Ripple and MoneyGram Officially Call-Off Their Partnership, May Reconsider In the Future

On Monday, March 8, San Francisco-based blockchain firm Ripple finally called-off its partnership with payments remittance firm MoneyGram. The official announcement for the same was done by CEO Brad Garlinghouse who then went to share a small draft for the same.

Although the two companies have decided to part ways for the moment, they are still open reconsider this partnership in the future, said Garlinghouse.

The official draft from Ripple notes: “Together, Ripple and MoneyGram have made the decision to end our current partnership agreement. We are proud of the work we were able to accomplish in a short amount of time, as well as the impact we were able to achieve in bringing this first-of-its-kind product to market. Together, we processed billions of dollars through RippleNet and On-Demand Liquidity (ODL)”.

It further adds: “We are both committed to revisiting our relationship in the future. We still believe in the promise of digital assets and blockchain technology to change the status quo in global payments for the benefit of billions of consumers around the world”.

The SEC’s lawsuit on Ripple in late December 2020, has played a major spoilsport for the blockchain startup. It has severely impacted Ripple’s relation with many of its major partners who are not willing to enter a tussle with the securities regulator.

In another tweet, Garlinghouse mentions: “While the lack of a crypto reg framework has needlessly muddied the waters for U.S. businesses & consumers, there’s no denying what Ripple and MGI have achieved together. Billions of dollars have been sent and settled across borders through ODL w/ XRP”.

However, Ripple’ overseas partners have supported the blockchain company. Japanese financial giant SBI Holdings has backed Ripple and said that it stands by its side. Also, the rules of the U.S. SEC doesn’t Stand true for Ripple operations in Japan.

Revisiting the Ripple-Moneygram relationship, the two companies entered in partnership sometime back in 2018. The next year in 2019, Moneygram started processing cross-border payments using Ripple’s on-demand liquidity systems such as the XRP tokens.

The same year in November 2019, Ripple invested $50 million in Moneygram for a 9.95% stake. Alex Holmes, the chief of Moneygram said that in 18 months of cooperation with the blockchain firm, the remittance provider saw its transactions surge over 200% and its online clients increasing by 140%.

Initially, after the December 2020 SEC lawsuit, Moneygram adopted a wait and watch approach. But it seems that for now, the two companies have decided to discontinue this association.