Ana Schultz, COO of FinchPay: “Speed, trust and user experience drive crypto betting payments”
The iGaming sector is rapidly embracing crypto payments to meet players’ demands for instant, frictionless top-ups during live events. In this exclusive SiGMA News interview, Ana Schultz, COO of FinchPay, shares insights on how the industry is transforming deposits, mastering global compliance, and leveraging tech innovations to accelerate crypto adoption across betting platforms.
How does FinchPay help online casinos build infrastructure for easy crypto payments?
In live sports betting, where split-second top-ups are essential mid-game, the iGaming industry is prioritising infrastructure that handles 200+ cryptocurrencies, static addresses, and accelerated confirmations, even for slow networks like Bitcoin.
When asked how FinchPay, a VASP specialising in fast fiat-crypto swaps, helps online casinos build infrastructure for easy crypto payments, Ana Schultz highlights seamless integration and speed: ”We help casinos accept more than 200 different cryptocurrencies as player deposits. They can convert them to USDT, which is a stablecoin, in order not to lose any funds in the market fluctuation of different altcoins.
We focus a lot on the user experience, because casinos are putting all of their efforts into making users stay and retain them. They provide convenient top-up methods, still mostly classic payment options like cards. Crypto is not that popular, but it’s getting there. We provide static addresses for users to whitelist and send money straight ahead, skipping transaction creation on the merchant side.
In addition, we process user mistakes if they send the wrong asset or wrong blockchain, to the extent that we can automate it instead of issuing refunds. We keep minimum deposit amounts very low while maintaining cost efficiency, scalability, and fast transaction execution. Especially for betting users who need to deposit quickly when the game is going on, it’s possible, even for Bitcoin and Ethereum, we have our ways around how to skip the wait.”
Key risks facing crypto payment providers: compliance essentials
Strong frameworks transform regulation into a trust advantage by striking a balance between security and conversion rates. Crypto payments for betting span continents, creating compliance minefields from Asia’s risk systems to Europe’s MiCA.
SiGMA News asked about risk and compliance priorities for crypto payment providers, Ana Schultz explains: ”The easiest answer would be just to stay compliant with regulations. But then the question is, with what regulations? Here in Europe, we have MiCA, but most casino brands target more than one region. You can be compliant in MiCA and totally not compliant in Asia, Japan or South Korea. It’s a challenge to get exposed in a positive way as a trusted crypto service globally to multiple jurisdictions. Recently, we faced the challenge of marking our addresses in risk scoring systems, so centralised exchanges in Asia see them as trusted wallets. In Europe, our addresses are known, and exchanges are happy to work with us. But when regulations change in different regions, you face the difficulty of being compliant globally.
Strong compliance is a competitive edge; the safer you are, the more users you earn. But regulations and compliance are killing the conversion rate. Compliance teams must understand the different risk layers within crypto. Processing crypto from a sanctioned country and from a hacked exchange have completely different consequences. It takes years to build your own risk score framework and risk appetite. Casinos rely on us as the experts in this industry. We aim for the right balance between compliance and retaining a good acceptance rate.”
From memo chaos to seamless TON: 2025 solved it
When asked about 2025’s major payment developments, Ana Schultz points to contract deposits and memo-free Tron transfers that delivered MENA’s 6% conversion boost through elegant simplicity: many crypto companies, not only processing companies but assets development, wallets and exchanges, are making big steps to crypto adoption to engage more users in the Web3 world.
”We implemented features that helped increase the conversion rate noticeably, like automatic processing of contract deposits. When you send funds with logic implemented, like to 10 of your friends and pay the network fee just once. There’s positive and malicious logic, but for Tron and Ethereum networks, we learned how to do that. The MENA region uses this a lot; we increased conversion by 6% there.
Also, processing user mistakes and removing unnecessary steps, like asking for the memo. In the CIS region, they use Telegram wallet a lot; the most popular is TON. Many services require the memo and users forget, so deposits get lost. Merchants came to us asking if we needed the memo for Tron deposits. We said no, and it was a sales point. Small steps towards crypto adoption can have a significant impact on casino traffic.”
Small bets, big wins: 2026’s 60% cheaper crypto era
As we enter 2026, Tron’s promised 60% fee reduction could tip the scales for small betting deposits, making crypto cheaper than cards and unlocking revenue for high-volume iGaming operators.
Ana is excited by Tron’s potential 60% fee cut that could make small betting deposits more affordable than cards. “A couple of months ago, Tron blockchain developers announced they would try their best to reduce network fees at least by 60%. Tron is the most expensive because it’s most popular right now.
Decreasing network fees will have a positive effect on the revenue of casino operators and high-risk businesses, and engage more people to send USDT on Tron. For small amounts, users still prefer cards because they’re not getting charged much. But to send USDT on Tron, they pay $4 or $4.5 just to execute a single transaction. We’re looking forward to this fee reduction very much.”
From 2025’s UX breakthroughs to 2026’s fee revolution, Ana Schultz maps iGaming’s crypto ascent. Betting payments have entered their Web3 era, faster, smarter, globally compatible.
This article was first published in Spanish on 18 February 2026.
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