Global Accounts

A Grid Global Account is powered by a self-custody embedded Spark wallet Grid provisions for your customer that holds a stablecoin or BTC balance and participates in the standard Grid payment flows. It behaves like any other internal account for incoming funds, but every outbound transfer must be authorized by the customer — a session signing key issued for their device signs each payment. In the API, a Global Account is an internal account with type: "EMBEDDED_WALLET" that participates in the standard Grid customer, quote, transaction, and webhook flows.

Why a Grid Global Account?

Self-custody. Grid never has unilateral access to move user funds, and neither do you. The customer’s device is the only party that can authorize a transaction.
Stablecoin-denominated. Balances are held as stablecoins like Brale-issued USDB. Use the standard /quotes API to convert in from fiat or out to any supported Grid bank-account rail (ACH, PIX, CLABE, UPI, IBAN, UMA, …).
Grid-native. You reuse the customer, internal-account, quote, transaction, and webhook primitives you already integrated for Payouts or P2P. The only thing that’s new is an auth + signing layer at the account.
Built on Bitcoin. Global Accounts run on Spark, a Lightning-compatible Bitcoin L2 that supports instant, low-fee Bitcoin and Stablecoin transfers. You get the benefits of running on Bitcoin, the most neutral, decentralized, and secure network for money.

Payment flow

Grid Global Accounts ride on the same /quotes + /quotes/{id}/execute pattern as every other Grid payment. The only thing that’s different is that outbound transfers need a client signature.

Incoming funds. Funding an account works like any other internal account. Create a quote with the Global Account as the destination, execute it, and Grid converts the source currency into USDB and credits the account. No customer approval needed — incoming value is passive.
Outgoing funds. Withdrawals and transfers out require the customer to authorize them on their device. Grid returns a payloadToSign in the quote’s paymentInstructions; the client signs those bytes with its session signing key and passes the base64 signature as the Grid-Wallet-Signature header on /quotes/{id}/execute. Only then does Grid release the funds.

Sessions are short-lived (15 minutes by default) and bound to a specific device via the client key pair, so a stolen signature can’t be replayed from a different device or after the session expires. Standard transaction webhooks fire throughout the lifecycle — see Transaction lifecycle.

Architecture

Three parties participate in every signed action:

Party	Role
Client	The customer’s device (browser, iOS app, or Android app). Generates the client key pair, runs WebAuthn, decrypts the session signing key, and signs outbound requests.
Integrator backend	Your server. Holds your Grid API credentials, brokers every call to Grid on behalf of the client, and issues WebAuthn challenges for initial passkey registration.
Grid	Verifies auth credentials, issues session signing keys (encrypted to the client’s public key), and enforces that every account action is authorized.

The client never talks to Grid directly. Every request flows client → integrator backend → Grid.

Auth credentials, client keys, and session signing keys

Three distinct pieces of crypto collaborate to authorize actions on the Global Account (withdrawals, credential changes, session revocations, and wallet exports):

Piece	Where it lives	How long it lives	What it proves
Auth credential — passkey, OIDC token, or email OTP	Registered on the account; the passkey itself lives on the authenticator, OIDC on your IdP, OTP in the user’s inbox	Until the customer revokes it	”I am the human who owns this account.” Used to authenticate the user at the start of each session.
Client key pair (P-256)	Generated on the client device for each verification request; private key stays in device-local secure storage	One verification request	Binds a given session signing key delivery to the exact device that asked for it — Grid encrypts the session to this public key, so only this device can decrypt.
Session signing key (P-256)	Issued by Grid, sealed to the client public key, decrypted and held on the device for the session’s lifetime	15 minutes (default)	“This specific account action was approved on an authenticated device.” Signs the `payloadToSign` Grid returns on quotes, credential changes, session revocations, and wallet exports.

The flow is always the same: verify an auth credential → receive a short-lived session signing key → sign payloadToSign bytes on the client → pass the signature as the Grid-Wallet-Signature header on the request that actually moves funds or changes account state. This applies to withdrawals, adding or removing credentials, revoking sessions, and exporting the wallet seed.

Prerequisites

Customers who hold a Global Account must be KYC/KYB verified before any account funds can move from or to fiat rails. This quickstart picks up after KYC is complete.In sandbox, customers are automatically KYC approved on creation so you can skip straight to account setup.

