White-Label Payment Gateway for CEX: Accelerate Time-to-Market

It is realistic to launch an exchange and immediately accept cards and SEPA transfers if you use a ready-made payment solution (white-label). The service works under your brand and takes care of security, currency exchange, and instant payments. Today, we will tell you how to save months of development without hiring extra staff.

What is a payment gateway for CEX?

CEX (сentralized exchange) is a centralized cryptocurrency exchange that works through an intermediary (operator company). Unlike DEX (decentralized exchanges), CEX stores user funds in its accounts and controls all transactions.

Payment gateway CEX is a technological solution that accepts and processes payments from users, eliminating the need to create your own payment system from scratch. In total, it has 3 main functions:

• accepting card or bank data;
• encrypting sensitive card or bank data, applying tokenization, and ensuring PCI DSS compliance;
• routing the payment to the acquiring bank via the cheapest channel.

After payment confirmation, the gateway fixes the amount in fiat, simultaneously buys the equivalent in USDT or USDC on the exchange, and credits tokens to the user’s account even before the block appears. Users’ money turns into cryptocurrency in 3-4 seconds and is immediately available for trading.

The payment gateway automatically sends notifications about payment status, checks transactions for compliance with international financial standards, and keeps secure logs for auditing. It can be connected in two ways: as a cloud service via standard APIs or as a separate module in your infrastructure — it all depends on your technical requirements.

Interesting fact: The total value of digital payment transactions is projected to reach nearly $38.07 trillion by 2030 (as per Statista’s research), underscoring the increasing need for dependable and scalable payment gateway solutions.

Why choose a ready-made payment gateway solution?

Using a ready-made white-label payment gateway enables you to enter the market faster, as the provider already has all certificates and bank connections in place. Integration with automatic BIN (bank identification number) routing provides access to multiple PSPs (payment service providers) simultaneously, and built-in chargeback and refund processing mechanisms operate without additional programming.

Binance, a leading global exchange platform, was able to reduce the development time of its fiat interface from four months to six weeks by directly integrating an off-the-shelf module.

Off-the-shelf white label gateway solutions offer flexible SLAs (service level agreements), including 99.99% uptime and 24/7 shift-on-call tech support. After each upgrade, the system automatically runs smoke tests in a sandbox environment to eliminate errors in the AVS and 3-DS processes. 

In addition, built-in analytics automatically collect data on failed transactions and pass it to BI systems (business intelligence systems like Tableau, Power BI, Looker) via a REST API, eliminating the need to export CSV files manually.

The advanced payment gateway supports multi-currency and multi-jurisdictional operations: adding new currencies or regulatory requirements for the EU, UK, and US takes just a few clicks in the control panel, with no code changes. 

All business logic is placed in separate services and deployed via Helm and Argo CD, ensuring seamless updates and maintenance. Thanks to the modular architecture, teams can implement their limits and risk scripts without DevOps involvement.

The Adaptive solutions module allows for extending the functionality of the white label payment gateways, such as adding QR deposits for events or SDKs for mobile wallets. The enhanced CEX payment processing scheme supports both bank rails and OTC (over-the-counter) transactions within a single cluster.

How white label gateway accelerates CEX startup by 10x

White label payment gateway for CEX platforms combines smart payment routing, instant FX (foreign exchange) and synchronized transaction accounting — all packaged in a container that is deployed with a single helm-release command. All modules are already PCI certified, so your compliance team won’t have to waste time on lengthy reviews.

The technical documentation includes PSP connection diagrams, risk management rules, and webhook notification formats, so integrating with Kafka or RabbitMQ will take no more than one sprint. 

If you need to add a new coin on the same day, just change the YAML config and run the deploy via Argo CD. Everything works quickly and without unnecessary complexity.

Accelerating your exchange launch

The white-label payment gateway integration is done in just a few steps, allowing you to focus on frontend development rather than setting up a complex infrastructure. The solution is immediately ready to go and includes everything you need:

• TypeScript, Node.js, Nest.js for backend development;
• TradingView advanced charting tools;
• CI (Continuous Integration) / CD pipelines (Continuous Delivery/Deployment);
• Container scaling and service management;
• Payment sandbox for testing card verification, 3-DS (Secure), and failed transactions.

Our white label payment gateway, offered at Peiko, simplifies payment integration. Drop-in SDK takes care of all the hard work — signing requests, processing responses, and validating data. 

