Gizmolab Research · The Stack

The Gizmolab Neobank Stack

Eight layers, one product. Everything you need to ship a crypto neobank — from the app a human taps through to the stablecoin rails that actually settle it. This is how we build them end to end.

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The Gizmolab neobank stack — in motion

Why this stack, why now

Crypto banking is no longer one product. It is eight integrated systems pretending to be one.

A decade ago, building a neobank meant wiring up a single banking-as-a-service provider, a card processor, and a KYC vendor — and shipping an app on top. The result was a thin wrapper over a single partner bank.

A crypto neobank is different. The instant you accept a deposit that settles in USDC, the stack explodes. You now need stablecoin issuance, wallet infrastructure, on-chain compliance, virtual accounts for fiat on-ramp, card programs that can debit a token balance, and observability that reconciles across all of it. Eight layers, each with its own vendors, regulations, and failure modes — and each silently coupled to the others.

Most founders discover this the hard way. They integrate one vendor, ship, and then spend nine months bolting on the layers they did not realize they needed. We built this page to show the full shape of the problem up front, in the order a real team needs to think about it.

The eight layers

From the tap to the settlement

Read top to bottom. Each layer depends on the one below it, and most of the hard failures happen at the seams.

Consumer UX

The app a human actually uses

Mobile-first account, balances, send/receive, cards, yield. Everything else in the stack is invisible to the user if this layer is designed right.

What it does

Onboarding and identity capture
Real-time balances across fiat and stablecoins
Send, receive, swap, and card management
Notifications, statements, and support flows

Decisions you will make

Self-custodial vs. custodied — determines wallet infra and recovery UX
Single app vs. web + mobile — affects which frameworks and deep-linking you pick
Regional vs. global — drives localization, currency support, and compliance scope

Wallet Infrastructure

Keys a non-crypto person can actually use

MPC or TSS key management so users never see a seed phrase. Social login, biometric unlock, and account recovery paths that survive a lost phone.

What it does

Key generation, storage, and signing
Account recovery via email, OAuth, or secondary factor
Per-chain address derivation
Policy engine for approvals, limits, and 2FA

Decisions you will make

Embedded wallet provider (Privy, Dynamic, Turnkey, Web3Auth)
MPC vs. TSS vs. HSM — latency, cost, and recovery tradeoffs
Hot vs. warm vs. cold split for treasury reserves

Compliance & Onboarding

The layer regulators care about most

KYC/KYB, sanctions screening, transaction monitoring, and on-chain analytics. Non-negotiable — and where most launches stall if ignored until the end.

What it does

Identity verification and document capture
Sanctions and PEP screening
Transaction monitoring and SAR filing workflows
On-chain wallet screening and source-of-funds checks

Decisions you will make

Identity vendor (Persona, Jumio) and fallback provider
Fraud signals stack (Sardine, Sift, device fingerprinting)
Blockchain analytics vendor (Chainalysis, TRM)
In-house compliance headcount from day one

Banking-as-a-Service

Virtual accounts so dollars have somewhere to land

Virtual USD / EUR accounts, IBANs, routing details, ACH, wires, and SEPA — provided over an API by a partner bank or BaaS platform.

What it does

Per-user virtual accounts and routing/account numbers
Inbound and outbound fiat rails (ACH, wire, SEPA, RTP)
Auto-sweep from fiat into stablecoins
Reconciliation, statements, and audit logs

Decisions you will make

Crypto-native BaaS (Iron, Conduit, Mural Pay) vs. traditional (Unit, Column, Treasury Prime)
Number of partner banks — single-bank risk vs. integration cost
Which currencies and corridors you support on day one

Stablecoin Rails

The settlement backbone

USDC, USDP, PYUSD — plus the orchestration layer that moves those tokens between banks, chains, and counterparties at settlement speed.

What it does

Minting, burning, and custody of stablecoin reserves
Cross-chain bridging and routing
Treasury operations and yield generation
B2B settlement between counterparties

Decisions you will make

Primary issuer (Circle, Paxos, Brale)
Rails orchestration (Bridge, BVNK, Zero Hash)
Which chains you settle on — cost, finality, and corridor coverage

On / Off Ramps

Fiat in, fiat out, anywhere

The bridge between local payment methods and on-chain balances. Country coverage, not price, is the whole game.

What it does

Card, ACH, SEPA, Pix, UPI, and other local rail support
KYC tier enforcement and limit handling
FX handling for non-USD users
Fallback routing when a rail fails

Decisions you will make

Primary ramp (MoonPay, Transak, Ramp) and fallback
Target corridors and countries at launch
Who owns the fee split — you, the ramp, or both

Card Issuance

Stablecoin balances you can swipe

Visa or Mastercard cards backed by the user’s stablecoin balance, with just-in-time authorization that converts at swipe time.

What it does

BIN sponsorship and network certification
Card issuance, shipping, and activation
Authorization, clearing, and chargebacks
Rewards, cashback, and loyalty programs

Decisions you will make

Stablecoin-native (Rain) vs. traditional issuer (Lithic, Marqeta, Striga)
Physical, virtual, or both
Regions supported at launch
Revenue share on interchange

Observability & Ops

You only own what you can see

Reconciliation, alerts, SLOs, support tooling, and financial ops. The invisible layer that keeps the other seven honest.

What it does

Daily reconciliation between BaaS, stablecoin rails, and ledger
Real-time alerting on rail failures and fraud signals
Support tooling for refunds, chargebacks, and disputes
Financial reporting and regulatory filings

Decisions you will make

Internal ledger of record (double-entry, event-sourced, or hybrid)
Incident response SLAs per layer
Which metrics live on the customer-facing status page

How Gizmolab ships it

Eight layers, one team

Gizmolab builds crypto neobanks end to end. We evaluate vendors, negotiate contracts, integrate every layer, build the consumer app, set up the ledger of record, and operate the stack through launch and beyond.

We have shipped card programs on Rain, embedded wallets on Privy and Turnkey, KYC pipelines on Persona and Jumio, stablecoin rails on Bridge and BVNK, and virtual accounts on Iron and Conduit — and we know which pairs actually play nicely together in production.

The thing that is hard is not any individual integration. It is holding the whole stack in one head at the same time, and designing the seams so that when one vendor fails, the product does not.

8 layers

Designed and integrated in-house

20+

Vendor integrations delivered

1 team

Owning it from app to settlement

Ready to build

Let’s ship your crypto neobank

Tell us what you are building, what licenses you already have, and what corridors you need to serve. We will come back with a stack blueprint and a timeline.

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