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Former Ripple Partner Files Motion To Protect Business Info

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MoneyGram International, a former Ripple partner has filed a motion to the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York seeking to seal parts of its for the summary judgment in the current SEC vs XRP lawsuit.

This, according to the cross-border payments firm is intended to protect business information and employee identities.

Back in September, the US regulator SEC and the blockchain firm sought a summary judgment in the ongoing case.

The agency sued Ripple and its executives in December 2020, claiming that the sale of XRP constituted an offering of unregistered securities worth more than $1.38 billion.

This lawsuit, which has been tipped to have long-lasting effects on the cryptocurrency industry, has since progressed to other parties.

As for MoneyGram and Ripple, the two payment giants were partners for a few years. During that time, the latter heavily invested in MoneyGram and purchased its stock.

According to Alex Holmes, MoneyGram also declared their desire to use XRP to settle billions of dollars in USD remittances utilizing Ripple’s ODL technology. The collaboration, however, came to an end in 2021 when the blockchain firm was sued by the SEC.

MoneyGram stopped trading on Ripple’s platform in February 2021 due to litigation uncertainty, putting an end to a related arrangement that involved on-demand liquidity transactions worth a few billion dollars.

MoneyGram Forge New Friendships With Ripple Partner

In response, Ripple sold all of its shares in MoneyGram, and the blockchain powerhouse formally ended the agreement in March.

Although the two firms are no longer in direct partnership, MoneyGram entered into a business arrangement with one of Ripple’s current partners-Frente Corretora and introduced a brand-new remittance service in Brazil with no fees for users.

The new service, known as MoneyGram Online [MGO], allowed users to send money to friends and family members in near real-time from Brazil to any location on the planet.

On the other hand, Ripple began making inroads into Africa with the support of its partner firm’s agent, driving more volume to its cross-border payment solution and indirectly XRP.

Recently, CEO Brad Garlinghouse shared his view on the regulatory clarity for the crypto industry in the US.

As reported by TronWeekly, Garlinghouse in the Tweet thread stated he’s “cautiously optimistic” as support for regulation is “bipartisan & bicameral.

He further believed that 2023 would be the “breakthrough” year in bringing regulatory clarity to the cryptocurrency industry in the US.

Ripple’s Main Rival Stellar Sees 92% Increase In Operations This Year

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The main rival of Ripple (XRP), Stellar (XLM), a decentralized peer-to-peer network, recorded around 3 billion operations this year, approximately a 92% increase from last year, which was 1 billion.

On December 26th, the network tweeted a thread in which SDF CEO and Executive Director Denelle Dixon summarized 2022 by outlining end-of-year stats, milestone achievements, and other information.

According to the Twitter thread, Stellar handled an additional billion operations in just two quarters of last year. This year, Stellar reached almost 1 billion operations in a single quarter and attained the milestone of having more than 7 million accounts on the network. 

Additionally, the network saw a massive growth of about 172% to 3.45 million from the previous year regarding total payments. The network reported a 1.9x increase in the number of daily transactions, steadily rising since the start of this year.

This rise occurs even though they’ve tightened their reporting criteria to exclude outdated relevant assets and noticed a little drop in the number of relevant assets on the network.

2022 New Developments Of Stellar (XLM)

As they said earlier this year, the network will soon support smart contracts. Soroban, a testnet with incentives, is now operating on Futurenet and is scheduled to be live on Mainnet in the middle of 2023.

In addition, they have set up a $100 million adoption fund with the sole purpose of aiding developers who are utilizing Soroban. However, Soroban is only the beginning of the excitement.

MoneyGram launched MoneyGram Access in June as a first-of-its-kind worldwide on/off-ramp service for digital wallets, collaborating with SDF.

According to the tweet:

One real-world use case showcasing the power of MoneyGram Access is Stellar Aid Assist, a tool that enables humanitarian aid organizations to deliver cash assistance quickly, affordably, and transparently.

Since the previous year, the number of anchors has doubled from 30 to 60, continuing to support Stellar. Since the Stellar Anchor Platform was introduced, being an anchor is now simpler than ever.

Furthermore, the Enterprise Fund, which was first introduced in 2020, is still expanding the Stellar ecosystem and widening its reach. A total of $23.525 million was invested by it this year in 5 firms. 

Additionally, $3.25 million went to accelerators supporting startups in growth regions, including Latin America and Africa.

