and payments rail, and long-term holdings belong in self-custody. The tradeoff is that it puts the operational responsibility of self-custody, meaning hardware, seed phrases, recovery, and inheritance, on the holder.

The free Onramp Finance tier is custodied at BitGo Trust, a regulated qualified custodian under South Dakota and New York trust banking law and one of the most established Bitcoin custodians in the United States. BitGo Trust holds Onramp Finance client Bitcoin in segregated structures with Lloyd's of London insurance. BitGo Trust is also one of the three independent keyholders in Onramp's Multi-Institution Custody architecture, which clients access through Onramp Core.

Onramp Core distributes key control across three independent regulated institutions. Onramp, BitGo Trust, and CoinCover each hold one key in a 2-of-3 architecture. Transactions are initiated from the client's Onramp account, and two of three institutions work at the client's direction to execute. No single institution, including Onramp itself, can move client Bitcoin without the client's direction. The client holds no keys and bears no key-management burden. The MIC architecture is backed by Lloyd's of London coverage up to $100 million per incident, segregated and client-titled vaults that are off Onramp's balance sheet and bankruptcy-remote, real-time Proof of Reserves at the individual vault level, and integrated inheritance planning.

The distinction is meaningful. Strike says: use us to buy and transact, then hold your Bitcoin yourself. Onramp says: hold your Bitcoin with us in a structure where no single institution can fail catastrophically, without the operational burden of self-custody. For holders who want the security benefits of distributed custody without becoming their own bank, Onramp's model is the more direct answer. For holders who prefer to self-custody their long-term position, Strike's auto-withdraw model supports that path, and Onramp does not disparage that choice.

Fees, Loans, and the Comprehensive Platform Argument

Strike can be competitive, and often cheaper, on the narrow question of buying Bitcoin. But that is not the only question Onramp is built to answer. Onramp is a comprehensive platform built for financial services that grow your Bitcoin wealth over time. Strike is a payments and accumulation app. Those are different products solving different problems.

Brokerage and DCA. Strike offers competitive DCA pricing on recurring purchases. Onramp's recurring buys are also zero-fee, so on pure dollar-cost-averaging the two are closely matched, and Onramp's one-time brokerage is 0.85% at Finance, dropping to 0.65% at Core and 0.32% at Private. The fee comparison is only part of the picture, because the free Finance tier is built to grow a Bitcoin position across more surfaces than buying alone.

Bitcoin-backed loans. This is a point of genuine overlap, and both products are now structurally similar. Strike's loans are centralized with no rehypothecation, tiered APR (roughly 7.49% to 10.5% by size), backed by a Tether-supported credit facility, with quarterly lending Proof of Reserves. Onramp's loans through Arch Lending are also centralized with no rehypothecation, with up to 50% loan-to-value, fixed rates for the term, and an optional deferred interest payment structure. The main difference is the counterparty: Strike's loans run through a Tether-supported credit facility, while Onramp's loans run through its Arch Lending partnership, where Arch is the lender and holds the Bitcoin collateral with Anchorage, a regulated qualified custodian, for the life of the loan, and it is not lent out. Both are centralized, no-rehypothecation products, and on the loan product specifically the two are closely comparable. The broader difference is the platform around the loan: Onramp adds the earn account, the Onramp Card, an optional Bitcoin IRA, the Onramp Terminal, and an upgrade path to Multi-Institution Custody for the main Bitcoin position.

The earn account and the Onramp Card. Strike does not offer an earn account with rewards or a Bitcoin cash-back card comparable to Onramp's. Onramp pays up to 3% Onramp-funded rewards at Finance (scaling to 4% at Core, 5% at Private) and 0.5% Bitcoin cash-back on the Onramp Card (scaling to 1% at Core, 1.5% at Private). Those are ongoing accumulation surfaces that grow a Bitcoin position over time, which Strike does not match.

