Digital Transactions Authoritative, insightful and timely information for payments professionals
Cryptocurrency remains far from mainstream payments, but it keeps edging closer in the United States and worldwide. Further evidence emerged early Friday with news that the money-transfer platform MoneyGram International Inc. has launched MoneyGram Ramps, an application programming interface aimed at easing crypto-based transfers.
Simultaneously, a crypto app called Bitget Wallet announced merchants will be able to accept stablecoin transactions through a new integration by the company with Paydify, a payment gateway specializing in cryptocurrency.
Stablecoins are digital currency whose value is tied to a national fiat currency, such as the U.S. dollar. The new MoneyGram service relies on the USDC coin from Circle Internet Financial and the Stellar blockchain, and does not require users to have a bank account to collect or deposit funds at MoneyGram stores.
Dallas-based MoneyGram, which bills its latest API as “the most powerful yet,” says it will enable digital wallets, fintechs, and exchanges to “instantly” reach MoneyGram’s global cash network with a few lines of code. The key, according to MoneyGram, is the ability to scale up the service, since it requires minimal code writing. That feature leads the money-transfer service to boast that it is becoming “the connective tissue” for access by digital currency to legacy money networks.
“We’ve taken the complexity out of integration, opening the door to seamless connection with the world’s largest cash on/off-ramp for digital wallets,” says Anthony Soohoo, MoneyGram Chief Executive Officer, in a statement. The new service also brings a shot of modernity to MoneyGram, founded in 1940 through a merger of two money-movement companies. Madison Dearborn Partners acquired the company in 2023.
The details of the new service include cash deposits in more than 30 countries and withdrawals in more than 170, without the need for users to tackle what MoneyGram calls “regulatory complexities.” That, according to the network, promises simplicity. “For years, developers have been searching for an easy way to bridge physical and digital currency,” Luke Tuttle, MoneyGram’s chief technology officer, says in a statement. “MoneyGram Ramps is that missing link.”
MoneyGram promises smooth integrations, cutting deployment time, it says, to minutes from what might have taken days. Onboarding can be done at a MoneyGram Web site, and banking integrations are not required, the network says.
To developers globally, says Soohoo, “we’re open for business. Now’s your opportunity to connect with our global network.”
El Salvador-based Bitget Wallet’s Paydify integration, meanwhile, will smooth merchant acceptance, the company says, leading to routine, everyday use of digital currency. The wallet claims more than 60 million users and a “user protection fund” amounting to more than $300 million.
The alliance with Paydify rests on what the company says is its ability to facilitate transactions for merchants from “any wallet without the need for custom integration.” Bitget cites an Onchain Report indicating “limited merchant acceptance” stands as “a key barrier to using crypto for payments.”
