Traditional cross-border payments giant MoneyGram is working with the Stellar blockchain network to create instant money transfers using Circle’s USDC stablecoin, the companies announced Wednesday. The firms will start with a pilot in the fourth quarter of this year.

MoneyGram International Inc. is partnering with a non-profit that oversees a public blockchain to use its technology to speed up money transfers and payments settlements. The partnership with Stellar Development foundation will integrate MoneyGram’s network with the Stellar blockchain to facilitate payments using Circle Internet Financial’s USD Coin.

MoneyGram International, Inc., one of the largest money transfer services in the world, is partnering with the Stellar Development Foundation, a non-profit organization that supports the development of Stellar, a blockchain network that facilitates cross-border transactions. The Stellar network utilizes the XLM coin to operate, currently priced at $0.327 with a $7.8 billion market capitalization.

El Salvador recently made headlines by becoming the first country to adopt bitcoin as legal tender, marking the start of an experiment amidst a global surge in cryptocurrency interest. The president of El Salvador, Nayib Bukele, believes this move would cause the amount of money that low-income families living in the country receive from remittances to “increase in the equivalent of billions of dollars every year.”

MoneyGram International Inc (NASDAQ: MGI) recently announced better-than-expected second-quarter financial results. MoneyGram CEO Alexander Holmes appeared on Benzinga's YouTube show "Power Hour" for an exclusive interview Monday.

The pandemic’s acceleration of all things digital could not be more clear to MoneyGram CEO Alex Holmes. Driving the news: Holmes oversees a global money transfer business that operates in 200 countries.

For nearly 30 countries or territories, inward-flowing remittances—noncommercial money transfers that typically go to family and friends in another country—make up more than 10% of the annual GDP. For Lebanon, Somalia, and Tonga, it was over 30% in 2020.

When El Salvador voted this week to make bitcoin legal tender, it marked the start of an experiment sure to draw close attention amid a global surge in interest in cryptocurrency. Nayib Bukele, the Latin American nation’s meme-loving millennial leader, claims that embracing the cryptocurrency “will generate jobs and help provide financial inclusion to thousands outside the formal economy.”

Salvador may be touting bitcoin’s use to help its citizens living abroad send funds back home, but the biggest remittance firms are cautious about offering cryptocurrency services. In a move that could be a harbinger of crypto becoming a more popular way to send money across borders, El Salvador on Wednesday became the first country to adopt bitcoin as a parallel legal tender.