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Oct 16, 2024

MoneyGram Announces Its Latest: MoneyGram Wallet! | Video | CoinDesk

MoneyGram Chairman and CEO Alex Holmes discusses what future integration between fiat and crypto would like. Plus, the latest on how users can request funds (USDC) with other MoneyGram Wallet Users.

MoneyGram Chairman and CEO Alex Holmes discusses what future integration between fiat and crypto would like. Plus, the latest on how users can request funds (USDC) with other MoneyGram Wallet Users.

Welcome to this special edition of Markets Daily where we're joined by international Money Transfer company, Moneygram, which provides key on and off ramps for the crypto world on the stellar network. They've been pivotal to giving unbanked communities access to local currencies via stablecoins. Earlier today, I spoke to Moneygram International chair and CEO Alex Holmes have a listen, Alex. Thank you so much for joining us. Moneygram has had a really great progressive development on the cellar network in terms of providing on an off ramps, as I mentioned. And you also have an announcement today. Tell us what's going on. Yeah, we certainly do. Um We're announcing our Moneygram wallet. So for the first time, we're enabling us DC transfers through the Moneygram network through a special app uh which now basically enables um Well, I say it's only live today in, in the United States, Brazil and Mexico. Uh but it's our first foray into really um changing the paradigm around how money moves and, and giving consumers the ability to actually transfer us DC through the system and then leveraging the stellar access rails that we've created, enabling them to do cash in and cash out in markets around the world. So it's like super exciting and be part of our kind of future integration where we continue to try to bridge the world between fiat and, and crypto. What was the, I guess the demand or inspiration to have this product? I know there are other wallets out there. Yeah, absolutely. I mean, and we love all the wallets that we partner with and every wallet has its own sort of specific use case and, you know, kind of its own consumer base that has a need for that wallet. And many times what we see your wallets are being actively used, um, to displace or change or really think differently about, um, fiat and, and thinking differently about then how crypto can, can play a role there. Oftentimes too, us DC and other stablecoins are used to kind of bridge that gap between, um, cryptocurrencies themselves, right? And try to create some stability. So what we wanted to do is actually think about how do we take advantage of the rails that we have our ability to sort of send cash and, and, and every fiat you can think of around the world and enable consumers to, to send money back home. But how can you do that even in a more kind of stable and unique sort of way today, when you send money, you're sort of forcing a transaction to complete, right? You send money and, and you send us dollars it goes to Mexico, it gets paid out in pesos. You send money from Saudi Arabia to India and you're paying it out in, in rupee. This really actually enables consumers to think about loading money into a wallet, having stable currency and then basically enabling them to send it into and, and receive it between each other and then cash it out when they want to. So it's, it's helping to fight some inflation. It's helping to really think differently about um safety sound is how do you really keep money secure? Maybe you can break that down for me in terms of the user experience. You know, tell me, you know, from the moment you're sending money who you're receiving to and how they get that money in local currency or are they using the wall to pay for things locally? Yeah. No, absolutely. It's a great question. So typically today in a, in a Remittance transaction is a consumer that needs to get money back home for a specific reason. So whether that is um sending money to, to mom and dad, whether that's saving to return home someday, consumers leave their home countries and, and have responsibility back home. Today, we do that through basically our 440,000 physical locations around the world. We do that through about 5 billion digital end points, meaning we can move money in and out of uh out of bank accounts. We partner with about 100 and 70 fiat wallets around the world. Uh you know, big partners like g cash in the Philippines as an example. Uh and effectively we move money across 200 different countries and territories. And so the use case there is, is typically around how does the consumer um support their family while while abroad. And so when you start bringing crypto into the equation, what a lot of um the companies have been doing in the space and leveraging Blockchain to try to think differently about um how that can move and sort of avoid some of the the pitfalls and traps you can get into with, with fiat currencies like volatile, you know, currencies on the exotic side. When you get into things like Bangladeshi, Taka and Nigerian Naira, you've got a lot of volatility. And so I think the ability to think differently about cross border payments and sort of trying to bring stability into the market is really what a lot of the the Blockchain vision has been in terms of, you know, really leveraging crypto in that way to, to think differently about how consumers can interact with each other across borders where there may be some. So I just like walk me through, you know, what, how, how are you using the app? Are you going to a moneygram and withdrawing money or can you use your wall directly with merchants? Yeah. So it's actually gonna be all the above. So today consumers can can basically walk into locations and, and pick up cash physically. They can walk in and put cash on the counter physically and say they want to send it across border. Um, or you can go to the moneygram.com app and you can send money. And now through the Moneygram wallet, you can go and you can walk into a physical location and load the wallet. You can go to physical location, unload the wallet. And then while in the digital world, you can transfer money seamlessly between people on the, on the, on the chain. And I guess the, the key, you know, the reason why we wanna do all this partially is, you know, we wanna save on the fees that does this help in that. Yeah, it actually should in a major way because you're gonna be able to time your, your transfers, um, very differently. Sending us DC is free to do. So you're really just gonna be charged on the cash outside when you go to actually convert. Um, and then if to