The fuller picture. Onramp is built to grow a Bitcoin position across multiple surfaces, including brokerage, earn, the Onramp Card, Arch loans, an optional IRA, the Onramp Terminal research, and Multi-Institution Custody at Core. Strike is optimized for payments, Lightning, remittances, and efficient accumulation. The two platforms are not competing on the same surface area, which is why a per-trade fee comparison only captures part of the picture.

Financial Services: IRA, Inheritance, Research

This is where Onramp and Strike diverge most dramatically.

Bitcoin IRA. Strike does not offer a Bitcoin IRA. Holders who want tax-advantaged Bitcoin exposure have to use a separate provider. Onramp offers Bitcoin IRAs in Traditional, Roth, SEP, and Solo 401(k) structures: as a $100/month add-on at the free Finance tier (custodied at BitGo Trust), or included in the monthly fee at Onramp Core (custodied using Multi-Institution Custody). Onramp Core is the only platform combining a tax-advantaged Bitcoin retirement account with Multi-Institution Custody architecture.

Inheritance planning. Strike does not offer integrated inheritance planning. Bitcoin held on Strike passes through the account holder's estate, and Bitcoin auto-withdrawn to self-custody passes according to whatever inheritance plan the holder has set up for their own wallet, which requires heirs to be able to manage keys. Onramp Core includes integrated inheritance planning where you designate a beneficiary at account setup and the heir presents a death certificate at the time of transfer, with the Multi-Institution Custody architecture operating in the background and no hardware wallets or seed phrases for the heir to learn. For families where the primary beneficiary is a non-technical spouse or adult child, the institutional handoff is one of the largest practical reasons holders upgrade to Onramp Core.

Research and data. Strike provides basic price and account information. Onramp includes the Onramp Terminal at no additional cost, at every tier including free Finance: a Bitcoin-only research and data platform with thousands of interactive charts covering on-chain metrics, macro overlays, miner economics, ETF flows, and derivatives positioning. For holders who track Bitcoin actively, the Terminal replaces a separate paid data subscription that would otherwise run hundreds of dollars per month at comparable institutional research platforms.

When to Choose Each

Strike is the right answer for holders whose Bitcoin activity is payments-centric. If you send money internationally over Lightning, pay merchants in Bitcoin, use Bitcoin actively as a medium of exchange, or want the most efficient low-fee DCA on-ramp with a clean path to self-custody, Strike is the more native platform. The Send Globally remittance product and the Lightning integration are genuinely best-in-class.

Onramp is the right answer for holders whose focus is Bitcoin specifically and who want a platform built to grow their Bitcoin wealth. You enter through the free Finance tier, which matches Strike on buying and consolidates brokerage at 0.85%, an earn account, the Onramp Card with Bitcoin cash-back, Bitcoin-backed loans through Arch Lending, an optional Bitcoin IRA, the Onramp Terminal research platform, and qualified-custodian custody on a single platform. As the position grows, the platform scales to Multi-Institution Custody, an included IRA, and integrated inheritance at Onramp Core, and to dedicated management and a Virtual Family Office at Onramp Private. Onramp built its custody foundation first and has operated Multi-Institution Custody continuously since 2023. For holders who want institutional-grade custody without becoming their own bank, and inheritance planning that does not require heirs to manage keys, Onramp is the more comprehensive platform.

For many holders, the two products are not strictly mutually exclusive. Using Strike for Bitcoin payments, Lightning, and remittances while holding and growing the bulk of a serious Bitcoin position at Onramp (entering through the free Finance tier and upgrading into Core as the position warrants) is a reasonable pattern. Each platform serves a part of the Bitcoin life the other does not.

For Onramp's broader framework on Bitcoin custody architecture, see The Proof of Reserves Illusion. For a head-to-head between Onramp Core and spot Bitcoin ETFs, see Onramp vs Bitcoin ETFs.

Disclosures

Onramp Earn rewards are discretionary marketing incentives from Onramp's corporate revenue. Not interest, yield, or a return on your balance. Requires active platform engagement including at least one bitcoin trade per month. Rewards may change or end at any time. USDB is not FDIC insured; stablecoin risk applies. Bitcoin is volatile and may lose value. Onramp is not a bank. Past performance does not guarantee future results.