MoneyGram, in partnership with the Stellar Development Foundation (SDF), has launched its stablecoin balance service in El Salvador, marking a significant expansion of its Stellar-based USDC payment network in Latin America. This rollout follows a successful pilot in Colombia and is part of a renewed five-year partnership between the two entities.
The service leverages the Stellar blockchain, Crossmint, and Circle's USDC stablecoin. It allows users to receive funds into a digital dollar balance, hold USDC, and cash out at MoneyGram's extensive network of nearly 500,000 retail locations across over 200 countries. The initiative specifically targets cash-dependent populations and remittance recipients, aiming to provide faster and lower-cost transactions.
MoneyGram CEO Anthony Soohoo emphasized the company's goal of building an open payments network bridging fiat and stablecoins. SDF CEO Denelle Dixon highlighted Stellar's foundational mission to support broader financial access. The expansion into El Salvador adds a major real-world payments use case to the Stellar network, which is designed for fast, low-cost settlement and has long been utilized by fintech firms for cross-border transfers and asset issuance.
While the service itself uses USDC and does not require users to directly transact with XLM, increased network adoption through such large-scale partnerships is expected to drive broader ecosystem growth, including transaction activity and liquidity. Traders are concurrently watching XLM's price action, as it recently broke above a key resistance level of $0.179, with analysts suggesting potential targets near $0.22 if the breakout holds.