your point, if you have the ability to, to take us DC and use it for payments at the point of sale, you'll be able to seamlessly do that in the future, which will be enable you to actually never have to go into the, to the cash world. I want to throw a larger concept at you and get your take on it because I think there's probably not many people who think about money going around the globe as you do. Um But I have this theory that really stable coins are the in game currency of the internet. And so we need an opportunity to be able to transfer money back and forth without really worrying about all the conversion that happens that within country to country and region to region, whereas the internet itself is the largest mass of people that exists, right? So when we think about that, I think the role that you guys play and through a lot of the work you've done with stellar here as well is, is sometimes you still need to be able to take that money off, right? And so this is part of the idea around what you guys are doing is also really future proofing the idea that at some point whether it's US DC at one point or it could be really any stable coin that there are on ramps off ramps in local markets for people who need to go buy milk, but that you also can get paid and in essence the highest value most stable currency possible. Yeah, I think that's 100% right. I mean, absolutely. What we're trying to do is is really cha you know, kind of change the paradigm around how people think about money. I mean, many of us today when we travel, right? You can use, you know, visa, you can use a Mastercard, but you're sort of deferring and delaying a payment because eventually that, that money has to get paid later, debit cards, um, shifting currencies through those has a lot of conversion rate issues associated with it. So, if you're living cross border, if you're not in your home market, you know, banks are designed for domestic. Right. And that's what they do and they do it really well, anytime you need to get a cross border and you need to think differently about it, you really sort of have to violate those sort of traditional banking laws in order to make that happen. And I do think that pushing things through stablecoin, thinking about how, you know, your internet of value concept really comes to play, makes a big difference in terms of a consumer's life and, and how they, you know, can, can actually kind of move from, from one to, to the next. Um, if you think about, you know, living on a dollar a day somewhere, actually having a real physical dollar can make a big difference. Having a digital dollar when you're, you know, working in basically a mobile technology world that is internet and, you know, basically Wi fi and, and, and cellular based. It's a, it's a huge shift. It's a huge shift in how consumers can really think about their everyday activities. Hey, everyone did, you know, 52 million Americans own cryptocurrencies. That's not just a number, it's a movement, economic, social and political, decentralized. Finance Blockchain and digital currencies are more than buzzwords. They are the future this November, it's on us to show up and step up. We need to protect crypto to ensure it continues to fuel innovation and freedom for our families and businesses. Don't let this opportunity slip by. The future of crypto is on the line. Make your voice heard this November and pledge to vote now at stand with crypto.org backslash pledge and you're starting off in the US, Brazil and Mexico. I wonder why those countries specifically and in the future, were you hoping to expand? Yeah, that's a great question. Um Obviously the US is the single largest send and receive market globally for, for remittances. And so um it is absolutely the best place to test it. One of the other things that we've we've launched this year as part of moneygram um on moneygram.com is was our account service as well. So we actually are enabling now consumers to have a debit and, and basically banking services on as part of moneygram, which is also a big shift for us. The integration of those two products for me is super exciting. So taking money down dot dot com and being able to sort of load and unload and kind of seamlessly move us DC back between those two effectively wallets is is super interesting to me. Uh So it's a great use case and uh use case and testing ground for us. And then Mexico being one of the largest receive markets, um for remittances, bridging that with the US. Uh, and starting there is, is great and then we have a lot of, um, new activities in Brazil. So it's sort of a, uh, a bit of a, a nascent market force. We just launched our, our moneygram.com app there, um, earlier this year as well. So launching Wallet at the same time, uh, and seeing what we can do in those markets. So they are sort of unique markets in many respects. Um, money, uh, the, the stellar, they're great test case. They're great test cases. Yeah, absolutely. It should, it should prove a lot because we really want to push this, this cross border use case as a Remittance, use case, right? And sort of bridge that and kind of compare it to this traditional service that we offer today. Do you get a sense of how many people are using it based on the other wallets and partners you've been working with, like, how many people are engaging in crypto? Yeah, it's actually, um, for us it's turning into, you know, it was, um, you know, a few people testing it and it's actually quickly gone into sort of the thousands. And so, um, you know, it's gonna be really exciting to see how it goes and, and then actually watching sort of the dollar sizes and the flows of funds and what consumers are really doing with it. And sort of the timing around utilization and then we'll pivot and grow and kind of learn from there. So, can you tease the sun on where you want to pivot and grow? Well, I'd like to get in every country that I can. Today's stellar. A access is in, is about 100 and 70 countries for cash out and 36 for cash in. So I'd like to at least get all those covered. Um And then everywhere the Earth moneygram.com app today itself is about 40 markets and so making it seamless between those would be huge. And then I think for, for the Remittance use case for the big receive markets around the world, the India's and, and you know, Bangladeshis and, and um Philippines, it would just be amazing to have it in those markets. So I'm really, really excited about trying to push it through those. All right. Thank you and congratulations for the new, that was Moneygram International chair and Ceo Alex Holmes.

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