What is the OnLink Partner API?
A plain-language explanation of what the API does, who it is for, and what you and OnLink each take care of. No code.
The OnLink Partner API lets a business move money between Kenyan shillings and USDT without becoming a bank integrator or a crypto desk. You connect once. From then on your systems can ask us for a rate, hand us one currency, and receive the other — in a bank account or a wallet you registered with us beforehand.
Think of it as a currency desk your software can call. You do not visit it; you send it an instruction, and it reports back when the job is done.
The problem it solves
A business that earns in shillings and spends in USDT, or the other way round, has to do four hard things to move between them:
- Price the conversion off a live rate, and honour that rate long enough to act on it.
- Take funds in on one side — a bank transfer or an M-PESA payment in Kenya, or a USDT transfer on-chain.
- Pay funds out on the other side, to the right place, exactly once.
- Screen every movement and keep the records that come with moving money.
Each of those is its own project. OnLink does all four behind one API, with one counterparty, so your team builds the product on top rather than the plumbing underneath.
The two things you can do
| Direction | You send | You receive | Guide |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sell USDT, receive shillings | USDT, from your own wallet | KES, into a bank account you registered | Sell USDT, receive KES |
| Buy USDT with shillings | KES, from you or your payer, into your collection account | USDT, at an address you registered | Buy USDT with KES |
Both directions work the same way: lock a rate, create an order, fund it, and wait for us to confirm and settle. How it works walks through that in plain language.
Who it is for
The API is built for businesses that already hold a relationship with the people whose money is moving:
- Remittance operators bringing value into Kenya and paying it out locally.
- Exchanges and wallet apps giving their customers a way in and out of shillings.
- Treasury teams at companies with revenue in one currency and costs in the other.
- Platforms paying suppliers or contractors in Kenya from a USDT balance.
Use cases describes each of these in more detail.
It is not a retail product. OnLink does not offer a stablecoin wallet or a self-serve trade to individuals in Kenya through this API, and your end customers never interact with OnLink directly. They interact with you.
What you build, and what we do
Your users are yours. We never see them, so identifying and verifying them is your responsibility, under your own registrations. You decide who can transact on your platform, you keep the records your regime requires, and you tell your customers what happens to their money and how long it takes.
We price and execute the movement of value between the two currencies. We screen each movement and its counterparties, we pay out on the rails, and we tell you the outcome — as a status you can read and as a message we send to you. When we cannot complete a movement, we say so rather than guess.
Who does what sets out that line in full.
Where the money can go
Nothing about a destination is decided at the moment of a payment. Bank accounts that can receive shillings are registered with us in advance. Addresses that can receive USDT are registered through the API and then confirmed, so a mistyped address is caught before any value moves. A leaked credential therefore cannot send your money somewhere new — it can only move it between places you already approved.
Where you start
Everything begins in sandbox, a full copy of the service where no real value moves. Your engineers integrate and test there, including receiving real signed webhooks. When the integration is ready, production access is enabled for your account, and nothing changes in the code except the address it talks to and the credentials it uses.
Next
- How it works — the life of an order, step by step.
- Use cases — what different kinds of business build on this.
- Glossary — every term, defined once.
- Get started — when you are ready to hand this to an engineer.
OnLink Partner API
Convert between Kenyan shillings and USDT from inside your own product. Start with the plain-language overview, or go straight to a signed first call.
How it works
The life of an order in plain language: lock a rate, create the order, fund it, and hear from us when it settles. Why it behaves like a bank transfer, not a tap-to-pay.