MoneyGram has launched MoneyGram Ramps on Solana, giving developers a single API to move between cash and crypto across the payments giant's global network. The service supports cash deposits in more than 25 countries and cash withdrawals in over 170 countries and territories, with MoneyGram itself handling identity verification, compliance, settlement and fiat payouts on the back end.
Rift wallet is the first Solana application to integrate the service, and the integration is also embedded in Solana's developer platform payments module, connecting builders on the network directly to MoneyGram's cash infrastructure. The company's network spans more than 60 million customers and nearly 500,000 retail locations worldwide.
A long road from Ripple to Solana
The move marks a full-circle turn for a company whose blockchain ambitions once ran through Ripple. MoneyGram and Ripple launched a pilot to test XRP in payment flows back in January 2018, and the relationship deepened in 2019 when Ripple committed up to $50 million in capital for equity over two years, using XRP and Ripple's xRapid system for foreign-exchange settlement. That partnership ended by mutual agreement in March 2021, with Ripple noting it had processed billions of dollars through RippleNet and its On-Demand Liquidity product during the arrangement.
MoneyGram didn't step away from blockchain rails after the Ripple split — it pivoted to Stellar, where it has operated since a 2021 partnership with the Stellar Development Foundation that has since processed more than $4.2 billion in USDC remittance volume. Solana now becomes MoneyGram's third blockchain validator commitment, alongside Stellar and networks including Tempo and Midnight, following the June launch of its MGUSD stablecoin on Stellar.
Betting on multiple chains rather than one
Executives have framed the expansion as a deliberate hedge rather than a rotation away from any single partner. Rather than relying on one blockchain, MoneyGram has said its strategy is to build on multiple open networks so its cash infrastructure stays available to whichever ecosystem developers and users gravitate toward next.
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For Solana, landing a payments processor with MoneyGram's cash-network reach adds a new distribution channel for the chain's growing stablecoin and fintech activity, giving wallets and apps built on Solana a direct bridge to physical cash pickup and deposit points in markets where on-chain rails alone don't yet reach.
