Key Takeaways:
MoneyGram and the Stellar Development Foundation (SDF) are extending their partnership for five years, expanding a USDC-based remittance service to El Salvador that allows users to cash out from digital wallets at retail locations.
"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," Anthony Soohoo, Chairman and CEO of MoneyGram, said in a statement from Mexico City on April 22.
The service, which first launched in Colombia, enables customers to receive and hold the USDC stablecoin in the MoneyGram app and withdraw physical cash from the company’s nearly 500,000 retail locations. The partners plan to expand the service to more markets in Central and South America later this year, building on what they described as strong engagement in Colombia. A stablecoin is a type of cryptocurrency that is typically pegged to a real-world asset, such as the U.S. dollar, to maintain a stable value.
The expansion deepens a collaboration that began in 2021, leveraging Stellar’s blockchain for payments and Circle’s USDC, the second-largest stablecoin with a market capitalization of over $30 billion, according to DefiLlama data. The partnership aims to bridge the gap between digital assets and cash-dependent economies, focusing on the multi-billion dollar global remittance market.
While the partnership expansion adds a significant real-world use case for the Stellar network, its native token XLM has traded within a channel since February. The price has repeatedly faced rejection at a key resistance level of $0.179.
According to an April 18 analysis from Ali Charts, this $0.179 level has been tested multiple times, with each rejection followed by a retreat to the support level near $0.147. As of April 22, XLM was trading near the upper end of this range. Traders are watching to see if the increased network utility from the MoneyGram partnership can provide the momentum for a breakout. A daily close above $0.179 could shift focus toward the $0.22 level, representing a potential 20% increase.
The collaboration between MoneyGram and SDF is a direct attempt to turn the promise of stablecoins into practical financial services for millions of users. By integrating Stellar's low-cost blockchain infrastructure with MoneyGram's extensive global network, the two organizations aim to provide a faster and cheaper alternative to traditional remittance rails.
"With SDF's purpose-built blockchain infrastructure and MoneyGram's global reach, that ambition is finally matched by the infrastructure to deliver it," said Denelle Dixon, CEO and Executive Director of SDF.
For Stellar, the deal reinforces its focus on cross-border payments and asset issuance. For MoneyGram, which serves over 50 million customers across more than 200 countries, it represents a strategic move to integrate digital assets into its core business, competing with rivals like Western Union that are also exploring stablecoin settlement.
This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute investment advice.
