MoneyGram CEO says joining Solana was the next step for the company

The second-largest global money transfer company, MoneyGram, has officially joined the Solana ecosystem, with the intent to expand its core financial services to the Solana blockchain.

In a report on Monday, MoneyGram said it has launched a validator and also joined the Solana Developer Platform (SDP) as an infrastructure partner.

Being a validator allows the global payment leader to stake SOL tokens, process blocks, and directly participate in the network’s security. 

MoneyGram now runs a Solana validator

“Running a validator puts MoneyGram inside Solana’s consensus,” said Luke Tuttle, Chief Product and Technology Officer at MoneyGram.

The move will see MoneyGram connect its network of nearly 500,000 retail locations, with over 60 million customers, to Solana’s on-chain infrastructure, according to the announcement. 

The firm said joining the Solana ecosystem comes as a natural extension of its commitment to integrating crypto into its core global payments platform over the last five years.

In 2019, MoneyGram partnered with RippleNet and processed billions of transactions using XRP-based On-Demand Liquidity products. However, the partnership was shelved following the Ripple-SEC ordeal in 2021.

By joining and running a Solana validator, Tuttle said the idea is that MoneyGram helps “run the rails we move money on.”

Solana now counts as the third network where the global payment giant operates a validator. 

In May, MoneyGram became one of the select groups of institutions designated to run a validator for remittance transactions on the Tempo network.

MoneyGram is also among the early node operators of the Midnight network, launched in March 2026 by Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson.

MoneyGram CEO says Solana was the next step

MoneyGram’s move to Solana comes less than one month after it launched its stablecoin on Stellar, MGUSD, Cryptopolitan reported. 

MGUSD is a US dollar-backed stablecoin, currently available only to US customers on its mobile app. 

“MoneyGram has spent the past several years integrating blockchain into our payment infrastructure, and everything we are building now leverages this foundation,” said Anthony Soohoo, Chairman and CEO, MoneyGram. “Engaging with Solana is the next step in that journey.”

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