MoneyGram And Stellar, Explore Remittance Cooperation With Stablecoin

JAKARTA - Financial services company MoneyGram International has partnered with the Stellar Development Foundation to enable consumers to send money using Circle's popular stablecoin, USD Coin (USDC), and convert directly to and from fiat.

As per Wednesday's announcement, October 6, MoneyGram has integrated support that allows crypto wallets to connect to the Stellar Network to access its global retail platform. Working alongside Circle, MoneyGram will also enable “near-instant backend settlement,” account funding and local fiat withdrawals using USDC stable tokens.

United Texas Bank will act as the settlement bank to complete the process within the regulatory framework.

“With the growing popularity of crypto and digital currencies, we are very optimistic about the potential of stablecoins as a method for streamlining cross-border payments,” said Alex Holmes, chairman and CEO of MoneyGram.

The partnership is expected to launch in late 2021 in select jurisdictions, with an expanded international rollout planned for 2022. Denelle Dixon, CEO and executive director of the Stellar Development Foundation, stated:

“A new segment of cash users will be able to convert their cash in and out of USDC, giving them access to fast and affordable digital asset services that previously might not have been affordable.”

MoneyGram's integration with Stellar comes just months after the company moved to allow customers to withdraw crypto assets in cash through point-of-sale outlets in the United States. The service was launched in partnership with Bitcoin ATM and crypto exchange operator Coinme.

MoneyGram is no stranger to blockchain technology, having partnered with distributed ledger technology Ripple in June 2019 to collaborate on cross-border payments and foreign exchange settlements with digital assets.

However, the deal quickly went south due to uncertainty over the US Securities and Exchange Commission lawsuit targeting Ripple. MoneyGram suspended support for the Ripple platform during the first quarter of 2021.

Stellar was launched by Ripple co-founder Jed McCale following his turbulent departure from the project in 2014.