MoneyGram Joins Stellar Network as Tier 1 Validator
MoneyGram announced on July 16, 2026 that it has joined the Stellar network as a Tier 1 validator — five years after the partnership began and a significant deepening of MoneyGram's blockchain infrastructure commitment. Figure Markets and Range wealth management will also begin operating Tier 1 validators by mid-August.
What Tier 1 Means on Stellar
Stellar's Tier 1 validators occupy the most critical role in the network's consensus protocol. They operate multiple geographically distributed validator nodes, participate directly in the Stellar Consensus Protocol, and are subject to a 99.9% uptime requirement. Unlike proof-of-work or proof-of-stake networks, Stellar validators do not receive token rewards — organizations run them because maintaining network integrity is operationally valuable to their own business.
For MoneyGram, which powers its cash access and digital dollar balance products on Stellar, running a Tier 1 validator eliminates dependence on third parties for consensus participation. It's the difference between being a network user and being part of the network's infrastructure itself.
"We have recently decided to become a validator on the Stellar network, and the reason why that's so important to us is that we vividly see the benefits of crypto, the benefits of stables." — Josh Gordon-Blake, EVP & GM, MoneyGram Online
MoneyGram's Path from Ripple to Stellar
MoneyGram was previously one of Ripple's most prominent enterprise partners. Ripple invested $50 million in MoneyGram in 2019, and the companies launched an On-Demand Liquidity product using XRP for cross-border settlement. The partnership ended after the SEC sued Ripple in December 2020 — MoneyGram suspended ODL use in early 2021 and pivoted to Stellar.
Since then, MoneyGram has built significant infrastructure on Stellar: MoneyGram Ramps provides blockchain-powered cash access, and the company's consumer digital dollar balance feature runs exclusively on Stellar. Today's validator announcement represents the culmination of a five-year deepening of that relationship — from strategic partner to infrastructure participant.
Institutional Validator Expansion
The addition of MoneyGram, Figure Markets, and Range to Stellar's Tier 1 validator set continues a trend of financial institutions taking active roles in blockchain network governance. Each new institutional validator adds geographic distribution, uptime reliability, and credibility to the network's consensus layer — qualities that matter when tokenized asset settlement infrastructure runs over that network.