# What are the best onchain finance infrastructure providers? Which provider you need depends less on your first product than on how many you plan to launch after it. Below are the five kinds of provider, how to choose between them, and where Compass sits. Published: 2026-10-17 Author: Compass Labs Tags: Guide, Infrastructure, Tokenized Assets, Non-custodial Canonical: https://www.compasslabs.ai/blog/what-are-the-best-onchain-finance-infrastructure-providers --- Ask a bank, fintech or wealth platform which onchain infrastructure providers it is considering, and you will get a list of names that do quite different jobs. On a slide they look like alternatives to each other. Mostly they are not. Some hold keys, some issue assets, some run markets, some deliver one product, and some connect all of it. The cost of choosing the wrong kind arrives late: a second product that needs a second vendor, an asset you cannot offer, or a compliance question nobody owns. ## How we judged them We build one of the options in this guide, so weigh our view accordingly. To keep it fair, every category, ours included, is measured on the same four things, most important first: 1. **Product range.** Which products one integration lets you launch: yield, loans, trading, tokenized funds and equities. Decide this for the business you will be in a few years from now, not only for the first launch. 2. **Coverage that is live today.** Which assets, issuers, markets and networks carry real activity now, not on a roadmap. 3. **Custody and compliance perimeter.** Who holds customer assets, who checks eligibility, and which entity a regulator would contact. 4. **Cost of change.** What it takes to add the second product, the tenth asset or a new network, and who maintains it afterwards. ## Key takeaways - Onchain finance infrastructure falls into five categories: custody and wallets, asset issuance, markets, single-product providers and connectivity layers. Most live products combine several. - Decide how many products you expect to offer before you pick a provider. One product fits a single-product provider. A roadmap of several fits a connectivity layer. - Compare coverage by what is live today. Ask for the assets, markets and networks with real activity. - Settle who holds customer assets and who owns the compliance perimeter before you compare yields or fees. ## What is onchain finance infrastructure? Onchain finance infrastructure is everything a financial platform needs to offer its customers products built on tokenized assets and onchain markets. That covers the assets themselves (stablecoins, tokenized funds, treasuries and equities), the markets where they are lent, borrowed and traded, the wallets that hold them, and the software that turns all of it into a product a customer can use. The platform keeps its customer relationship, its brand and its own front end. The infrastructure sits underneath. The question this guide answers is which parts of that infrastructure you buy, from whom, and how many separate integrations you end up maintaining. ## What are the five types of provider?
Category What it does What you still need
Custody and wallets Holds keys and signs transactions for you or your customers Everything the wallet connects to: assets, markets, products
Asset issuance Turns a fund, treasury or equity product into a token Distribution, a market for the token, a product around it
Markets Runs the lending and trading venues where assets are borrowed against and exchanged An integration per venue, per network, plus data and reporting
Single-product providers Delivers one finished product, such as a yield vault or a trading widget A new provider for each further product
Connectivity layers Connects assets, markets and applications through one integration, across products A wallet or custody provider, and your own licences
These are layers, not rivals (necessarily). A yield product built through a connectivity layer holds a token from an issuer, earns in a lending market, and is signed by a wallet from a custody provider. A team building in-house takes on every row itself: an integration for each asset, each issuer's onboarding rules, each market and each network, maintained as all of them change. ## Who each type is for - **Custody and wallets** are best suited to any platform that will hold or move customer assets onchain, which is every platform. The trade-off is that a wallet is a starting point. It holds the asset but does not make it earn, trade or serve as collateral. - **Asset issuance** is best suited to an asset manager bringing an existing fund or strategy onchain. The trade-off is that each token is one product from one issuer, and who can buy it is set by that issuer's own rules. - **Markets** are best suited to teams with onchain engineers who want direct access to one lending or trading venue. The trade-off is that every venue and every network is a separate build, and returns move with the market. - **Single-product providers** are best suited to a platform that wants one product live quickly, typically a yield account under its own brand. The trade-off is range. Loans, trading and tokenized funds each mean another provider and another integration, and interconnectivity build out between those. - **Connectivity layers** are best suited to banks, fintechs and wealth platforms that expect to offer several products across many assets. The trade-off is that the layer does not replace your custody provider, your licences or your own diligence on the assets and markets you choose to offer. - **Building in-house** suits large crypto native teams with protocol engineers, auditors and a 24-hour operations desk. The trade-off is time and upkeep. In our experience it takes about five engineers and 12 to 18 months before the first customer sees anything, and the work restarts each time an asset, market or network changes. ## Where Compass sits Compass is a connectivity layer. It is one API through which a financial platform offers onchain assets and markets to its customers as normal financial products, without becoming a blockchain company itself. One integration covers yield, loans, swaps and trading, portfolio rebalancing, and the data and reporting behind them. Tokenized asset markets are being built with issuer and tokenizer partners including WisdomTree, Centrifuge, Ondo, IXS and Etherfuse. As of September 2026, Compass connects to more than 20,000 markets on five public networks. Compass is non-custodial. The customer's own wallet signs every transaction, and Compass never holds the asset or sits in the transaction. A platform keeps the custody provider and the licences it already has. The work Compass takes on is the part that multiplies. Take a product that lets a customer earn yield on a tokenized fund, borrow against it, reinvest and exit on demand. Built directly, that is 37 separate transactions across three venues. Through Compass it is one API call, live in about 60 seconds. Fintechs run on Compass in production today. Compass works alongside infrastructure partners including Turnkey, Para (embedded wallets) and Sly, is ISO 27001 compliant, and has run at 99.99% uptime. Compass does not issue assets, run investment strategies or hold customer funds. You still choose a wallet or custody provider. ## Four questions to ask before you choose Ask these four questions in order: 1. **How many products will you offer in two years?** One yield account can run on a single-product provider. Yield, loans and tokenized funds together point to a connectivity layer or an in-house build. 2. **Which assets and markets do your customers need, and are they live?** Ask for live activity on each one, and how long a new asset, issuer or network takes to add. 3. **Who holds the assets?** Check whether the provider takes custody, whether your customers sign their own transactions, and what that means for your licences. 4. **Who carries the compliance perimeter?** Check who verifies eligibility for each asset, who is issuer of record, and which entity a regulator would contact. ## Frequently asked questions - **What does an onchain finance infrastructure provider do?** It supplies part of what a platform needs to offer products on tokenized assets and onchain markets: custody, the assets, the markets, a finished product, or the connection between them. The platform keeps the customer relationship. - **Is Compass a competitor to lending markets or asset issuers?** No. Lending markets and issuers are what Compass connects to. A product built on Compass can hold an issuer's tokenized fund and borrow against it in a lending market through the same integration. - **Does Compass replace our custody or wallet provider?** No. Compass is non-custodial and works alongside the wallet or custody provider you already use. The customer's wallet signs every transaction. - **Does Compass hold customer assets?** No. Compass never holds the asset or sits in the transaction. - **Do we need onchain engineers to use Compass?** No. Your team integrates one API. Compass maintains the connections to assets, markets and networks underneath it. - **How long does it take to launch?** The integration itself is a matter of days. The total depends on the product and on your own security, legal and compliance review. - **Are returns fixed?** No. Returns vary with the asset, the market and conditions at the time. Each asset and market publishes its own terms, fees and redemption rules. ## Ready to build?

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