Moneygram Partners With Stellar Blockchain, Plans Wallet Deal In El Salvador: Report

Moneygram, an American cross-border P2P payments and money transfer company, has partnered with Stellar blockchain, a decentralized protocol on open-source code to transfer digital currency, and plans to create a platform for stablecoin money transfers.

According to Bloomberg, Moneygram CEO Alex Holmes said that the new service will allow users to send USDC, a stablecoin by Circle, a peer-to-peer payments technology company, to recipients. "We’re trying to be a bridge from the crypto world to the fiat world," Holmes said.

Additionally, Moneygram International is in talks with third-party firms to launch digital wallets in El Salvador, the first country to adopt Bitcoin as legal tender. El Salvadorians already use the government-backed Chivo Wallet. Once a deal with one of these firms is finalized, Dallas-based Moneygram will also enter the digital wallets market.

"If a country like El Salvador is going to make Bitcoin seamless with U.S. 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."

Moneygram and Stellar began working with Stellar Development Foundation, a non-profit organization that supports the development and growth of Stellar, in October last year. Reports from Bloomberg claim that Stellar is in talks to acquire Moneygram.

"A new segment of cash users will be able to convert their cash into and out of USDC, giving them access to fast and affordable digital asset services that may have previously been out of reach," said Denelle Dixon, CEO and executive director of the Stellar Development Foundation last year.