- Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse has confirmed that the company’s partnership with MoneyGram is over
- The MoneyGram deal was mocked once it was revealed that Ripple was paying millions of dollars for MoneyGram to use its tech
- MoneyGram dropped Ripple once the SEC investigation was announced
Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse has announced that the company’s partnership with MoneyGram, which saw them paying MoneyGram to use the xRapid service, is officially dead. This should come as no surprise given that MoneyGram suspended its partnership with Ripple once the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) made its case against the company public, but Garlinghouse yesterday decided to make the severance public from Ripple’s point of view yesterday.
Ripple/MoneyGram Deal Not What it Seemed
Ripple’s deal with MoneyGram has always been a topic for debate with the pro-Ripple and anti-Ripple communities – Ripple fans have always cited it as evidence of real world adoption, while skeptics have pointed to the fact that Ripple has been paying MoneyGram to use its services. MoneyGram first integrated xRapid into its platform in mid-2019 following an 18-month testing period, and at the time there was huge rejoicing from the Ripple community as a sign that Ripple’s ability to offer fast and cheap payments was finally being recognized.
However, it emerged in February last year that it wasn’t such a great deal, for Ripple anyway – Garlinghouse and co agreed had agreed to pay MoneyGram $50 million up front for the XRapid and XRP integration, and continued paying millions of dollars every quarter in order to maintain the ‘partnership’. Cue guffaws of laughter.
Both Parties “Committed” to Revisiting Deal
However one would class this deal (can something so one-sided and backwards be called a partnership?), it has finally been consigned to the history books. MoneyGram announced in its Q4 earnings report in February that it had “suspended trading on Ripple’s platform”, with the SEC investigation clearly the reason behind the move.
Garlinghouse has, two weeks later, now confirmed the severance of the deal in a tweet posted yesterday:
Today, we’re announcing that Ripple and MGI have together decided to wind down our current partnership agreement, and are both committed to revisiting it in the future. See our full statement: 1/2 https://t.co/KGOzPWuThR
— Brad Garlinghouse (@bgarlinghouse) March 8, 2021
In the tweet thread, Garlinghouse says that is “no denying what Ripple and MGI have achieved together”, which is true when you look at MoneyGram’s balance sheet, and adds that the two companies are “committed to revisiting it (the deal) in the future”, presumably when MoneyGram thinks it could do with a few more million in the bank.