You also need:

A platform configured with USDB in its supported currencies. In sandbox, USDB is enabled by default alongside USD and USDC.
Sandbox or production API credentials with access to the Embedded Wallet Auth and Internal Accounts endpoints.

export GRID_BASE_URL="https://api.lightspark.com/grid/2025-10-13"
export GRID_CLIENT_ID="YOUR_SANDBOX_CLIENT_ID"
export GRID_CLIENT_SECRET="YOUR_SANDBOX_CLIENT_SECRET"

Walkthrough

The walkthrough below is the happy path: create a customer, find the auto-provisioned account, register a passkey, fund it, and withdraw to a bank account. Each step shows the HTTP request your integrator backend makes on behalf of the client.

1. Create a customer

Create the customer record. A Global Account is provisioned automatically whenever a customer is created on a platform that has USDB in its supported currencies — you don’t need to pass it on the customer.

curl -X POST "$GRID_BASE_URL/customers" \
  -u "$GRID_CLIENT_ID:$GRID_CLIENT_SECRET" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "customerType": "INDIVIDUAL",
    "platformCustomerId": "ind-9f84e0c2",
    "region": "US",
    "email": "jane@example.com",
    "fullName": "Jane Doe",
    "birthDate": "1990-01-15",
    "nationality": "US"
  }'

Response: 201 Created with the new Customer:... id. In sandbox, the customer is KYC-approved immediately; in production you would now run them through the KYC / KYB flow before any funds can move.

2. Find the Global Account

When a customer is created on a USDB-enabled platform, Grid automatically provisions a Global Account alongside their other internal accounts. Fetch it by filtering the customer’s internal accounts by type=EMBEDDED_WALLET.

curl -X GET "$GRID_BASE_URL/internal-accounts?customerId=Customer:019542f5-b3e7-1d02-0000-000000000001&type=EMBEDDED_WALLET" \
  -u "$GRID_CLIENT_ID:$GRID_CLIENT_SECRET"

Response:

{
  "data": [
    {
      "id": "InternalAccount:019542f5-b3e7-1d02-0000-000000000002",
      "customerId": "Customer:019542f5-b3e7-1d02-0000-000000000001",
      "type": "EMBEDDED_WALLET",
      "balance": {
        "amount": 0,
        "currency": {
          "code": "USDB",
          "name": "USDB",
          "decimals": 6
        }
      },
      "fundingPaymentInstructions": [],
      "createdAt": "2026-04-19T12:00:00Z",
      "updatedAt": "2026-04-19T12:00:00Z"
    }
  ],
  "hasMore": false,
  "totalCount": 1
}

Hold onto the InternalAccount:... id — every auth credential is scoped to it.

3. Register a passkey credential

Global Accounts support three authentication credential types: passkey, OAuth (OIDC), and email OTP. A passkey is a user-friendly default: biometric, phishing-resistant, and usable across the user’s devices. Registration only binds the passkey to the account — it doesn’t issue a session. Sessions are created on-demand, when the customer initiates an action that needs a signature (step 7). The full flow with sequence diagram is documented in Authentication; the condensed version:

Your backend issues a WebAuthn challenge

Generate a random base64url challenge, store it short-lived in your session store, and return it to the client.

Client runs `navigator.credentials.create()` / platform equivalent

The browser or OS prompts the user for a biometric, returns an attestation. The client posts the attestation back to your backend.

Your backend calls Grid

curl -X POST "$GRID_BASE_URL/auth/credentials" \
  -u "$GRID_CLIENT_ID:$GRID_CLIENT_SECRET" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "type": "PASSKEY",
    "accountId": "InternalAccount:019542f5-b3e7-1d02-0000-000000000002",
    "nickname": "iPhone Face-ID",
    "challenge": "ArkQi2yAYHPlgnJNFBlneIwchQdWXBOTrdB-AmMUB21Lx",
    "attestation": {
      "credentialId": "AdKXJEch1aV5Wo7bj7qLHskVY4OoNaj9qu8TPdJ7kSAgUeRxWNngXlcNIGt4gexZGKVGcqZpqqWordXb_he1izY",
      "clientDataJson": "eyJjaGFsbGVuZ2UiOiJBcktRaTJ5...",
      "attestationObject": "o2NmbXRkbm9uZWdhdHRTdG10...",
      "transports": ["internal", "hybrid"]
    }
  }'

Grid verifies the attestation and replies 201 with the new AuthMethod:... id plus the first-authentication challenge, requestId, and expiresAt. Persist the auth method id against the customer — you’ll pass it to /challenge and /verify whenever the customer needs to sign.

