MoneyGram and the Stellar Development Foundation have renewed their partnership through a new multi-year deal to bring stablecoin-based financial services to more people worldwide.
The companies announced the update on Wednesday at Stellar House in Mexico City. First, they plan to expand the service in Latin America through the stablecoin balance feature in the MoneyGram app.
MoneyGram app’s stablecoin balance feature is already live in Colombia and has now launched in El Salvador. More countries across Central and South America are expected to follow later this year.
How the new rollout works
The new rollout uses USDC, a stablecoin issued by Circle, to move money quickly across borders.
When a user sends funds through the MoneyGram app, the amount is first converted into digital dollars and transferred over the Stellar blockchain, which is known for its speed and low cost.
The system is supported by Crossmint, which helps integrate blockchain features into the app.
Once the transfer is complete, the recipient can either hold the funds in USDC within the app or convert them into local currency and collect cash from a nearby MoneyGram location.
The procedure normally takes only a few minutes and is meant to be more efficient than the conventional remittance procedures. The partnership shows ongoing efforts to bring blockchain technology into mainstream financial services.
MoneyGram Chairman and CEO Anthony Soohoo said, “Everyone talks about financial inclusion. MoneyGram is delivering it,” he said.
“We are building an open payments network that moves seamlessly across fiat and stablecoin, enabling faster, lower-cost transactions, starting with the people who need it most,” he added.
Denelle Dixon, CEO and Executive Director, SDF, said, “Stellar was built on the belief that the global financial system should work for everyone. With SDF’s purpose-built blockchain infrastructure and MoneyGram’s global reach, that ambition is finally matched by the infrastructure to deliver it.”
“Together, we’re expanding access, lowering costs and enabling instant cross-border payments at scale, delivering the power of blockchain in ways that are seamless and intuitive for customers,” she added.
The announcement claims that MoneyGram is present in over 200 countries and territories, almost 500,000 retail points, and over 50 million clients both in physical and online platforms.
Meanwhile, USDC remains the world’s second-largest stablecoin.
Its market value stands at about $78.4 billion, according to CoinMarketCap data. In a related move, cross-border payments firm Nium has also expanded its USDC strategy through a new partnership with Coinbase.
Expansion builds on earlier partnership milestones
MoneyGram said the two sides have worked together for more than five years and have already introduced several products tied to digital assets.
In 2021, both first teamed up to support cash-in and cash-out services using USDC on the Stellar network.
Then, in 2022, the two companies launched a global crypto-to-cash service that let users convert digital dollars into local currency at MoneyGram locations. Stellar later said the partnership helped build the world’s largest cash-on- and off-ramp network through digital wallets.
Now, the new rollout in Colombia and El Salvador takes that work further by letting users receive, hold, and cash out digital dollars through the MoneyGram app and retail network.
The executive also shared on X that the company began this work five years ago. Soohoo said the goal is to turn stablecoins into a real payment tool for people who lack easy access to traditional financial services.
He said Colombia was the first market, while El Salvador is the latest to join. He added that more markets are expected to follow later this year.
Soohoo also said the company is continuing to connect blockchain rails with traditional payment systems to support faster global payments.
Stellar ecosystem sees fresh momentum
Stellar’s ecosystem is also growing beyond payments. In March, RedStone deployed price feeds on the network to support its expanding DeFi activity.
The integration provides reliable market data for assets such as Bitcoin, Ether, and USDC, powering services like lending and decentralized trading as more financial applications begin to build on Stellar.
Stellar’s native token XLM also moved higher as market sentiment improved. The token increased by 1 percent in 24 hours and was trading at approximately $0.1798 at the time of press.
Meanwhile, trading activity slowed, with volume falling more than 21 percent to $138.4 million.
