MoneyGram will allow customers to purchase bitcoin with cash at physical locations in partnership with ATM operator Coinme
- MoneyGram announced that customers can now purchase bitcoin with cash from its thousands of physical locations.
- MoneyGram partnered with cryptocurrency exchange and bitcoin ATM operator Coinme.
- Through the collaboration, Coinme said which it be able will power more than 20,000 physical locations.
MoneyGram International announced on Wednesday that customers can now purchase bitcoin with cash and withdraw bitcoin holdings converted to cash from its thousands of brick-and-mortar locations nationwide. The move is just the latest signal that bitcoin is becoming more mainstream.
MoneyGram partnered with cryptocurrency exchange and bitcoin ATM operator Coinme for the endeavor. Through the collaboration and its other efforts, Coinme said which it be able will power more than 20,000 physical locations.
"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," Alex Holmes, MoneyGram chairman and CEO, said in a statement.
The new service will be rolled out at MoneyGram locations in the US in the coming weeks, and in international markets in the second half of 2021.
MoneyGram said it currently serves 150 million people across the globe in the last five years. In the US, it is one of the most popular wiring services, alongside Western Union.
The money transfer company joins a growing list of financial services firms encroaching on the cryptocurrency space.
Mastercard in February said it will offer support for customers to transact in cryptocurrencies this year.
PayPal's Venmo in April also announced it will allow users to buy and sell cryptocurrencies, building on PayPal's decision to allow users to buy and sell cryptocurrencies in October 2020.