The white-label solution combines traditional acquiring and OTC channels into a single interface. Pre-configured Helm charts with Kubernetes manifests facilitate the deployment of the entire system. They automatically generate TLS certificates and configure HSMs (hardware security modules), allowing for the addition of new endpoints in minutes.

For testing, there is a full-fledged sandbox with emulation of all possible scenarios: AVS verification, passing 3-DS, and recovery of interrupted payments. There is no need to connect real banks — everything is tested in an isolated environment.

System updates are smooth thanks to CI/CD based on Argo CD. Adding new currencies or payment service providers is done by simply editing YAML configurations — no service restart is required.

The cluster with white label payment gateway demonstrates excellent performance: up to 3,000 RPS (requests per second) with p95 latency of less than 150 ms. 

Ensuring security and compliance

Our whitelabel payment gateway is built on security: from the outset, all personal information (PII) is automatically tokenized and encrypted in accordance with the PCI DSS standard. 

Access to admin panels is protected by two-factor authentication (2FA), and keys are stored in the HSM — no leaks are possible. Data is transmitted only via TLS 1.3, and the payment system does not store card data on the exchange’s disks at all, minimizing risks.

All events are logged: webhooks via the Web portal send data on each access attempt to the SIEM system for round-the-clock monitoring. After successful authorization, the transaction is checked in accordance with FATF (Financial Action Task Force) rules and analyzed for anomalies — this helps block fraudulent transfers before they are completed.

Key requirements of FATF include:

• Verifying customer identity (KYC) and ultimate beneficial ownership (UBO)
• Monitoring transactions and reporting suspicious activity to authorities
• Maintaining records, applying sanctions, and screening high-risk entities like PEPs

Security is constantly improving: embedded scripts update libraries monthly, closing vulnerabilities, and the monitoring system in the payment gateway CEX works stably even under a load of over 10,000 RPS. This means that protection will not fail at the most crucial moment.

Interesting fact: According to IBM research, the average value of data outflow in financial services is $4.88 million, emphasizing the importance of proactive protection. 

How to get started

To quickly integrate our CEX cryptocurrency payment gateway, first register a technical representative to get API keys and sandbox access. 

In case you are dealing with the white-label solution, our team will arrange all infrastructure on your behalf (from installing SDKs and PCI DSS configuration to HSM security and sandbox setup). You can focus entirely on the frontend and customer experience.

But if you’re integrating an open SDK or building a custom implementation, follow these technical steps:

1. Environment initialization Run the cexgw init command — this will create the base configuration and store the keys locally.
2. SDK and CLI installation Conduct SDK and CLI installation to integrate payment functionality into your frontend or backend apps.
3. Documentation studying In the web interface, you will find all the necessary instructions on how to work with the API and how to configure the webhook.
4. Sandbox testing Test transactions with AVS, 3-DS, and chargeback emulation — it will help to avoid errors in production.
5. Security testing Go through the PCI DSS self-assessment via the web assistant and configure AML/KYC according to international requirements.
6. HSM configuration Configure hashing settings in your hardware security module to ensure secure storage of cryptographic keys.
7. Launch in production Deploy the solution with the helm upgrade command in your Kubernetes cluster.

Before moving the system into production, you need to review your integration dashboard or management console for ready-made examples of payment flow customization and webhook endpoint configurations. 

Reminder: White-label clients don’t need to follow all these steps manually. Everything is pre-configured and ready to launch with your brand.

Your exchange could already be accepting payments: Why not yet?

By implementing the CEX payment gateway, you get a turnkey solution that allows you to get your exchange up and running in just a few weeks, thereby avoiding the risks and high costs associated with setting up your own payment infrastructure. With automated AML/KYC checks and regular security updates, your CEX cryptocurrency payment gateway will reliably process both fiat payments and cryptocurrency transactions without disruption.

Integration is made as simple as possible: with CLI, SDK, and Helm, everything is configured with literally a few commands in CI/CD. After passing the PCI DSS self-assessment, deployment of the white label gateway in your Kubernetes cluster is just a click away.

By choosing a ready-made payment gateway, you save time and resources, allowing you to focus on developing your trading platform rather than on technical nuances. All complex processes are automated, security is under control, and scaling requires no additional effort.

We already have a CEX development solution ready for you with a robust payment gateway that will provide secure, seamless, and scalable transactions. Contact us to go live in as little as 3 weeks. By the way, we can customize this templated CEX platform even more to your request. 

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