Moneygram International Inc. (NASDAQ : MGI), announced Wednesday that it had ‘completed a strategic minor investment in Coinme. A leading cryptocurrency cash exchange, the U.S.’. This venture gives Moneygram a roughly 4% stake in Coinme.
Alex Holmes, CEO and chairman of Moneygram, said:
Moneygram remains bullish on the many opportunities in cryptocurrency. We are also confident in our ability to act as a bridge between digital assets and local fiat currencies.
Moneygram will invest in Coinme’s international expansion plans, as well as other growth initiatives.
Coinme was founded in 2014. It currently operates in 48 US states and plans to expand internationally. Coinme has partnered HTMLstar, an automated service that allows users to convert fiat currency into paper money. This will enable them to purchase bitcoin at more than 21,000 Coinstar kiosks. Over the past five years, Moneygram has served nearly 150 million users around the globe.
Coinme and Moneygram share a “vision to expand access digital assets and cryptocurrency,” according to the announcement.
Moneygram CEO added:
We will be accelerating our innovation efforts by forming partnerships with startups such as Coinme to further our position in the industry for the use of blockchain and other similar technologies.
He continued, “Our unique cash-tobitcoin offering with Coinme was announced in May 2021 and has opened our business up to an entirely new segment of customers. We couldn’t have been more pleased with our progress.”
Moneygram and the other companies announced that they plan to create a crypto to-cash model by creating a bridge to link bitcoin to local fiat currencies in May. Moneygram will allow customers to buy and sell Bitcoin at 12,000 locations.