Author: Xiaobing
Stablecoins have solved the speed and cost issues of cross-border remittances, but they have not addressed a more fundamental problem: In most parts of the world, how do you turn the received money into cash?
On August 11th, global leading money transfer company MoneyGram announced that its crypto on/off-ramp service, MoneyGram Ramps, has officially launched on Solana. Developers can connect MoneyGram's network of nearly half a million cash outlets across over 170 countries to their own applications via a single API. Users can walk into a local MoneyGram agent location with USDC and exchange it for local currency cash, or use cash to top up their wallets and purchase USDC.
Rift has become the first Solana wallet to integrate this service. MoneyGram is also operating a node as a validator on the Solana network.
CEO Anthony Soohoo said in the announcement: "The future of payments is built on accessibility."
Who is MoneyGram?
In China, MoneyGram's name recognition is far lower than its actual scale in the global remittance market.
The company's history dates back to 1940. That year, a group of investors in Minneapolis founded Travelers Express, providing money order services to grocery and drug stores, targeting the unbanked population. It was renamed MoneyGram in 1998 and went public on the New York Stock Exchange in 2004.
In the global cross-border remittance market, MoneyGram has long held the second position after Western Union, with annual transaction volume exceeding $200 billion. As of 2026, the company reported approximately 60 million active customers and nearly half a million retail agent locations covering over 200 countries and regions. Over 70% of transactions are now completed through digital channels.
In June 2023, Chicago-based private equity fund Madison Dearborn Partners completed a privatization acquisition of MoneyGram for approximately $1.8 billion, delisting it from Nasdaq. Following privatization, MoneyGram accelerated its transformation into a fintech platform, moving beyond just remittances and opening its compliance capabilities, cash network, and settlement infrastructure as services to external developers.
MoneyGram's relationship with crypto did not start today. It partnered with Ripple in 2019 to explore blockchain settlement, and in 2022, collaborated with the Stellar Development Foundation and Circle to allow users to convert between USDC and cash through its retail network. In June 2026, MoneyGram issued its own USD stablecoin, MGUSD, on the Stellar network.
What Problem Does an API Solve?
The core value of Ramps can be summed up in one sentence: It allows any crypto wallet or exchange developer, without needing to negotiate with banks themselves, build their own compliance system, or establish their own cash network, to enable users to convert between crypto and cash globally.
MoneyGram handles KYC identity verification, compliance reviews, and fiat currency settlement. Developers only need to integrate one API.
This solves the last physical obstacle to stablecoin adoption. The on-chain transfer of USDC from New York to Lagos might take only a few seconds and cost a few cents, but if the recipient does not have a bank account, they cannot turn the received USDC into spendable money. In vast areas of sub-Saharan Africa, Southeast Asia, and Latin America, bank account penetration is far lower than mobile phone ownership, and cash remains the fundamental medium of daily economic activity.
MoneyGram's 500,000 agent locations, spread across grocery stores, communications shops, and currency exchange points, serve as bridges connecting on-chain dollars to the offline economy. No crypto-native company could replicate this physical network in the short term.
This model had already been validated on the Stellar network previously. The expansion to Solana signifies Ramps is moving towards a multi-chain future. Currently, cash deposit coverage extends to over 25 countries, and cash withdrawal is available in over 170 countries and regions.
Why Solana?
MoneyGram's choice of Solana as a new target for multi-chain expansion is based on several practical considerations.
Solana offers extremely low transaction costs (typically less than a cent) and fast confirmation speeds (sub-second finality), making it inherently friendly for small-value, high-frequency remittance scenarios. The economic model breaks down if the on-chain fee for a $50 cross-border transfer costs several dollars; Solana almost eliminates this friction.
Solana's developer ecosystem is also more consumer-application oriented. MoneyGram Ramps has been directly embedded into the payments module of the Solana Developer Platform, meaning any team building payment, wallet, or DeFi applications on Solana can directly call on MoneyGram's infrastructure.
Western Union has also joined the Solana Developer Platform. The image of the world's two largest money transfer companies simultaneously present on the same public chain was almost unimaginable just two years ago.
The Real Path for Stablecoins to Enter Everyday Remittances
The crypto industry has talked for years about "replacing SWIFT with stablecoins," but what has truly hindered adoption has always been the off-chain cash conversion network, as on-chain speed has long been sufficient.
Banking channels reject crypto assets, and the regulatory frameworks in most countries have not yet provided clear on/off-ramp pathways for stablecoins. In this gap, the involvement of traditional remittance networks like MoneyGram offers a compliant and scalable path: Users don't need to understand blockchain, don't need to have a bank account. They just need to walk into a trusted local store and complete an operation that feels almost identical to a traditional money transfer, except the underlying settlement shifts from SWIFT to Solana.
This is the real path to stablecoin adoption, enabled by an 85-year-old money transfer company turning its physical network into the last mile for blockchain.
