MoneyGram International, one of the world’s biggest money transfer services, has recently announced its partnership with Stellar Development Foundation. It is a non-profit organization that is responsible for developing Stellar, a blockchain network for cross-border transactions.
Stellar (which is also a rival of Ripple), utilizes the XLM coin to operate its transactions. Its XLM coin currently has a value of $0.327 with a market cap of $7.8 billion.
With the two companies’ latest deal, MoneyGram’s network will integrate with the Stellar blockchain to facilitate cash funding and payout in multiple currencies, whether it’s a U.S. dollar or Japanese yen using USD Coin (USDC).
Expanded service
“We’re enabling consumers to bridge crypto assets and fiat currency, and we think that we can be a pioneer and a leader in that opportunity,” Alex Holmes, chairman and chief executive officer of MoneyGram International, said.
With MoneyGram and Stellar collaboration, customers will now have the option to convert cash into and out of USDC for instant pickups in any MoneyGram branches. United Texas Bank, for its part, will facilitate settlement between Circle and MoneyGram.
The money-transfer giant plans to roll out this service by the end of the year and expand it internationally by 2022.
Reaching out
One of the biggest benefits of the upcoming service is that customers who haven’t yet been reached by cryptos before would finally be in the fold and experience the convenience of cryptocurrencies.
Through this service, customers can simply bring their cash to a MoneyGram branch and put it into the blockchain. This is so straightforward that customers don’t even need a bank account to do this.
Aside from this exciting news, rumors are also spreading as early as July that MoneyGram is considering buying Stellar to keep up with the growing demand for crypto transactions.
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