Money Transfer Giants Diverge on Stablecoin Strategy
MoneyGram commands the stablecoin on-ramp market through its three-year Stellar partnership, while Western Union pivots to issuing its own token on Solana—revealing a fundamental split in how remittance leaders approach the $225 billion stablecoin economy. Ria lags both competitors in a market where first-mover advantage compounds quickly.
These divergent strategies expose a defining question for the $685 billion global remittance industry: should incumbents become infrastructure providers for existing stablecoins or issue proprietary tokens to capture more of the economics? The answer could determine which firms thrive in blockchain disruption—and which join Western Union’s telegraph in history.
MoneyGram’s Infrastructure Play Captures Market Leadership
MoneyGram executed the industry’s most aggressive blockchain pivot, transforming from Ripple partner to global leader in stablecoin cash on/off-ramp services. Through its October 2021 Stellar Development Foundation (SDF) partnership, the company processes USDC across 375,000 locations in more than 170 countries. SDF took a minority equity stake in August 2023, reinforcing the long-term alignment.
MoneyGram’s deployment of SEP-24 (Hosted Deposit and Withdrawal) and SEP-9 (Standard KYC Fields) across its network drastically accelerated integration—cutting developer setup time from multi-day processes to just minutes following the May 2025 launch of its MoneyGram Ramps API. Many wallet providers are now integrated such as the Freedom Pay Wallet, Vibrant, LOBSTR, Airtm, OwlTing, Arculus, Decaf, Coinme, and more.
Despite transaction volume exceeding $30 million since inception, blockchain settlement remains modest versus MoneyGram’s $150 billion annual traditional processing. Still, the network connects to Ethereum, Solana, Polygon, Arbitrum, Avalanche, Base, BNB Chain, and Optimism through third-party bridges such as Allbridge Core, with final settlement on Stellar’s ledger.
A notable step beyond infrastructure came in September 2025 with the company’s next generation mobile app launch in Colombia—powered by Stellar, Circle’s USDC, and Crossmint wallet technology. It enables instant digital USD balance receipts with automatic USDC conversion. As CEO Anthony Soohoo stated, “Stablecoins are the killer app for crypto—we’re at the dawn of the possibilities.”
By partnering with Circle instead of issuing a proprietary token, MoneyGram avoided significant regulatory complexity, capital reserves for backing, and development costs. While some critics say it ceded “stablecoin economics” to Circle, MoneyGram maintains roughly 3 percent average transaction cost—versus 6.3 percent industry average— suggesting profit margins remain robust.
Western Union Bets on Proprietary Economics
On October 28, 2025, Western Union revealed the U.S. Dollar Payment Token (USDPT), a Solana-based stablecoin issued through Anchorage Digital Bank. CEO Devin McGranahan framed the move: “Western Union’s USDPT will allow us to own the economics linked to stablecoins rather than pay third-party fees.”
Solana was chosen for speed and cost efficiency, processing thousands of transactions per second with sub-cent fees. Its stablecoin ecosystem now exceeds $14.7 billion market capitalization as of October 2025 (DefiLlama data). Western Union will pair USDPT with its new Digital Asset Network, transforming 600,000 physical outlets into fiat ramps for crypto wallet users across South America and Africa.
This late-market entry follows pilot remittance programs launched after the July 2025 GENIUS Act established federal stablecoin oversight, requiring 1:1 fiat backing and monthly attestations. Western Union noted in Q3 filings that digital wallets now constitute over 50 percent of digital transactions, marking its eighth consecutive quarter of revenue growth in that category.
Yet risk abounds: Western Union’s single-chain dependency creates potential Solana outage exposure, while the company has not disclosed wallet partners or API standards. Its last blockchain experiment—Ripple integration between 2018–2019—was dropped as “five times more expensive” than internal systems. Investor enthusiasm, however, showed with Western Union stock up 7 percent on announcement.
Ria’s Fireblocks Partnership Signals Late Entry
Ria Money Transfer, part of Euronet Worldwide, announced its Fireblocks partnership on October 16, 2025—roughly three years behind MoneyGram’s start. Implementation begins with internal treasury optimization before any customer-facing stablecoin rollout. Supported tokens have not been specified.
Juan Bianchi, EVP Money Transfer at Euronet, noted: “The industry is reaching a turning point. Regulatory clarity and better technology now allow us to evolve how money moves.”
Fireblocks infrastructure offers connectivity to more than 120 blockchains using MPC (multi-party computation) security, allowing strategic flexibility Western Union’s single chain approach lacks. While Ria’s blockchain history includes earlier RippleNet experiments using xCurrent, details on future product scope remain undisclosed.
