Moneygram Distances Itself From the Ripple Turmoil With the US SEC

One of the world’s biggest remittance companies issued a statement addressing the recent turmoil between Ripple and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) due to a lawsuit filed by the regulator against the crypto company.

Moneygram Distances Itself From Ripple in the Midst of the US SEC Lawsuit

According to the official statement, Moneygram pointed out that its collaboration with the blockchain firm doesn’t involve using the ODL platform or Ripplenet for direct transfer of consumer funds, “digital or otherwise.” Also, they added that “Moneygram is not a party to the SEC action.”

On the current status of the commercial agreement between both parties, the remittance company commented:

The company has not currently been notified or been made aware of any negative impact to its commercial agreement with Ripple but will continue to monitor for any potential impact as developments in the lawsuit evolve. Moneygram has had a commercial agreement with Ripple since June 2019.

They clarified that such an agreement involved Ripple’s foreign exchange blockchain trading platform in its existing cross-border payments solution for four currencies. However, Moneygram specified:

Moneygram has continued to utilize its other traditional FX trading counterparties throughout the term of the agreement with Ripple, and is not dependent on the Ripple platform to accomplish its FX trading needs.

Recent Moves in the Ripple – Moneygram Relationship

On November 29, 2020, Ripple Inc. announced the selling of 4 million of its shares in Moneygram, representing about a third of its total shareholding in the company. At the time, the decision seemed in part to be motivated by the surging Moneygram share price and Ripple’s desire to cash out after buying the shares at a premium of $4.10 in 2019.

As news.Bitcoin.com reported, the U.S. SEC took legal action against Ripple, its CEO, Brad Garlinghouse, and co-founder Christian Larsen, as the regulator is alleging that they participated in an “unregistered, ongoing digital asset securities offering” to investors since 2013 via its XRP token – a claim denied by the blockchain company.