MoneyGram International said Wednesday it will allow customers to buy and sell bitcoin for cash at 12,000 U.S. retail locations through a partnership with Coinme.
The cash transfer company plans to introduce bitcoin trades in 20,000 stores across 32 states by Q3, Coinme CEO Neil Bergquist told CoinDesk. His crypto firm already facilitates cash-for-bitcoin swaps at around 6,000 supermarket kiosks.
MoneyGram and Coinme will take 4% of customers’ transactions plus $2.75 in fees. Walmart-based MoneyGram locations will charge $2 more, he said.
The rollout vastly expands U.S. investors’ access to brick-and-mortar crypto touchpoints. According to Coin ATM Radar, fewer than 3,000 crypto kiosks and tellers allow users to sell their bitcoin in person, though nearly 17,000 locations facilitate buys.
“The ability for anyone to walk into a MoneyGram location and load that wallet or unload that wallet is a pretty exciting service opportunity,” CEO Alex Holmes said on the company’s early May earnings call.
Until recently a major partner of Ripple Labs, MoneyGram received tens of millions of dollars to use the XRP token for cross-border transactions. The relationship ended in March after the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filed suit against Ripple Labs last year.
