MoneyGram is officially moving on from Ripple.
This week, the payments giant announced a new partnership with the Stellar Development Foundation to use the Stellar blockchain, a Ripple Labs competitor, to facilitate cross-border payments.
MoneyGram’s payments on the Stellar blockchain will utilize the world’s second-largest stablecoin, Circle’s USD Coin (USDC).
USDC will allow settlement at MoneyGram to occur in “near-real-time” for the first time, according to the payments giant.
MoneyGram chairman and chief executive Alex Holmes explains,
“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.”
Stellar’s native asset XLM is trading at $0.349708 at time of writing, up 6.5% on the day and nearly 29% over the past week, according to CoinGecko.
Ripple and MoneyGram entered into a partnership in June 2019 for foreign exchange settlements and cross-border payments.
As part of that deal, Ripple made a $50 million commitment to MoneyGram, which it completed in November 2019.
However, the payments giant suspended its use of XRP payments this past February in the wake of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) lawsuit against Ripple.
The SEC filed a lawsuit against Ripple Labs in late December, asserting that XRP is a security and alleging that Ripple Labs illegally sold large amounts of the crypto asset without adhering to regulations.
In February, Holmes said MoneyGram was monitoring the SEC case and suspended its use of Ripple’s XRP-powered cross-border payments product, On-Demand Liquidity, out of “an abundance of caution.” The CEO also said the company hoped to continue its partnership with Ripple in the future.
Ripple’s lawsuit with the SEC is ongoing.
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