Money transfer giant MoneyGram has taken another step forward in its crypto expansion. The company has started operating as a validator on the Solana blockchain and joined the Solana Developer Platform. This means MoneyGram now runs validators on three different networks at the same time.
MoneyGram Chooses Solana
Global payments company MoneyGram has officially become a validator on the Solana blockchain and joined the Solana Developer Platform. This marks the company’s third validator operation after Tempo and Midnight Network.
MoneyGram CEO and Chairman Anthony Soohoo explained the reasoning behind the move in a statement: “Blockchain infrastructure is becoming increasingly important for global payments. We believe institutions that rely on these networks should also contribute to their security and long-term development.”
Becoming a validator gives MoneyGram the ability to stake SOL, validate transaction blocks and directly contribute to the security of the network. Membership in the Developer Platform also means access to financial product development tools on Solana, alongside institutions such as Mastercard.
MoneyGram’s blockchain history is not new. The company’s MGUSD stablecoin was built in collaboration with Stripe’s Bridge, Crossmint, Fireblocks, M0 and Stellar. Soohoo recalled that since 2021, the company’s partnership with Stellar has introduced stablecoin cash-in and cash-out points, the MoneyGram Ramps API and in-app stablecoin balances. With its recent partnership with Kraken, MoneyGram has also expanded its off-ramp services.
“We have been building real-world payment solutions with blockchain and stablecoins for more than five years,” Soohoo said. “We never saw blockchain as an end in itself; we saw it as a tool that makes money transfers faster and simpler.”
The Ripple experience is also part of this story. MoneyGram signed an agreement with Ripple in 2019 and used RippleNet’s XRP-based On-Demand Liquidity product. According to Ripple, the two companies reached billions of dollars in transaction volume during this period. Ripple also paid MoneyGram millions of dollars in fees as part of its expansion into new markets.
The partnership was suspended in 2021 after the SEC filed a lawsuit against Ripple. The SEC alleged that the company had conducted a $1.3 billion unregistered securities offering through its XRP sales. The case was finally closed last year. The 2023 ruling that XRP itself is not a security and that sales on public exchanges did not violate the law remained in place, but Ripple’s direct sales to institutional investors were found to have violated the law. Ripple had previously said both companies were open to working together again in the future. When Soohoo was asked about the possibility of a new partnership with Ripple, his answer was brief: “We cannot comment on potential future partnerships at this time.”
At the time of writing, SOL price is around $74.34.