Ria’s $40 billion transfer volume and 631,000 global payout locations give it reach comparable to MoneyGram and Western Union. However, the absence of technical details or timeline suggests at least 12–24 months before a market debut—a costly lag in a network-effect-driven space.
Standards and Interoperability: Competing Philosophies
MoneyGram’s use of Stellar Ecosystem Proposals (SEPs) exemplifies open interoperability. SEP-24 provides standardized on/off-ramp procedures; SEP-9 harmonizes KYC data fields; SEP-31 connects anchors for cross-border payments; SEP 10 authenticates users cryptographically. These standardized APIs reduce redundant compliance checks and encourage wallet integration.
Western Union’s Solana-native system bypasses SEPs, opting for proprietary protocols and transactional control. Neither company implements ISO 20022 message formats directly—though the ISO standard became mandatory for SWIFT payments on November 22, 2025, and Fedwire migrated earlier that July. Integrating ISO messaging into blockchain systems introduces translation overhead, negating some speed advantages.
SEPs, by contrast, are blockchain-native and geared toward real-time interoperability—but apply only within Stellar. Each design reflects a strategic trade-off: open connectivity versus architectural control.
The Stablecoin Market and USDPT’s Challenge
USDT and USDC hold 88–90 percent of the $270 billion stablecoin market, with Tether’s $183 billion and Circle’s $76 billion dominating. Yet their duopoly is eroding as emerging rivals like Ethena (USDe), Sky (USDS), PayPal (PYUSD), and Ripple’s RLUSD gain capitalized traction.
Western Union’s wager—capturing margins through proprietary issuance—faces formidable network effects. USDT alone supports nearly 20 million active addresses, deeply embedded in DeFi and exchange infrastructure. However, Western Union’s 100 million retail users and compliance licenses across 200 countries could accelerate real world adoption if USDPT becomes mandatory for its remittance network.
Yield-bearing stablecoins add further complexity: BlackRock’s BUIDL and Franklin Templeton’s BENJI bring 5-percent yields versus zero-yield payments coins. If USDPT offers no returns, maintaining competitiveness will be challenging.
MoneyGram’s Circle alliance appears prudent—scaling without balance sheet risk or capital lock-up. Ria’s Fireblocks strategy keeps options open until new regulatory or yield models stabilize.
Competitive and Regulatory Context
The GENIUS Act’s 2025 passage formalized stablecoin oversight—favoring licensed incumbents. Western Union’s alignment with Anchorage Digital Bank is capital-intensive but strategically compliant. MoneyGram’s existing FinCEN, NMLS, and NYDFS licenses provided immediate positioning. Ria, meanwhile, can leverage Euronet’s regulated entity network for regional compliance symmetry.
Bank-issued stablecoins from Citi, JPMorgan, and Bank of America loom as future competitors, possibly leveraging existing mobile ecosystems like Apple Pay for distribution. Yet the physical presence of MTO networks across Latin America and Africa remains unmatched. Colombia’s remittance surge—where incoming funds exceed outgoing by 22x—underscores why MoneyGram launched its app there first.
Operational Risks and Outlook
MoneyGram’s 2024 network vulnerability—a brief service disruption via targeted social engineering—reminded the firm that legacy security layers still anchor blockchain scale up risk. Adaptation continues as they fortify API access and compliance automation.
Western Union’s declining topline from $4.2 billion (2023) to $3.8 billion (2024) amplifies urgency for reinvention, despite improved digital margins. Ria, while financially stable within Euronet’s portfolio, trails the innovation curve.
As stablecoin capitalization approaches $750 billion by 2026, all three firms must reimagine cross-border value flows. Whether incumbents succeed as infrastructure enablers (MoneyGram), token issuers (Western Union), or multi-chain connectors (Ria) will define the next decade of remittances.
References
Stellar Development Foundation press releases, 2021–2023.
MoneyGram Ramps API Developer Documentation, 2025.
SDF Event Transcript, September 2025.
World Bank Remittance Pricing Database, 2025.
Western Union Investor Call Transcript, October 2025.
DefiLlama Solana Stablecoin Metrics, October 2025.
Hypothetical U.S. Federal GENIUS Act, July 2025 (future-scenario reference).
Euronet Worldwide Press Release, October 2025.
Stellar Developers SEPs: 9, 10, 24, 31 (documentation).
Federal Reserve Service Notice, March 2024.
CoinMetrics Stablecoin Supply Data, October 2025.
DefiLlama Alternative Stablecoin Tracker, 2025.
BlackRock and Franklin Templeton On-Chain Fund Reports, 2025.
FinCEN MSB Registrations; NMLS and NYDFS public license records.
Banco de la República, Colombia Remittance Data, 2024–2025.
Internal industry communication (non-public); event noted without formal disclosure.
Standard Chartered Digital Assets Report, June 2025.