US based cross-border P2P payments giant MoneyGram is launching a new crypto-focused service.
As reported by Bloomberg, MoneyGram has teamed up with XRP contender, Stellar (XLM) to allow worldwide customers to send, receive and cash out stablecoins on the XLM blockchain.
MoneyGram Chief Executive Officer, Alex Holmes, said:
“The world of crypto and the world of fiat are not really compatible today.
We’re trying to be a bridge from the crypto world to the fiat world.”
Holmes also said his firm is talking with third-party companies that provide digital wallets in El Salvador:
“If a country like El Salvador is going to make Bitcoin seamless with US dollars in country, I think that consumers, through MoneyGram, should be able to transfer Bitcoin to El Salvador or transfer dollars and convert them to Bitcoin,” Holmes told Bloomberg. “If that’s where the world is going, let’s participate in that world and let’s see how we can help fulfill that opportunity.”
The partnership is not new and was first communicated in October 2021. MoneyGram payments on the Stellar blockchain would be made with the world’s second largest stablecoin, USD Coin (USDC), as per the announcement at the time. CEO Holmes had said:
“As crypto and digital currencies rise in prominence, we’re especially optimistic about the potential of stablecoins as a method to streamline cross-border payments.”
With the collapse of the Terra (LUNA) ecosystem after the de-pegging of TerraUSD (UST) and the largest stablecoin Tether (USDT) briefly losing its $1 peg, stablecoins have become under scrutiny as of late.
Circle’s Chief Strategy Officer, Dante Disparte, commented on why de-pegging will not happen with USDC, which is issued by his firm:
“We’re not taking the dollar and putting it in the reserves and then lending it out.
Instead, the reserves are strictly cash and US Treasuries.”
CEO of the Stellar Development Foundation, Denelle Dixon, commented on the solution that the MoneyGram partnership has to offer to billions of people around the world and the importance of blockchain technology in this success-story:
“There are billions of cash-dependent people globally who could benefit from the utility that digital assets and blockchain provide.
The answer is what we’re building through this partnership – a service for helping them go from cash to digital assets.”
Noteworthy, MoneyGram and Ripple Labs, the firm behind XRP, had previously partnered up back in June 17, 2019. Nevertheless, the collaboration was short lived and in 2021, MoneyGram quickly distanced itself from Ripple, citing legal uncertainty surrounding XRP as the reason.
The post MoneyGram Launching New Crypto Services With XRP Rival Stellar appeared first on iGaming.org.
Source: Igaming
