MoneyGram is now helping run the blockchain network it has been building on for years. The global payments company has joined Solana (SOL) as an active validator, meaning it now participates
MoneyGram is now helping run the blockchain network it has been building on for years.
The global payments company has joined Solana (SOL) as an active validator, meaning it now participates directly in processing transactions and securing the network.
Solana is one of the fastest and most widely used blockchains in the world, capable of processing thousands of transactions per second at low cost, making it a preferred network for payments and financial applications.
MoneyGram has also joined the Solana Developer Platform, an AI-ready, API-driven platform designed for institutions building compliant financial products on Solana. Mastercard is among the other early adopters on the platform.
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Most people know MoneyGram as a place to send money.
Behind the scenes, the company has spent more than five years weaving blockchain and stablecoins into its core payments infrastructure, running through treasury, product development, and payments operations, enabling fiat and digital currencies to move in a way that is agnostic across systems.
Becoming a validator is a step beyond that.
On Solana's proof-of-stake (PoS) network, validators stake SOL tokens, process transaction blocks, and help maintain the integrity of the entire network.
In simple terms, MoneyGram is no longer just a user of the rails, it is now helping run them.
"Running a validator puts MoneyGram inside Solana's consensus," said Luke Tuttle, Chief Product and Technology Officer at MoneyGram.
"We stake Solana, process transaction blocks and help secure the network at the protocol level. We help run the rails we move money on. At the same time, as part of Solana Developer Platform, we're actively innovating to make money movement seamless wherever the users are and in whatever form of money it may be."
The makeup of a blockchain's validator set is considered a signal of the network's long-term credibility.
When large, regulated institutions with compliance infrastructure join at the protocol level, it adds legitimacy that smaller or purely crypto-native operators cannot.
Solana Foundation's GM of Payments and Commerce, Sheraz Shere, framed it in those terms.
"MoneyGram's decision to launch a validator on Solana and join Solana Developer Platform reflects a commitment to the Solana ecosystem. Players like MoneyGram, with global scale and experience serving customers across markets, are engaging with Solana as more payments activity moves onchain," he said.
MoneyGram's entry also comes as stablecoin adoption inside traditional financial infrastructure accelerates, with fiat and digital currencies increasingly needing to move across the same rails without friction.
MoneyGram Chairman and CEO Anthony Soohoo said the move reflects a longer-term thesis about where global payments are headed.
"MoneyGram has spent the past several years integrating blockchain into our payment infrastructure, and everything we are building now leverages this foundation," Soohoo said. "Engaging with Solana is the next step in that journey."
Soohoo believes the future of global money movement will be built on open, interoperable stablecoin rails, and that getting there requires compliance, regulatory clarity, and operational scale.
"MoneyGram brings all three," he said.
MoneyGram's move also completes a notable pairing.
Western Union, its longtime rival and the world's other dominant remittance network, launched its own Solana-based stablecoin USDPT in May. Between the two, the world's biggest cross-border payments companies are now both building on the same blockchain, a signal of where the industry's centre of gravity is shifting.
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