The passkey is now bound to the account. You’ll use it to authorize the withdrawal in step 7.

4. Fund the Account

Global Accounts behave like any other internal account on the way in — incoming funds do not need the customer’s signature. In sandbox, use the sandbox funding endpoint to skip straight to a funded state:

curl -X POST "$GRID_BASE_URL/sandbox/internal-accounts/InternalAccount:019542f5-b3e7-1d02-0000-000000000002/fund" \
  -u "$GRID_CLIENT_ID:$GRID_CLIENT_SECRET" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "amount": 1000000000
  }'

amount is in the smallest unit of the account’s currency. USDB has 6 decimals, so 1000000000 is 1,000.00 USDB. You will receive an INCOMING_PAYMENT webhook when the balance updates. The account now holds 1,000.00 USDB.

To fund from another currency (USD ACH, USDC on-chain, etc.), create a quote with destination.destinationType: "ACCOUNT" pointing at the Global Account’s InternalAccount id. The quote’s sourceCurrency can be any supported platform currency; Grid will convert into USDB on execute.

5. Add an external bank account

Add the destination the customer wants to withdraw to. This is a standard external account — nothing Global Account-specific.

curl -X POST "$GRID_BASE_URL/customers/external-accounts" \
  -u "$GRID_CLIENT_ID:$GRID_CLIENT_SECRET" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "customerId": "Customer:019542f5-b3e7-1d02-0000-000000000001",
    "currency": "USD",
    "platformAccountId": "jane_doe_checking",
    "accountInfo": {
      "accountType": "USD_ACCOUNT",
      "accountNumber": "1234567890",
      "routingNumber": "021000021",
      "beneficiary": {
        "beneficiaryType": "INDIVIDUAL",
        "fullName": "Jane Doe",
        "birthDate": "1990-01-15",
        "nationality": "US",
        "address": {
          "line1": "123 Main Street",
          "city": "San Francisco",
          "state": "CA",
          "postalCode": "94105",
          "country": "US"
        }
      }
    }
  }'

Response: 201 Created with the new ExternalAccount:... id.

6. Create a withdrawal quote

Create a quote with the Global Account as the source. Grid returns a payloadToSign in the quote’s payment instructions — this is what the client will sign to authorize the transfer.

curl -X POST "$GRID_BASE_URL/quotes" \
  -u "$GRID_CLIENT_ID:$GRID_CLIENT_SECRET" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "source": {
      "sourceType": "ACCOUNT",
      "accountId": "InternalAccount:019542f5-b3e7-1d02-0000-000000000002"
    },
    "destination": {
      "destinationType": "ACCOUNT",
      "accountId": "ExternalAccount:a12dcbd6-dced-4ec4-b756-3c3a9ea3d123"
    },
    "lockedCurrencySide": "SENDING",
    "lockedCurrencyAmount": 10000000,
    "description": "Withdrawal to checking"
  }'

lockedCurrencyAmount is in the smallest unit of the locked side’s currency. Here the sending currency is USDB (6 decimals), so 10000000 is 10.00 USDB. Response:

{
  "id": "Quote:019542f5-b3e7-1d02-0000-000000000006",
  "status": "PENDING",
  "createdAt": "2026-04-19T12:05:00Z",
  "expiresAt": "2026-04-19T12:10:00Z",
  "source": {
    "accountId": "InternalAccount:019542f5-b3e7-1d02-0000-000000000002",
    "currency": "USDB"
  },
  "destination": {
    "accountId": "ExternalAccount:a12dcbd6-dced-4ec4-b756-3c3a9ea3d123",
    "currency": "USD"
  },
  "sendingCurrency": { "code": "USDB", "name": "USDB", "decimals": 6 },
  "receivingCurrency": { "code": "USD", "name": "United States Dollar", "symbol": "$", "decimals": 2 },
  "totalSendingAmount": 10000000,
  "totalReceivingAmount": 975,
  "exchangeRate": 1.0,
  "feesIncluded": 250000,
  "transactionId": "Transaction:019542f5-b3e7-1d02-0000-000000000005",
  "paymentInstructions": [
    {
      "accountOrWalletInfo": {
        "accountType": "EMBEDDED_WALLET",
        "payloadToSign": "{\"type\":\"ACTIVITY_TYPE_SIGN_TRANSACTION_V2\",\"timestampMs\":\"1746736509954\",\"organizationId\":\"org_abc123\",\"parameters\":{\"signWith\":\"wallet_abc123def456\",\"unsignedTransaction\":\"ea69b4bf05f775209f26ff0a34a05569180f7936579d5c4af9377ae550194f72\",\"type\":\"TRANSACTION_TYPE_ETHEREUM\"},\"generateAppProofs\":true}"
      },
      "instructionsNotes": "Sign the payloadToSign byte-for-byte and pass the signature as the Grid-Wallet-Signature header on execute"
    }
  ]
}