Moreover, with $1.2 M distributed to three startups this year, the Matching Fund, its most recent investment track, enables more early-stage startups interested in developing on Stellar.

Related Reading |  Ripple & Palau Team Up To Create National Stablecoin

MoneyGram & Ripple Partner To Launch Fee-Free Online Transaction Service In Brazil

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On December 20, MoneyGram International, a pioneer in the development of digital P2P payments, announced the launch of MoneyGram Online (MGO) in Brazil with no transaction fees for users.

Additionally, Frente Corretora, a well-known provider of financial technology in Brazil and one of Ripple’s current partners, is working with MoneyGram to create this new service.

According to the press release, with more than 1,000 retail outlets around the nation, MoneyGram already has a strong presence in Brazil and has been providing customers with the ability to send money overseas for the past 25 years.

Additionally, the Brazilian digital remittances market is anticipated to expand by around 10% over the following five years as the nation’s need for digital solutions rises.

As demand has migrated increasingly online, the company is dedicated to continuing to satisfy the ever-changing needs of its customers. As a result, it now offers Brazilian customers the option to transfer money whether they’re on the road or from home.

The press release added that remittances sent abroad from Latin America have been rising consistently recently. By 2022, there will be 1 million immigrants living in Brazil, a 24% increase over the previous ten years.

MoneyGram Online “MGO” Service

Per the press release, by utilizing MGO, customers can now send money from Brazil to friends and family members almost instantly anywhere in the globe.

The company offers a variety of alternatives for recipients to receive money, including account deposits, mobile wallets, and cash pick-up from retail locations, all of which are tailored to match their particular needs.

MoneyGram Chairman and CEO, Alex Holmes, said:

As we continue to execute our strategy to grow and expand MoneyGram Online geographically, I am thrilled to announce that our website is now officially live in Brazil. 

The ongoing digital growth in the globe shows that customers genuinely value their industry-leading user experience, he continued. They are incredibly proud of the immersive online platform they have created for clients across the world.

They are sure that this launch will help us expand into new consumer groups, strengthen their bonds with current clients, and provide enormous value over the long term.

Holmes further asserts: 

This is a significant growth opportunity for MoneyGram to capture market share in a country with one of the largest populations in the world. As we approach the start of the new year, we’re set up for success.

Related Reading | Shiba Inu May Explode During The Next Bull Run

MoneyGram Strikes Partnership With Stellar to Launch a Stablecoin Remittance Service

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MoneyGram International, one of the world’s leading cross-border transfer businesses, has teamed up with the Stellar blockchain to develop a stablecoin-based money transfer platform. Users of Stellar wallets will be able to send Circle’s USD Coin (USDC) to receivers who will be able to utilize the MoneyGram network to cash them out for their native fiat currency.

“We’re trying to be a bridge from the crypto world to the fiat world.”

MoneyGram CEO Alex Holmes said in an interview.

It is also in talks with third-party companies in El Salvador to offer digital wallets in addition to the Chivo wallets, which were released last year when the country made Bitcoin (BTC) legal tender. If it can reach an arrangement with one of these companies, it will be able to compete for BTC transfers.

MoneyGram praises El Salvador

“If a country like El Salvador is going to make Bitcoin seamless with US dollars in country, I think that consumers, through MoneyGram, should be able to transfer Bitcoin to El Salvador or transfer dollars and convert them to Bitcoin.”

Holmes spoke to Bloomberg

The decision comes as remittances become increasingly common in emerging economies, as well as heightened scrutiny of stablecoins that are supposed to maintain a 1-to-1 relationship with a commodity or currency like the US dollar.

Users with Stellar blockchain digital wallets will be able to convert their holdings to Circle Internet Financial’s USDC stablecoin once MG starts the service. The service can be used to convert the stablecoin to fiat currency.

MG has a previous deal with Ripple Labs, which previously held a large number of the company’s shares. Ripple and MoneyGram dissolved in March 2021, shortly after Ripple was sued by the Securities and Exchange Commission of the United States. A class-action lawsuit was filed against MoneyGram in March 2021 as a result of their partnership with Ripple.

In October 2021, MG and Stellar began working together, and a trial service was released in November. There had been speculations earlier in the summer that Stellar was interested in purchasing MoneyGram.

