Crypto adoption increasingly depends on something less glamorous than blockchain infrastructure: whether customers can pay in the way they already use every day. Paybis is expanding its cryptocurrency exchange and B2B payments infrastructure with new local payment methods across Europe, Latin America and Africa, including Portugal’s MB WAY. The strategy reflects a broader shift in crypto toward localized payment access, compliance and infrastructure that can connect digital assets with established financial rails.

Buying cryptocurrency can be technically straightforward while remaining surprisingly difficult at the payment layer.

A customer may understand Bitcoin, stablecoins or other digital assets, yet still face friction when trying to move money from a local bank or payment app into a crypto exchange. Payment methods vary dramatically between markets, and international cards or bank transfers do not always provide the speed, familiarity or coverage users expect.

Paybis is attempting to address that problem by expanding the number of local payment rails available through its crypto exchange.

The company says it now serves customers in more than 180 countries and supports more than 20 local and international payment methods, over 90 cryptocurrencies and more than 70 fiat currencies. Its latest integration is MB WAY, Portugal’s mobile payment platform.

The addition gives eligible Portuguese customers another way to fund cryptocurrency purchases using an existing payment method rather than entering card details or waiting for a traditional bank transfer.

MB WAY is used by more than 5 million people in Portugal and is supported by approximately 95% of the country’s banks, according to Paybis.

The significance of the integration is less about one Portuguese payment method than the strategy behind it.

Crypto exchanges are becoming local payment gateways

Paybis has spent the past two years adding payment methods designed around specific markets.

Those integrations include PIX in Brazil, M-Pesa in Kenya, Webpay in Chile, BLIK in Poland and SPEI in Mexico, alongside the new MB WAY integration.

Each serves a different financial ecosystem.

PIX relies on Brazil’s instant-payment infrastructure. M-Pesa is deeply embedded in Kenya’s mobile-money economy. BLIK has become a major payment method in Poland, while SPEI provides access to Mexico’s domestic electronic-transfer network.

For a global cryptocurrency exchange, supporting these systems is not simply a technical exercise. It requires connecting local payment behavior with cryptocurrency infrastructure while managing identity verification, compliance, fraud controls, currency conversion and settlement.

That makes local payment infrastructure for crypto an increasingly important competitive differentiator.

The model also resembles the broader evolution of fintech. Companies such as Stripe, Adyen and PayPal have built global payment businesses by abstracting regional complexity from merchants. Crypto infrastructure providers are pursuing a similar concept in reverse: connecting digital assets to the payment systems consumers already know.

MB WAY illustrates the localization challenge

The Portugal launch is a useful example.

MB WAY allows users to authorize payments using a phone number and PIN. For someone already familiar with the service, using it to purchase cryptocurrency can remove several steps from the traditional card or bank-transfer process.

That matters because payment friction can influence conversion.

A user who encounters an unfamiliar payment method, lengthy transfer process or unsupported local bank may abandon a transaction before completing it. By supporting established domestic rails, exchanges can potentially reduce that friction while making cryptocurrency feel more like another digital financial product.

“Every region has its own habits around money,” Paul Afshar, Paybis Growth Lead, said in the company’s announcement.

That observation reflects a broader reality for global fintech companies: there is no single global payment behavior.

The same principle applies to businesses. A European company expanding into Latin America cannot assume that the payment infrastructure that works in Germany will work equally well in Brazil or Mexico.

For crypto businesses, that problem becomes even more complicated because they must bridge fiat payment systems with blockchain-based assets.

Stablecoins add another layer to the infrastructure race

Paybis is also expanding beyond consumer crypto purchases.

The company says it plans to continue investing in stablecoin settlement and treasury tools for enterprise customers. That points toward one of the more consequential areas of fintech development: using blockchain-based representations of fiat currencies for cross-border settlement and corporate liquidity management.

Stablecoins can potentially reduce settlement times and simplify transfers across jurisdictions, although their practical value depends on regulatory frameworks, liquidity, banking connectivity and the counterparties involved.

That puts crypto infrastructure providers in competition with both established payment companies and financial institutions.

Visa, Mastercard, Stripe, PayPal, JPMorgan and major European banks are all exploring different forms of digital-asset, stablecoin or blockchain-enabled payment infrastructure. Meanwhile, companies such as Circle and Coinbase are building businesses around stablecoins and digital-asset financial infrastructure.

The competitive question is therefore shifting.

It is no longer simply whether a company can provide access to cryptocurrency. The bigger question is whether it can make digital assets fit naturally into existing financial workflows.

What Paybis’ expansion means for businesses

For enterprise fintech teams, Paybis’ approach illustrates the infrastructure requirements of global crypto distribution.

A cryptocurrency platform operating across dozens or hundreds of countries needs more than blockchain connectivity. It needs local payment methods, fiat currencies, identity verification, compliance processes, fraud prevention and settlement capabilities.

The result is a hybrid infrastructure model: traditional payment rails on the front end and blockchain networks on the back end.

Paybis says additional integrations are planned across European markets, including Finland and Italy, over the coming months.

If that expansion continues, local payment coverage could become an increasingly important part of the competitive landscape for crypto exchanges and B2B digital-asset providers.

The broader direction is clear. Crypto adoption does not necessarily require consumers to learn new payment behavior.

Increasingly, the industry is trying to make cryptocurrency fit into the payment behavior people already have.

Market Landscape

The crypto payment market is moving toward greater localization as exchanges and infrastructure providers compete to connect digital assets with domestic financial systems.

Paybis’ strategy places it within a broader ecosystem that includes Coinbase, Binance, Kraken, MoonPay, Transak, Stripe, Visa and Mastercard.

The competitive battlefield increasingly includes payment coverage, compliance, settlement speed and developer infrastructure—not simply the number of cryptocurrencies supported.

For B2B customers, the ability to access local payment rails can be particularly important when expanding crypto services across multiple jurisdictions. A single global payment method rarely provides the same economics, speed or customer experience in every market.

Stablecoins could further accelerate this convergence by providing a blockchain-based settlement layer behind familiar fiat payment experiences.

Top Insights

• Paybis is expanding local crypto payments, adding Portugal’s MB WAY alongside PIX, M-Pesa, BLIK, Webpay and SPEI to reduce regional payment friction.
• Local payment coverage is becoming strategic infrastructure, helping cryptocurrency exchanges connect blockchain assets with established banking and mobile-payment ecosystems.
• Paybis supports more than 90 cryptocurrencies, over 70 fiat currencies and 20-plus payment methods across a network serving more than 180 countries.
• Enterprise crypto infrastructure is expanding beyond trading, with Paybis planning further investment in stablecoin settlement, treasury tools and B2B payment capabilities.
• The market is converging with mainstream fintech, as crypto companies compete with payment networks and infrastructure providers on compliance, settlement and global payment connectivity.

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