MoneyGram has revealed it will let its customers buy and sell bitcoin at its 12,000 retail locations throughout the U.S. thanks to a new partnership with cryptocurrency exchange and ATM operator Coinme.

According to CNBC, new and existing Coinme users will soon be able to buy crypto with cash and withdraw it at MoneyGram’s brick-and-mortar locations. Both companies plan to expand their offering to MoneyGram’s locations outside the U.S. in the second half of the year.

Alex Holmers, MoneyGram’s chairman and CEO, said in a statement:

This innovative partnership opens our business to an entirely new customer segment as we are the first to pioneer a crypto-to-cash model by building a bridge with Coinme to connect bitcoin to local fiat currency

The announcement expands retail U.S. investors’ access to physical locations where they can buy and sell bitcoin. It was made as financial services firms increasingly make moves in the space. PayPal seemingly started the trend late last year, when it started letting users in the U.S. buy, sell, and hold crypto on its platform.

Since then Mastercard has said it would start supporting select cryptoassets on its network, while Visa is already supporting payment settlement in Circle’s USDC stablecoin. MoneyGram’s first moves in the crypto space were as a partner of Ripple, piloting XRP for cross-border payments.

The company has received tens of millions to use the XRP token, but its relationship with Ripple ended earlier this year after the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission sued Ripple.

As reported, in December of last year the SEC  announced that it had “filed an action against Ripple Labs Inc. and two of its executives, who are also significant security holders, alleging that they raised over $1.3 billion through an unregistered, ongoing digital asset securities offering.” 

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The views and opinions expressed by the author, or any people mentioned in this article, are for informational purposes only, and they do not constitute financial, investment, or other advice. Investing in or trading cryptoassets comes with a risk of financial loss.
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