RippleNet Barely Used By MoneyGram Affirms Cross-Border Payments Giant

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The crypto market has been proving to be extremely volatile than ever. While Bitcoin hit new heights, Ripple [XRP] slumped to new lows. However, the altcoin was once again seen mounting. XRP found itself swimming in troubled waters following formal charges from the Securities and Exchange Commission [SEC] of the United States. Ripple is once again in the news after MoneyGram shed light on its association with the payments company.

XRP Soars After Slumping By 50%

Ripple has time and again been associated with prominent cross border payments platform, MoneyGram. In a recent statement issued by MoneyGram, the platform revealed that it does not employ RippleNet or the on-demand liquidity [ODL]  platform of Ripple. This statement was in light of the recent charges from the SEC against Ripple fr engaging in an unregistered securities offering that managed to raise $1.3 billion.

The statement further read,

“The Company has not currently been notified or been made aware of any negative impact to its commercial agreement with Ripple but will continue to monitor for any potential impact as developments in the lawsuit evolve.”

MoneyGram, in its announcement, stressed the fact that it wasn’t subject to any action from the SEC as it did not utilize “the ODL platform or RippleNet for direct transfers of consumer funds.” However, the platform has been making use of Ripple’s foreign exchange [FX] since June 2019.

The SEC lawsuit had insinuated a series of unrests to the Ripple network. Several exchanges including, OSL, CrossTower as well as Beaxy put a hold on services related to XRP following the lawsuit. The charges slapped on Ripple had even led to prominent crypto exchange, Coinbase to consider delisting the altcoin.

Over the course of the past week, XRP had recorded a slump of over 50%. However, the asset seemed to be getting back on track as it was surging by over 30%, during the time of writing. XRP was priced at $0.3560 while its market cap was as low as $15.7 billion.

Ripple’s Moneygram Establishes Partnership With Largest Islamic Bank in MENA Region

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The collective expansion of Ripple and Moneygram has been a steady development since the beginning of 2019. Moneygram International, a global leader in cross-border remittances, has also been vocal about its key partnership with Ripple and extended the partnership with another $11.3 million deal in February 2020.

Now, according to a recent press release, the organization has entered into a strategic partnership with Al Rajhi Bank, one of the largest banks in the MENA Islamic zone, and Tahweel Al Rajhi, Al Rajhi Bank’s remittance division. The specific target region to facilitate transaction services will be Saudi Arabia.

The press release further indicated that the partnership will be taking control of both the digital and walk-in channels in order to enable strong customer engagement.

Grant Lines, MoneyGram Chief Revenue Officer stated,

“This partnership is an important milestone that capitalizes on recent strategic investments in major receive markets. Over the last few months, we’ve expanded with new partners in India, Egypt, Pakistan, and the Philippines to name a few. All of these markets are key recipients of transfers from Saudi Arabia, and consumers will now benefit from this customer-centric integration with Al Rajhi Bank.”

The aforementioned between Moneygram and Al Rajhi Bank will be highly fundamental in the future but it is not the first time the organization has taken steps in the MENA region.

Expansion in the Middle East and Asia

In January 2020, Moneygram had struck down a deal with the Suez Canal Bank, which is one of the largest commercial banks in Egypt that provides its customers with the functionality to send capital to local bank accounts.

The diversification has been taking place further East as well with the two organizations taking further steps to occupy the South Korean remittance market by joining forces with local fintech players.

XRP’s Social Volume Engagement

Although the price hasn’t been on the move recently, Ripples’ development might have come to XRP’s aide to bolster its relevance in the space. According to Santiment’s recent insights, it was suggested that XRP had taken the top spot in ‘Emerging Trends’ and had witnessed massive social volume spike.

It is evident that Ripple promotes the use of XRP token for its remittance services and it is plausible Moneygram has integrated XRP as well in their global services. These developments may continue to put forward the use-case of the digital asset and further break reduce its correlation from Bitcoin.

Western Union Aiming to Acquire MoneyGram Potentially Affecting Ripple and XRP

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According to a report by Bloomberg on June 1, Western Union is targeting to acquire rival money transfer firm MoneyGram, in a deal that would significantly affect Ripple and XRP.  According to an anonymous source to Bloomberg, Western Union is awaiting MoneyGram’s decision after submitting an official takeover bid.

MoneyGram collaborated with Ripple back in 2019 utilizes Ripple’s cross-border technology to make overseas payments, On-Demand Liquidity, to process a portion of its remittances. In addition, Ripple owns about 10 percent of MoneyGram after successfully completing a $50 million investment in the payments firm.

