Ripple Announces Partnership With MoneyGram To Speed Fiat Settlements

Blockchain-based payments gateway Ripple announced a new partnership with payment service MoneyGram today, Jan. 11.

In a blog post today, Ripple confirmed that MoneyGram would integrate Ripple’s XRP altcoin into its payment system. The integration, according to Ripple, “allows MoneyGram to solve the age-old liquidity issue most financial institutions face.”

Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse commented in company’s blog post announcing the partnership:

“The payments problem doesn’t just affect banks; it also affects companies like MoneyGram, which help people get money to the ones they care about.

By using a digital asset like XRP that settles in three seconds or less, our clients can move money as quickly as information.”

Garlinghouse has increasingly championed XRP’s perceived advantages as a currency over Bitcoin as interest and trade increased. Given Ripple’s market value in early January, the company’s chairman, Chris Larsen, was then reported to have accrued personal wealth to rival Warren Buffett and Bill Gates due to his 37 percent stake.

Ripple has unveiled several partnership deals in recent weeks, and in the first week of 2018, the value of XRP skyrocketed to highs barely imaginable just months ago.

While the rate of appreciation drew no shortage of warnings and criticism, the refusal of Coinbase to add the altcoin reportedly precipitated a 30 percent downturn last week, something the latest news appears to be changing.

XRP is up almost eight percent in the 24 hours to press time according to data from CoinMarketCap, which since Jan. 8 does not include some major South Korean markets.