U.S.-based money transfer and payment company MoneyGram has announced that it will integrate USDC, a dollar-pegged stablecoin, as a payment asset for its cash-to-crypto and crypto-to-cash programs. The company will initially allow users to exchange USDC for cash and vice versa in select markets, including Canada, Kenya, the Philippines, and the United States, and later expects to expand globally.
MoneyGram to Implement USDC Ramp Program
Traditional money transfer companies are now looking to include crypto in their operations and offer more crypto-related services. MoneyGram, a remittance and payment company, recently announced that it will begin allowing users to include USDC, a dollar-pegged stablecoin, as part of its crypto off and on ramp program. The company will utilize the Stellar Network as the settlement layer to perform the USDC transactions necessary to operate the program.
Under the program, customers who need to exchange USDC for fiat currency, or who are looking to sell fiat currency to acquire crypto, will be able to use MoneyGram’s app to arrange the exchange and go to one of the company’s offices in Canada, Kenya, the Philippines, or the United States to complete the operation It has been established that they will be able to.
Financial Inclusion
For MoneyGram, this move is a great opportunity to bring financial inclusion to those who are still unbanked and underserved in some markets where citizens have difficulty opening bank accounts. It is designed to bring financial inclusion. One of the problems the program seeks to solve, said Denelle Dixon, CEO and Executive Director of the Stellar Development Foundation, “is the need for more people to have the ability to open bank accounts in their own communities.
Approximately 2 billion people currently rely on cash for their livelihood and have no choice but to access the digital economy. At the same time, off-ramping cryptocurrency quickly and securely is a persistent pain point for crypto-native users. What is revolutionary about this service is the way it solves the problem for users with different needs around the world.
The service is already offered in some of the markets mentioned above, but MoneyGram has declared that it is aiming for a global cash-out capability by the end of this month. The program is part of a partnership MoneyGram signed with the Stellar Development Foundation last October, in which the company announced that it would allow customers to send money in US dollars.
This type of crypto alliance is not new for MoneyGram, which hadestablished a partnership with another cryptocurrency and payments company, Ripple,to pilot the use of its solution for money transfer back in 2018.
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