MoneyGram’s Success Depends on Ripple’s Success – CEO
While major money transfer company MoneyGram has already pushed more than USD 100 million through Ripple‘s platform, the blockchain-based startup’s capability to lure more clients will be crucial to the partnership’s future, according to Alex Holmes, CEO and Chairman of MoneyGram.
As reported in November, MoneyGram is moving c. 10% of its transaction volume through Ripple’s On-Demand Liquidity (ODL) between the United States and Mexican borders. Back then, the company also said that it will be expanding into four more corridors by the end of this year.
Meanwhile, asked by CNN’s Julia Chatterley about how long it could take before the company could expand the use of this platform, Holmes replied this would depend on Ripple’s capacity to bring more clients, buyers and sellers, which would allow volumes to further rise.
“We went live with Ripple at the end of July, and since then we’ve, on a cumulative basis, just the other day, surpassed USD 100 million in total volume that we’ve pushed through the platform,” Holmes said. “Ripple has a platform called ODL, which is On Demand Liquidity, and so we’re trying to push our liquidity through that, but you, like at any efficient market, need a buyer and a seller. So for buying and selling, we need others out there as well, buying and selling”.
Due to this, Holmes said MoneyGram’s increased use of the Ripple’s platform would “depend on how quickly others jump on the platform and begin to adopt it” which made it a “sort of a volumetric discussion” as “the more buyers and sellers you can get to the market, the more efficiency there is, and the more volume you can push through.”
MoneyGram’s CEO agreed with the host that Ripple needs to involve major banks and other financial institutions in its platform to boost the role it plays in the transactions handled by the U.S. money service provider. That said, MoneyGram has a particular interest in developing its partnership with Ripple, as the startup is financially involved in Holmes’ company.
“Right now they’ve invested more than USD 50 million in the past six months into MoneyGram. So I’d say that our interests are aligned,” according to Holmes, who called the relationship a “win-win for both companies”.
In November, Ripple made the final USD 20 million investment in MoneyGram equity pursuant to Ripple’s original USD 50 million equity investment commitment made earlier this year. Earlier that month, the California-based blockchain startup focusing on payment technologies, said that its client base increased 50% this year, to more than 300, while some 7% use XRP for cross-border liquidity.
At pixel time (11:02 UTC), XRP trades at c. USD 0.188 and is up by 2% in a day, trimming its weekly losses to 14%.
