Ripple to Venture Into Multiple Investments After MoneyGram Partnership

In the spirit of celebrating the latest investment with MoneyGram, Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse said in an interview with Yahoo Finance today, that the firm is considering making more investments in viable and beneficial projects. 

Ripple recently purchased $30 million worth of MoneyGram shares at a premium price of $4.10 per share, with an alternative to purchasing an additional $20 million worth of shares.

To return the favor, MoneyGram adopted the Ripple’s xRapid payment solution, which uses the XRP cryptocurrency for instant settlement of funds sent in a country’s currency into the destination’s currency, as its primary solution for cross-border payment settlements.

“We’re in a strong position, our business is growing strongly, we have a strong balance sheet, and I intend to press our advantage,” Garlinghouse told Yahoo Finance UK.

Garlinghouse refused to give further information on possible future investments Ripple might likely venture into. However, he stated that plans are currently in the pipeline to get better business opportunities that will help boost the company’s growth, better serve their customers.

Since xRapid’s launch, it has made a tremendous impact in boosting Ripple’s profit. Only this year, the xRapid volume got an increase of 170% between Q1 and Q2 of the year. Garlinghouse is optimistic that xRapid value would still skyrocket, with his expectation set at over $1 billion by the end of 2020.

Additionally, He reiterated that MoneyGram’s adoption of xRapid in Global settlement is indeed among the groundbreaking events of cryptocurrency this year. Although the partnership is still in its early stages, Garlinghouse believes it will have a significant impact on both companies.

“This is a big deal. If I were betting now, a year from now the Moneygram deal will have a more consequential impact on the crypto markets than the Libra white paper [Facebook’s cryptocurrency project],” Garlinghouse said.

MoneyGram using Ripple’s X-Rapid cross-border payment solution would see the second-largest remittances firm worldwide join the host of Ripple’s other clients including Santander, Standard Chartered, and American Express. 

Despite Ripple’s continuous growth and partnerships with financial institutions, Western Union’s CEO, Hikmet Ersek, stated that using RippleNet for cross-border settlement is 5-time more expensive than Western Union. However, he believes that cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology have a great processing system for payments.