MoneyGram has launched MGUSD, a fully branded US‑dollar stablecoin that will sit at the core of a complete overhaul of the company’s global payments infrastructure.
The announcement was made live on stage at Money20/20 Europe, marking one of the most significant strategic shifts in the firm’s recent history.
CEO Anthony Soohoo said the launch follows five years of development and is designed for the consumers and small businesses that make up MoneyGram’s core customer base — not the institutional trading audience that early stablecoins were built for.
“The majority of our customers have never had access to a stable dollar balance… we’re solving real problems for people in high‑inflation markets,” he said.
MGUSD will underpin both consumer‑facing services and MoneyGram’s internal operations. Soohoo said the company is rebuilding its entire payments stack on blockchain, with the stablecoin set to support agent settlement, treasury, accounts receivable and even potential payroll flows. The aim is to reduce operating costs and deliver faster settlement, ultimately lowering prices for end users.
The stablecoin is issued through Stripe’s Bridge platform, giving MoneyGram control over branding and economics while outsourcing minting, burning and orchestration.
Henri Stern CEO at Privy/Stripe said the goal is to make the underlying blockchain infrastructure invisible to the user: “The consumer doesn’t necessarily care, but it should make their lives meaningfully easier.”
Infrastructure provider M0 is supplying the smart‑contract layer, enabling programmable compliance, multi‑chain support and automated reserve‑yield distribution.
M0 CEO Luca Prosperi said the launch signals a shift in how mainstream financial firms will build in future: “We don’t think this is yet another coin… this can be the platform to bring the next stage of financial services.”
MoneyGram plans to roll out MGUSD first in the US, with rapid expansion expected across Latin America, Europe, the Middle East and Asia — regions where customers often seek stable currency to protect against inflation or to make cross‑border payments such as rent, tuition or real‑estate deposits.
Soohoo said the company’s hybrid physical‑digital footprint — 68 million active customers and 500,000 retail locations — gives it a unique advantage in bringing stablecoins to the mainstream: “Physical and digital works better together… there will always be people who want cash and people who want digital currency.”
Money 20/20 Europe runs in Amsterdam 2-4 June 2026.
