2019 has seen quite a few impressive and strategic partnerships between the crypto and traditional sectors, with the number of these partnerships consistently increasing.
One of the most popular is the one between Ripple and multinational payment giant, MoneyGram International. It would seem now that the partnership is already bearing fruit, as it has shot Ripple’s XRP volume higher than that of the two largest assets in the crypto market, Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH), going above 4 million per day.
Earlier this year, it was announced that Ripple had pledged a $50 million investment into MoneyGram and began with $30 million. Very recently, Ripple completed the payment with another $20 million. According to the deal, the equity was purchased at $4.10 per share and was to be used to grow MoneyGram’s payment business, increasing efficiency, and scalability, via Ripple’s On-Demand Liquidity (ODL). In addition, Ripple now owns 9.95 percent of MoneyGram’s common stock.
ODL allows payment companies to make cross-border transactions much faster than traditional methods and with extremely reduced charges. Basically, ODL facilitates currency conversions, using XRP as the link between two fiats.
Already, MoneyGram has announced that 10% of all its cross-border transactions involving the Mexican peso, is done via ODL. With the $50 million investment completed and MoneyGram using ODL and XRP more for millions of transfers daily, XRP use has more than sky-rocketed, rising above both BTC and ETH.
It might be important to note that the aforementioned price per share, was higher than MoneyGram’s stock price at the time, even at its current last close at $3.07. For some, it was a deliberate move by Ripple to ensure that MoneyGram continues to use ODL and XRP for a sizeable amount of its cross-border payments.
For others, it might point to Ripple’s opinion that MoneyGram should be priced higher than $3. Regardless, the move has paid off considerable and as time goes on and MoneyGram increases its ODL usage, the payment company could eventually be the final ingredient that will bring XRP out of the stagnancy it’s been in, all year.