Western Union exploring Ripple’s potential on facilitating international transfers

In the meantime, Western Union is looking into the perspective of XRP’s capacity to initiate cross-border transfers, however, it is not yet convinced on Ripple’s ability to save the payment giants money.  According to the CEO of Western Union Hikmet Ersek back in 2019, the firm’s initial tests on XRP uncovered that using digital currencies is five times costlier than using the company’s in-house system.

However, this perception seems to be changing. Back in April, a study by Credit Suisse suggested that  Western Union is still “testing and considering the use of Ripple (XRP) for cross-border [payments]” regardless of the firm’s initial perception on Ripple’s technology. 

MoneyGram yet to fully transition to XRP

The two money transfer companies are among the largest in the United States. According to Bloomberg, MoneyGram has a market value of nearly $164 million; as of 1st June with $848 million in total debts. On the other hand, Western Union has a market value of approximately $8.5 billion.

Although MoneyGram adopted Ripple’s ODL technology, the payments firm is yet to fully transition from the traditional system to go full crypto. As per a quarterly report by the firm, barely a fifth of the firm’s entire transactions in Q1 of 2020 were digital. However, it is anticipated that this trend might change due to the spread of coronavirus worldwide; as digital payments are preferred to walk-in transactions.

Moneygram’s 11.3 Million Pay-Day from Ripple, Could Only Improve with Probable IPO Plans on The Horizon 

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The partnership of Ripple and Moneygram was a major talking point in the past year.

Moneygram, which is one of the largest remittance companies in the world entered a partnership alongside Ripple in order to expand its services around the world.

According to Moneygram’s recent report to the SEC, it has been a profitable venture for the organization. The filing suggested that Moneygram has already received on a whopping 11.3 million in revenue as a result of their partnership.

Is Ripple steadily entering remittance services?

It is no secret that the growth of XRP is directly related to Ripple’s growth. The fact that Ripple publicly entertains the use of XRP for remittances has been reaching global corridors now.

Moneygram’s partnership is a prime example.

 

The American remittances company’s total revenue for the last few months has been declining, but the partnership with Ripple, to embrace RippleNet’s On-Demand Liquidity, has been fruitful to the present day.

The report stated,

“The Company is compensated by Ripple in XRP for developing and bringing liquidity to foreign exchange markets, facilitated by the ODL platform, and providing a reliable level of foreign exchange trading activity.”

 

The Ripple network has continued to grow over the last year and these numbers of over 11 million in revenue for Moneygram are likely to go higher in 2020.

The length of the contract between Ripple and Moneygram is also a long term understanding until 2023, which indicated that Ripple was adamant to get major financial institutions to use RippleNet’s services or the long term.

With Ripple aggressively working towards bringing more financial institutions to utilize blockchain assets, the partnership with Moneygram can be taken as the first step towards a larger paradigm shift in the global financial system.

 

Ripple’s IPO- to be or not to be?

During the World Economic Forum in Davos this year, Brad Garlinghouse stirred the speculation pot and suggested that IPO’s could the next big thing in crypto/blockchain.

With those words escaping his speech, it was only a natural reaction that the community started weighing in on the prospect of Ripple launching its own IPO. However, before cultivating a plan towards an IPO, Ripple still had to settle their matters with the SEC to prove that XRP is a digital asset and not a security.

With many people confusing ICO and IPO in the space, it is important to take note that an IPO for a crypto-supportive organization is far complicated then it seems.

An organization has to substantiate its profitability beforehand, rather than raising funds based on future prospects, which was basically an ICO.

A digital asset bearing the narrative of an IPO will be carrying and projecting the idea of crypto into the mainstream industry. The root reason for any investor to invest in an IPO would be solely based on profitability. Hence, the likelihood of a Ripple IPO in 2020 is practically weak, considering the global financial system is currently threading through a meltdown due to the COVID-19 impact.

An IPO down the line can have significant implications on XRP’s future as well. XRP would be directly launched into the larger remittances industry and its face value will improve meteorically.

 

Albeit these speculations, Ripple needs to prove XRP’s crypto credentials to the SEC before the idea of an IPO could take a flight.

 

Ripple Partner MoneyGram Joins Forces With Visa for FastSend launch

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Cross border transactions have become the norm with several mainstream companies taking the route. Ripple has been one of the several companies taking an initiative from the cryptocurrency sphere and that has shown with the partnerships.

