MoneyGram International is the world's second-largest cross-border consumer money-transfer network. In 2026 the company reports roughly 60 million active customers, nearly 500,000 retail agent locations across more than 200 countries and territories, and more than 70% of transactions running through digital channels rather than the storefront. On June 2, 2026 MoneyGram launched MGUSD, its own dollar-denominated stablecoin issued by Bridge on Stellar, marking the most public step yet in a multi-year shift from cash-only remittance to a hybrid cash-plus-stablecoin network. This article explains what MoneyGram is, how the network actually moves money, what the company offers today, how it stacks up structurally against Western Union, Wise, and Remitly, and where the crypto direction sits as of mid-2026.
​

MoneyGram is a peer-to-peer cross-border payments company headquartered in Dallas, Texas, with roots tracing to Travelers Express Co., founded in Minneapolis in 1940. It rebranded as MoneyGram in 1998, went public on the NYSE, then on June 1, 2023 was taken private by Madison Dearborn Partners in a transaction valued at roughly $1.8 billion. Today MoneyGram operates as a privately held network connecting senders, retail agents, and receivers across more than 200 countries.
​

MoneyGram is a three-sided network: senders who initiate a transfer, agents (retail partners, banks, post offices, mobile wallets) who handle the cash legs, and receivers who collect funds. MoneyGram itself sets pricing and FX, runs compliance and screening, and settles between agents. The sender's cash or card funds the transfer; MoneyGram credits the receiving agent, who pays out in local currency or to a wallet or bank account.
​

The retail side runs on agreements with grocers, pharmacies, post offices, banks, and convenience chains that act as the physical front counter. The digital side runs on the MoneyGram app and website, where account holders complete KYC once and then send from a stored funding method. Whether the transfer touches a counter or stays fully digital, the same compliance, FX, and settlement engine sits behind it.
​

Three things make the network usable at scale. First, agent settlement: MoneyGram nets balances with agents on a regular cycle so that no individual storefront has to wait for a sender's funds to clear before paying out. Second, FX inventory: MoneyGram quotes a customer rate that bundles the wholesale FX rate it can source for the corridor plus a markup, which is how the company prices currency risk between the time of the quote and the time of payout. Third, compliance: every transfer runs through sanctions screening and KYC checks, and either side can be held for review without breaking the rest of the network.
​

MoneyGram's 2026 product surface covers four customer-facing channels: online sending through the moneygram.com web flow, the MoneyGram mobile app for iOS and Android, retail send and receive at agent locations, and business and developer integrations through the MoneyGram API and the MoneyGram Ramps product. Payout options include cash pickup, bank deposit, mobile-wallet credit, debit-card deposit in select corridors, and home delivery in a smaller set of countries.
​

Customers can fund a transfer with a debit card, credit card, bank account (ACH in the US), or cash at a retail location. The MoneyGram Wallet, a self-custodial dollar-balance product introduced in 2023, lets users hold a balance, send, and receive without re-entering payment details. As of June 2026 MoneyGram has also added MGUSD inside the app as a self-custodial stablecoin balance, per the launch release.
​

Per MoneyGram's June 2026 disclosures, the network reaches about 60 million active customers and operates roughly 500,000 retail locations across 200-plus countries and territories. Digital channels now account for more than 70% of transactions. The October 2021 Stellar partnership extended that footprint into crypto on- and off-ramps in 170-plus countries, and the company says MoneyGram Ramps now lets any wallet or exchange embed cash-out access through a few lines of code.
​

Those numbers put MoneyGram at the second-largest physical agent footprint in consumer remittance, behind Western Union's network. The 200-country corridor map and the 500,000-location count are the structural moat the company is leveraging as it bolts stablecoin rails on top of cash payout.
​

Two trend lines matter for anyone trying to understand where the company is going. The first is the digital share, which crossed the majority line several years ago and now sits above 70%. The retail counter is no longer where the average MoneyGram transaction starts; it is where many of them end, on the receiver side. The second is the crypto on- and off-ramp volume that has run through MoneyGram since the 2021 Stellar partnership, which the company has consistently described as a structural expansion of its addressable customer base rather than a replacement of the cash network.
​

Each of these networks moves cross-border value through a different combination of cash agents, digital channels, and bank rails. The mechanics differ, not the legitimacy. A high-level structural comparison:

The point of the table is structural fit. Wise is built for digital-to-digital bank flows in major corridors. Remitly is a digital front end stitched onto third-party payout networks. MoneyGram and Western Union are the two networks that own large, branded retail footprints alongside a digital channel. Which one fits a given transfer depends on corridor, funding method, payout method, and amount.
​

MoneyGram's crypto arc has three public chapters. In October 2021 it partnered with the Stellar Development Foundation to launch a global cash-to-USDC and USDC-to-cash service, initially in Canada, Kenya, the Philippines, and the United States. In 2023 it introduced MoneyGram Wallet, a self-custodial dollar wallet inside the app. On June 2, 2026 it launched MGUSD, its own dollar-denominated stablecoin issued by Bridge (a Stripe company), minted and burned through M0's smart-contract infrastructure, custodied via Fireblocks, and live on Stellar at launch with plans to scale globally, per the launch release.
​

Structurally, MGUSD changes what MoneyGram issues rather than what it does. Before MGUSD, MoneyGram handled third-party USDC at the on- and off-ramp. With MGUSD, the digital-dollar token moving across Stellar is MoneyGram's own balance-sheet instrument, designed to plug directly into the company's 500,000-location cash-out network. As of June 2026 limited public technical detail is available beyond the launch release; specifics around supported corridors, fee structure, and reserve attestation will surface as the rollout progresses.
​

MGUSD also sits inside a broader stablecoin orchestration layer that includes payment-network rails like Circle's CCTP and intent-routing layers like Eco Routes, which aggregate multiple transport rails so a builder can move a dollar balance across chains without picking a single bridge. MoneyGram's role in that stack is the cash on- and off-ramp; rails and routers handle the digital-to-digital leg.
​

This article is the brand-pillar explainer for MoneyGram. Each subtopic below has its own deep dive in the related-reading block. For the MGUSD side specifically, the MGUSD explainer walks through what was disclosed at launch and what remains open.
​

Network reach figures (~60M customers, ~500K locations, 200+ countries, 70%+ digital share) come from MoneyGram's June 2, 2026 MGUSD launch release on PRNewswire and the corporate.moneygram.com About page. MGUSD technical details (Bridge as issuer, M0 smart-contract infrastructure, Fireblocks custody, Stellar at launch) come from the same launch release. The 2021 USDC partnership history comes from the June 2022 MoneyGram and Stellar Development Foundation joint press release on the global cash-to-crypto service. The Madison Dearborn Partners take-private close date (June 1, 2023) and $1.8B valuation come from the June 2023 PRNewswire close-of-deal release. Western Union, Wise, and Remitly figures are structural descriptions of their respective product surfaces as documented on their own 2026 product pages.
​