Danelle Dixon, CEO of the Stellar Development Foundation, interviews Alex Holmes, CEO of MoneyGram, about their partnership to bridge traditional finance and blockchain. They discuss MoneyGram's digital transformation, the development of MoneyGram Access (built on Stellar), and their new non-custodial wallet using USDC for cross-border payments.
In this episode of Block by Block, Danelle Dixon interviews Alex Holmes about MoneyGram's five-year partnership with the Stellar Development Foundation. The conversation covers MoneyGram's evolution from a cash-to-cash remittance service to a digital-first platform, including failed early attempts at digitalization and learnings from partnerships with Ant Financial. They discuss the development of the Stellar Adapter (now called MoneyGram Access), which bridges traditional payment infrastructure with blockchain technology. Holmes explains how MoneyGram operates like a blockchain with its own ledger and transaction system. The partnership recently launched a non-custodial wallet using USDC, enabling direct consumer relationships and new use cases for cross-border payments. Both speakers emphasize the symbiotic relationship between traditional financial infrastructure and blockchain, rejecting the narrative that crypto disrupts legacy finance. They highlight benefits for MoneyGram's agent network and migrants sending money home.