MoneyGram, the 85-year-old remittance giant, has announced what it calls a “fundamental reinvention of cross-border finance” with a new app that allows users to hold stablecoins, starting with Circle’s USDC in Colombia.
This move marks the first step in MoneyGram’s ambitious refounding journey. Since going private in 2023, the company has been transforming from a traditional remittance provider into a network-led fintech. It has built an extensive network of nearly 500,000 retail locations across more than 200 countries, serving over 50 million people annually and 150 million over the past five years.
With the launch of its consumer-facing stablecoins app, MoneyGram aims to shift the industry’s focus from back-office optimisation to delivering value directly to consumers. The app allows users to instantly receive USD, hold it in USDC, and cash out at will—a solution designed to ease the pain of travelling to collect physical cash, often in local currency, only to see its value quickly erode.
“The biggest thing that we’re trying to do here is leverage MoneyGram’s platform to help solve real-world problems,” Anthony Soohoo, MoneyGram CEO told FXC Intelligence. The company chose Colombia as its launch market because it’s a “major inbound remittance corridor where the local currency has been facing a lot of depreciation”. “We’re trying to democratise access to finance for a lot of individuals, and we see this as a first step in that direction,” Soohoo added.
MoneyGram’s competitive landscape: A race to the consumer
While other remittance players are exploring stablecoins, MoneyGram’s consumer-first launch is a significant departure. Before the hype of stablecoins, digital-first players like Wise and Sendwave reset the market with faster, cheaper transfers by using fiat net settlement and local payment rails. Now, stablecoins offer legacy giants a way to achieve similar efficiency without tying up capital or absorbing additional FX risk.
Click to signupParent of WorldRemit and Sendwave, Zepz group recently partnered with Circle to integrate stablecoins into its back-office operations. Mark Lenhard, CEO of Zepz said, “While our customers have always experienced near-instant money transfers, the same efficiency hasn’t applied to our backend settlement processes”. For Zepz, stablecoins are a tool to improve liquidity management, not a direct consumer product (yet?).
Meanwhile, rival firm Western Union, with its vast network of over 380,000 retail locations, has a more complex strategy. In its internal framing, the company is pursuing a dual approach. On one hand, it aims to position its network as a “protocol-layer bridge”—an infrastructure play to connect the cash economy with digital assets, similar to MoneyGram’s “Ramps” API. On the other hand, Western Union has also identified “providing buy/sell/hold access to digital assets via its wallet infrastructure” as a key strategic opportunity.
This shows that while MoneyGram is first to launch a consumer-facing stablecoin product, its biggest rival is clearly preparing to compete in the same space. MoneyGram’s “leapfrog” is its speed to market, moving from strategy to an executed product while others are still in the planning phase.
What MoneyGram’s stablecoins app means for the industry
MoneyGram’s move carries significant implications for everyone in the cross-border payments ecosystem.
For MoneyGram, this is a strategic play to future-proof its relevance by leveraging the “decades of global trust that the MoneyGram brand has”. This launch is the first step in a larger platform strategy; Soohoo revealed plans to give third-party developers access to build new applications on top of the wallet, unlocking further innovation. “This is where MoneyGram – and money itself – is headed,” said Soohoo.
They will, however, face headwinds in choosing where the app can operate, since holding crypto—including stablecoins—remains illegal in many major remittance-receiving countries. Still, the decision to go direct is a bold step, one worth watching and a clear marker of their “refounding journey.”
For remittance recipients, the benefits are immediate. The app provides direct protection from local currency devaluation and opens the door to a “new segment of customers” who want to save for big purchases like a “new house” and want to “make sure they don’t get bitten by inflation”. The product roadmap promises to further bridge the physical and digital worlds with features such as adding cash directly to USD balances at retail locations, earning incentives on deposits through integrated savings options, and explicitly “avoiding exchange rates.” For global spending, users will be able to use linked Visa or Mastercard debit cards—a capability that could open the door to partnerships with stablecoin-powered card issuers like the Visa-backed Raincards.
For the remittance industry, MoneyGram’s launch raises the stakes. It shifts the primary conversation from backend cost savings to creating value-added products for end-users. As Luke Tuttle, MoneyGram’s Chief Product and Technology Officer, emphasized, “As financial technology evolves, MoneyGram is once again leading the way, delivering real stablecoin utility in a safe, secure and compliant way through a brand consumers trust”.
Regulators should also expect intensified lobbying, as legacy companies bring bigger budgets and deeper relationships to influence crypto policy and the broader financial economy.
By launching a consumer-centric app, MoneyGram isn’t just optimising the old remittance system—it’s laying the foundation for a future where money is more controlled, flexible, and instant. MoneyGram stablecoins app is launched in partnership with Circle (the currency issuer), Crossmint (the wallet infrastructure provider) and the Stellar blockchain (the protocol facilitating transactions).
