Blockchain payments startup Ripple has struck a deal to buy a stake in money transfer giant MoneyGram, the companies announced Monday. MoneyGram uses traditional foreign exchange markets, which requires pre-funding accounts. Ripple and MoneyGram anticipate settlement fees dropping from $30 per transaction to “fractions of a penny,” while settlement times are expected to drop from 15-60 minutes to just a few seconds.
Under the deal, according to the Wall Street Journal and Fortune, Ripple will spend $30 million to buy shares at a price of $4.10 apiece. And in the next two years, MoneyGram has the option to sell an additional $20 million worth of shares to Ripple at the same price. As noted by the Journal, MoneyGram shares were trading at about $1.45 apiece at the close of day, meaning Ripple’s purchase price is close to three times the current market value. Notably, the deal will also see MoneyGram utilizing the digital token XRP as part of its day-to-day operations by way of Ripple’s xRapid transaction product. MoneyGram said that it was piloting the token back in January 2018, as CoinDesk reported at the time.
https://www.coindesk.com/ripple-could-invest-up-to-50-million-in-moneygram-in-xrp-boosting-deal
unknownx500
