The Stellar Development Foundation and MoneyGram are doubling down on their five-year-old partnership, announcing a multi-year extension on April 22 from Stellar House in Mexico City. The renewed deal puts Latin America at the center of the next phase, aiming to expand what the companies call the world's largest cash on- and off-ramp for digital assets.
Why Latin America is the focus
The region already has a head start. A stablecoin service powered by Stellar, Crossmint, and Circle's USDC went live in Colombia before the announcement and reached El Salvador earlier in 2026. Those markets, where many people lack traditional bank accounts but have smartphones and access to MoneyGram counters, are natural testing grounds. The partnership lets users receive USD-denominated stablecoin balances and then walk into nearly 500,000 MoneyGram locations across more than 200 countries to cash out.
What the cash on/off-ramp actually does
The system is straightforward. Someone sends USDC on the Stellar network, and the recipient converts it to local currency at a MoneyGram agent — no bank account required. The setup has been running since 2021, when the two companies first teamed up. Over five years, they've built a network that processes cash-ins and cash-outs at scale. MoneyGram's physical footprint, combined with Stellar's blockchain settlement, means the service works even in areas with weak banking infrastructure.
Stellar's real-world asset milestone
The partnership extension comes just months after the Stellar network crossed $1 billion in real-world assets (RWAs) at the start of 2026. Those assets include tokenized bonds and institutional financial products — not just the stablecoins used for remittances. The RWA figure signals that Stellar is attracting more than retail users; institutions are moving high-value assets onto the chain. The stablecoin cash service now sits alongside a growing ecosystem of tokenized securities.
At the time of the announcement, Stellar's native token XLM traded at roughly $0.26. Whether the expanded push into Latin America will boost that price — or just increase transaction volume — remains an open question tied to how quickly new countries get added. The companies haven't named the next market, but the infrastructure is already in place.
