MoneyGram launches MGUSD stablecoin on Stellar to power cross-border payments

MoneyGram, the popular global payment platform, has on Tuesday announced the launch of MGUSD, a stablecoin pegged to the U.S. dollar built on the Stellar blockchain. This new stablecoin product would make digital dollar available on its app initially for US customers, with plans to expand to its global 60 million users.

The MGUSD token gives MoneyGram customers a wallet balance inside the company’s existing app, allowing the holding and transfer of USD through MoneyGram’s wide network of 500,000 retail locations worldwide.

MoneyGram’s partners for MGUSD

The newly launched stablecoin has been built with help from three major infrastructural partners. Bridge would be the MGUSD stablecoin’s issuer, a stablecoin platform Stripe acquired in February 2025. The smart contracts handling the minting of the stablecoin were written by M0, while Fireblocks provides the wallet layer in the MoneyGram app.

“Starting with our distribution platform, we’re using stablecoin as a foundation to build future applications on our global network,” MoneyGram chairman and CEO Anthony Soohoo said in a statement. “MGUSD is the stablecoin we built for our customers, for the families sending money home and for the billions of people around the world with limited financial access.”

MoneyGram picking Stellar as the blockchain of choice is also unsurprising, as the company has worked with the Stellar Development Foundation on stablecoin-powered remittance services for almost five years.

Stellar Development Foundation CEO Denelle Dixon called the launch “the next milestone that demonstrates what purpose-built blockchain can deliver when paired with a trusted payments network.”

More stablecoins, more products

MoneyGram joins a widening group of payment companies and banks racing to wrap stablecoins into their existing products. SoFi recently unveiled its own stablecoin, SoFiUSD. PayPal and Western Union have both partnered with crypto infrastructure firms (Paxos and Anchorage Digital, respectively) to offer stablecoin services.

This recent uptick makes a lot of logical sense. Blockchain-based digital dollar tokens help to cut costs and are settled at record-fast time, 24/7, compared to traditional banking. Citi has projected the stablecoin market could grow from roughly $300 billion today to $4 trillion by 2030.

MoneyGram’s angle differs slightly from pure fintech plays. The company already operates one of the world’s largest physical cash-in, cash-out networks. Pairing that with a stablecoin could empower its users to move value digitally and still withdraw cash at a local agent, offering a feature that purely digital stablecoin products do not have access to.