MoneyGram customers in the U.S. will soon be able to buy bitcoins
The money transfer provider has entered into a cooperation agreement with Coinme.
Payments giant MoneyGram is preparing to open the possibility of buying bitcoins to its customers in the U.S. “in the coming weeks. This is the focus of a cooperation agreement that the organization, whose shares are listed on Nasdaq under the ticker symbol MGI, has entered into with one of the largest U.S. licensed cryptocurrency trading platforms, Coinme.
Both members with MoneyGram intend to use their technological capabilities to “bring bitcoins to thousands of outlets in the U.S., with plans to take the offering to a number of overseas markets as early as the second half of 2021.” As Alex Holmes, MoneyGram’s chairman and CEO, stated:
“The innovative partnership opens up a whole new consumer segment for our business. We intend to lead the way in building the cryptocurrency-to-cash transformation model with the gateway that Coinme provides, thereby finding a bridge between bitcoin and local currencies.”
For his part, Neil Bergquist, head of Coinme, noted that this decision by the two companies represents “a key development for the cryptocurrency community, as millions of people will benefit from access to digital assets through a reliable, user-friendly and understandable channel.”
Coinme itself is the second-largest operator of bitcoin machines in the U.S., and in April agreed with Coinstar to host an additional 300 such machines, manufactured by Coinstar itself. Coinme, on the other hand, received permission to operate from the state of Florida, operating 5,607 bitcoinmats located across the United States.
Recall that earlier the possibility of buying bitcoin and some other digital assets in the U.S. has opened another financial giant, the company PayPal.
