MoneyGram officially launches its stablecoin card.
MoneyGram announced its latest stablecoin card for global spending in partnership with Visa and Rain as it follows on from its MGUSD stablecoin reveal earlier in the summer.
The money transfer and remittance company operates around 500K physical agent branches around the world and supports cross-border transfers for 60M customers.
This is in collaboration with Stellar Network and Crossmint.
Stablecoin Cards Equals Stablecoin Remittance
Stablecoin cards are on the rise.
Both debit and credit cards are being reinvented with stablecoins working in the background to execute 24/7 transfers operating around the world.
In fact, Visa revealed its stablecoin-linked cards volume is at $20B.
While timing is the largest benefit, this can mean cheaper transactions costs for both the sender and the receiver where there is sufficient orchestration, liquidity, and acceptance in place.
In other cases, the cost benefit may still lag due to FX, off-ramping, and acceptance fees from local actors.
However, the premise of being able to spend money anywhere and instantly is quickly catching on, especially when there is no need to convert back into local fiat currency.
For MoneyGram, this is an initiative that has been in development for quite some time.
A year ago the team announced a partnership with Crossmint to redesign its stablecoin wallet infrastructure and pilot stablecoin to local currency conversion in Cambodia and LATAM.
Following this, MoneyGram launched its own MGUSD stablecoin in June together with industry actors Bridge for stablecoin issuance and Fireblocks for custody infrastructure.
Overall, stablecoins give remittance providers like MoneyGram a new business line while making idle customer accounts spendable overseas.
Indeed, its competitor Western Union similarly launched a stable card and USDPT stablecoin.
The remittance market is becoming the stablecoin market where fast transfers and spendable balances are in demand in most emerging economies.