Just recently, one of Ripple’s major partners, MoneyGram, announced a new service that is not using Ripple’s technology, but rather that of its rival, Visa

MoneyGram claimed that FastSend was developed keeping in mind the quick and easy access that people need to money. The service will enable users to send money to a phone number in real time using their particular website or mobile app. Since investing $50 million in the remittance company, Ripple owns 10 percent of MoneyGram.

During the launch, Kamila Chytil, the Chief Operating Officer [COO] of MoneyGram stated:

“Today, MoneyGram is utilizing Ripple’s On Demand Liquidity product which allows MoneyGram to trade FX at a corporate level using XRP. It’s a back-end treasury function that’s not consumer facing. The technology is helping to solve the most expensive and time consuming aspect of the current process by reducing the amount of money the company needs to park around the world, which will eventually reduce working capital needs.”

The service is intended to be cheap to ensure everyone uses it. The cost of individual transactions will be $1.99 with the cap limit set at $10,000. FastSend will be supported by Visa Direct rails with the market expecting that it will draw customers into the market. This can probably result in more people learning about Ripple and the cryptocurrency cross border transaction department.

Alex Holmes, the CEO of MoneyGram stated that users will be able to send money as easily as sending a text. Chytil added that the company will use direct original credit transaction to send funds. This mode of transfer will not use Distributed Ledger Technology [DLT] but will instead use open-source cloud services.

At the same time, Ripple uses blockchain-based products extensively to service other products as well. Officials close to the company stated that FastSend functions as a back end treasury function that is not consumer-facing. This also reduces the amount of capital that the bank needs to park around the world. Ripple saw this as the major factor in controlling the amount of liquidity in the market.

Liquidity is seen as the main problem that a lot of banks seems to face With XRP and the company’s proprietary technology, Ripple plans to rid the issue of circulating currency. Once the liquidity for trading increases, the remaining capital can be used for other purposes such as margin trading. According to MoneyGram, the latest feature will utilize the blockchain to change the financial world.

Alex Holmes led the company aims to increase blockchain adoption among financial institutions and believes that it will come to fruition soon. Ripple’s influence had also penetrated into the Asian market recently. The popular Bangladeshi organization Bank of Asia had just announced that they had joined the RippleNet.

The news about Bank of Asia was first discovered by a Twitter user who had noticed the bank’s logo on a Ripple document. The bank now joins the likes of Santander, American Express, Send Friend and Standard Chartered.

Ripple Plans to Stamp Cross Border Payments System With Intermex Partnership

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Some cryptocurrency companies have taken it upon themselves to improve the state of cross border transactions across the world to create a stronger financial ecosystem. One such company has been Ripple, the parent of the third-largest cryptocurrency on the charts.

Ripple recently announced its latest partnership with Internataional Money Express Inc to strengthen the cross border payment infrastructure between the United States and Mexico.

Ripple revealed that this partnership was taken to make global payments easy and cost-effective without the hassle of the current financial structure. The Intermex-Ripple partnership will ensure that the cross borer transaction demands in the Latin American and Carribean corridors were taken care of.

According to the latest blog by Ripple:

“The partnership will enable Intermex to leverage RippleNet for faster, transparent cross-border remittance services between the United States and Mexico. More remitters than ever are sending money home to their loved ones through this corridor. According to the World Bank, Mexico is the third highest country with remittance recipients, $36 billion remittance flows in 2019—with the U.S. topping the list of countries with the highest inbound flow to this region.”

Intermex is considered as pone of the biggest remitter service providers between the United States and Mexico. The organization processes more than 30 million payment transactions a year with new customers being added every single day. Intermex runs its operations through a network of 100,000 payer locations. Intermex claimed that it will be able to streamline its settling process using Ripple‘s On-Demand Liquidity  [ODL] index.

Using ODL technology, Intermex will be able to eliminate the need for financial institutions to pre-fund accounts in destination currencies. This allows such organizations to release more capital for better exchange rates. Ripple admitted that post the launch of the ODL, there has been a massive uptake in the industry. It is not yet clear when the company will officially release the ODL integrated product.

Intermex is the second company after MoneyGram that Ripple has partnered with to improve the cross border department. MoneyGram CEO Alex Holmes had also revealed that over 10 percent of US-Mexico remittance on MoneyGram was done on the ODL.