It’s official: Ripple and Moneygram part ways over SEC complaint

Ripple and Moneygram are going their separate ways. The SEC lawsuit apparently put too much strain on the strategic partnership.

Is XRP a digital security? In the eyes of the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), there is no question. That is why the authority has charged the Californian FinTech Ripple Labs as well as CEO Brad Garlinghouse and co-founder Chris Larsen with violating US securities law. The case is now before the Bitcoin Code court of the Southern District of New York (SDNY). It is becoming increasingly unlikely that an out-of-court settlement can still be reached. What is already certain: The partnership between Ripple and the international money transfer service provider MoneyGram is history.

Ripple and Moneygram go their separate ways

Moneygram had already distanced itself from its partner shortly after the SEC complaint against Ripple became known. On 23 December, Moneygram declared that it was neither using Ripple’s ODL platform nor RippleNet for the direct transfer of customer funds. ODL (formerly xRapid) stands for „on-demand liquidity“ and describes XRP’s central use case as a bridge currency for cross-border transfers. Moneygram put the Ripple partnership on hold in its latest quarterly report.

Now, apparently by mutual agreement, Ripple and Moneygram have officially agreed to go their separate ways. The crypto company made the announcement on its blog on 8 March. The company is proud to have „transacted billions of US dollars via RippleNet and ODL“, the terse statement reads.

The XRP price hardly seems to be impressed by the not exactly surprising end of the partnership, on the contrary: At the editorial deadline, the Ripple asset is trading at 0.48 US dollars, four percent above the level of the previous day. The MoneyGram share, however, looks less rosy. In after-hours trading, MGI has slipped below the day’s closing price of USD 6.60 and is trading at USD 6 at the time of writing.