7. Authenticate and sign

The customer has an outstanding quote with a payloadToSign. Now we need a session signing key to sign it with — this is when the passkey actually gets used. The flow is keypair → challenge → assertion → verify → decrypt → sign.

Your backend requests a fresh challenge sealed to the client public key

The client generates a fresh P-256 client key pair and posts the public key (uncompressed hex) to your backend, which forwards it to Grid. Grid bakes the public key into the session-creation payload so the resulting session signing key is sealed to that device.

curl -X POST "$GRID_BASE_URL/auth/credentials/AuthMethod:019542f5-b3e7-1d02-0000-000000000001/challenge" \
  -u "$GRID_CLIENT_ID:$GRID_CLIENT_SECRET" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "clientPublicKey": "04f45f2a22c908b9ce09a7150e514afd24627c401c38a4afc164e1ea783adaaa31d4245acfb88c2ebd42b47628d63ecabf345484f0a9f665b63c54c897d5578be2"
  }'

Response (200):

{
  "id": "AuthMethod:019542f5-b3e7-1d02-0000-000000000001",
  "accountId": "InternalAccount:019542f5-b3e7-1d02-0000-000000000002",
  "type": "PASSKEY",
  "nickname": "iPhone Face-ID",
  "createdAt": "2026-04-19T12:00:01Z",
  "updatedAt": "2026-04-19T12:05:00Z",
  "challenge": "VjZ6o8KfE9V3q3LkR2nH5eZ6dM8yA1xW",
  "requestId": "7c4a8d09-ca37-4e3e-9e0d-8c2b3e9a1f21",
  "expiresAt": "2026-04-19T12:10:00Z"
}

Return challenge and requestId to the client.

Client runs the WebAuthn assertion against the Grid-issued challenge

Prompt the authenticator with the challenge returned in the previous step:

const base64urlToBytes = (value) => {
  const padded = value.replace(/-/g, "+").replace(/_/g, "/")
    .padEnd(Math.ceil(value.length / 4) * 4, "=");
  return Uint8Array.from(atob(padded), (char) => char.charCodeAt(0));
};

const assertion = await navigator.credentials.get({
  publicKey: {
    challenge: base64urlToBytes(gridChallenge),
    rpId: "yourapp.com",
    userVerification: "required",
  },
});

Post the assertion (and the requestId from the previous step) back to your backend.

Your backend verifies the assertion with Grid to mint a session

curl -X POST "$GRID_BASE_URL/auth/credentials/AuthMethod:019542f5-b3e7-1d02-0000-000000000001/verify" \
  -u "$GRID_CLIENT_ID:$GRID_CLIENT_SECRET" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -H "Request-Id: 7c4a8d09-ca37-4e3e-9e0d-8c2b3e9a1f21" \
  -d '{
    "type": "PASSKEY",
    "assertion": {
      "credentialId": "KEbWNCc7NgaYnUyrNeFGX9_3Y-8oJ3KwzjnaiD1d1LVTxR7v3CaKfCz2Vy_g_MHSh7yJ8yL0Pxg6jo_o0hYiew",
      "clientDataJson": "eyJjaGFsbGVuZ2UiOiJWalo2bzhLZkU5VjNxM0xrUjJuSDVlWjZkTTh5QTF4VyIsIm9yaWdpbiI6Imh0dHBzOi8veW91cmFwcC5jb20iLCJ0eXBlIjoid2ViYXV0aG4uZ2V0In0",
      "authenticatorData": "PdxHEOnAiLIp26idVjIguzn3Ipr_RlsKZWsa-5qK-KABAAAAkA",
      "signature": "MEUCIQDYXBOpCWSWq2Ll4558GJKD2RoWg958lvJSB_GdeokxogIgWuEVQ7ee6AswQY0OsuQ6y8Ks6jhd45bDx92wjXKs900"
    }
  }'

clientPublicKey is no longer required here — Grid already has it from the /challenge call. The Request-Id header ties this verify to that earlier challenge.Response (200):

{
  "id": "Session:019542f5-b3e7-1d02-0000-000000000003",
  "accountId": "InternalAccount:019542f5-b3e7-1d02-0000-000000000002",
  "type": "PASSKEY",
  "nickname": "iPhone Face-ID",
  "encryptedSessionSigningKey": "w99a5xV6A75TfoAUkZn869fVyDYvgVsKrawMALZXmrauZd8hEv66EkPU1Z42CUaHESQjcA5bqd8dynTGBMLWB9ewtXWPEVbZvocB4Tw2K1vQVp7uwjf",
  "createdAt": "2026-04-19T12:05:01Z",
  "updatedAt": "2026-04-19T12:05:01Z",
  "expiresAt": "2026-04-19T12:20:01Z"
}

Return encryptedSessionSigningKey and expiresAt to the client.

Client decrypts the session signing key and signs the payload

The client decrypts encryptedSessionSigningKey with the matching client private key, then signs the quote’s payloadToSign with the resulting session signing key. Return the base64 signature to your backend.

Sign the payloadToSign bytes exactly as Grid returned them. Do not parse, re-serialize, trim, or normalize the JSON — the signature must cover the same bytes Grid’s verifier hashes.

The session signing key is now valid for 15 minutes, so subsequent account actions within that window (for example, a second withdrawal) can reuse it without another /challenge + /verify round-trip.

8. Execute the quote

Call /execute with the signature in the Grid-Wallet-Signature header.

curl -X POST "$GRID_BASE_URL/quotes/Quote:019542f5-b3e7-1d02-0000-000000000006/execute" \
  -u "$GRID_CLIENT_ID:$GRID_CLIENT_SECRET" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -H "Idempotency-Key: 7c4a8d09-ca37-4e3e-9e0d-8c2b3e9a1f21" \
  -H "Grid-Wallet-Signature: MEUCIQDx7k2N0aK4p8f3vR9J6yT5wL1mB0sXnG2hQ4vJ8zYkCgIgZ4rP9dT7eWfU3oM6KjR1qSpNvBwL0tXyA2iG8fH5dE="

Response:

{
  "id": "Quote:019542f5-b3e7-1d02-0000-000000000006",
  "status": "PROCESSING",
  "transactionId": "Transaction:019542f5-b3e7-1d02-0000-000000000005",
  "totalSendingAmount": 10000000,
  "totalReceivingAmount": 975,
  "feesIncluded": 250000
}

The transaction is on its way. You’ll receive standard transaction webhooks (OUTGOING_PAYMENT) as it settles — see Transaction lifecycle.

Where to next

Client keys & signing

Generate the P-256 key pair, decrypt the session signing key, and sign payloads on Web, iOS, and Android.

Authentication

OAuth and Email OTP flows, passkey reauthentication, and the full WebAuthn parameter mapping.

Sessions

List active sessions and revoke a session (sign-out).

Exporting a wallet

Let a customer take their wallet seed off Grid.

Overview

Onboarding

Managing accounts

Conversion flows

Platform tools

Global Accounts

Why a Grid Global Account?

Payment flow

Architecture

Auth credentials, client keys, and session signing keys

Prerequisites

Walkthrough

1. Create a customer

2. Find the Global Account

3. Register a passkey credential

4. Fund the Account

5. Add an external bank account

6. Create a withdrawal quote

7. Authenticate and sign

8. Execute the quote

Where to next

Client keys & signing

Authentication

Sessions

Exporting a wallet

Overview

Onboarding

Managing accounts

Conversion flows

Global Accounts

Platform tools

Documentation Index

​Why a Grid Global Account?

​Payment flow

​Architecture

​Auth credentials, client keys, and session signing keys

​Prerequisites

​Walkthrough

​1. Create a customer

​2. Find the Global Account

​3. Register a passkey credential

​4. Fund the Account

​5. Add an external bank account

​6. Create a withdrawal quote

​7. Authenticate and sign

​8. Execute the quote

​Where to next

Client keys & signing

Authentication

Sessions

Exporting a wallet

Why a Grid Global Account?

Payment flow

Architecture

Auth credentials, client keys, and session signing keys

Prerequisites

Walkthrough

1. Create a customer

2. Find the Global Account

3. Register a passkey credential

4. Fund the Account

5. Add an external bank account

6. Create a withdrawal quote

7. Authenticate and sign

8. Execute the quote

Where to next