In South Sydney, 44-year-old Brendan Tonks said his move to stablecoins sped a transfer to family in the Philippines to four minutes instead of the three days he recalled with Western Union a few years back, and his first send cost far less than before.
Stablecoin settlement can be rapid, but turning tokens into local money can still bring fees. Western Union would not confirm Tonks's specifics and said timing and charges vary by corridor, payment type, and amount. "Customers are provided with applicable fees and estimated delivery times before completing a transaction," a spokesperson said.
Some former users are not returning. A Florida-based 59-year-old HVAC specialist, Patrick Kilgannon, who sends money to Guatemala, now opts for Coinbase to move USDC. Western Union's new card grabbed his attention, but it wasn't enough to sway him. "I left Western Union because the fees were eating into every transfer, and I'd need to know what they're actually charging before I'd go back," Kilgannon said. "Right now, Coinbase and USDC are doing exactly what I need them to do."
The incumbents are adopting crypto rails to defend market share and extend relationships. Western Union unveiled USDPT in May and subsequently partnered with Rain to roll out a digital wallet and payment card. MoneyGram rolled out MGUSD and a card first launched in Colombia, expanded to El Salvador, with plans for broader Latin America.
"They don't say they want stablecoins. What they want is the functionality of being able to store funds in a stable currency like the US dollar," MoneyGram Chief Executive Officer Anthony Soohoo said. A MoneyGram spokesperson said the company already uses stablecoins in foreign exchange and is on pace for about $3 billion of such trading annually.
Western Union sees particular promise where access to traditional finance is limited. "We believe the greatest benefit could be in corridors where customers face challenges related to financial access, cross-border payments or currency volatility," Malcolm Clarke, Western Union's global head of digital assets, said.
Controlling more of the process is also about economics. "If you are doing transactions within your own network, you don't need to use a different stablecoin," Soohoo said. "By building it within our own rails, we get faster settlement and manage the economics ourselves to deliver a lower cost and better experience for our consumers." The risk: a fragmented market if every provider pushes its own token.
When payments and technology keep evolving, stay informed with the free daily Market Briefs newsletter that explains it in minutes.
Western Union, founded in 1851 and an early telegraph pioneer, now trades near a record low, down 70% over five years. MoneyGram's finances are under strain too, with one loan changing hands Friday at roughly 71 cents on the dollar. Its pressures have included worries about immigration enforcement during the Trump administration. Another obligation by the company, with $388 million outstanding and formerly near par when Trump took office, sank in February to just 57 cents on the dollar as enforcement intensified.
The business model also depends on migration trends. Western Union's retail side leans on recent arrivals who use cash and know the brand. On a July 30 earnings call, Chief Financial Officer Matt Cagwin stated, "New migration is the lifeline of our retail business."
Digital challengers are chipping away. In September, monthly active app users fell 10% at Western Union and 9% at MoneyGram from a year earlier, while Wise Group's rose 9%, Sensor Tower data show. App downloads dropped 2% at Western Union and 10% at MoneyGram, while Wise climbed 13%.
Stablecoin use is scaling fast. According to Alvarez & Marsal, stablecoin payments totaled at least $401 billion over the first eight months of 2026, a 42% rise from a year earlier. Cross-border stablecoin flows hit $135 billion in 2025, a 64% increase.
That fee pool has been sticky. Per Alvarez & Marsal's Kumanan Ramanathan, global remittance fees have stayed near or above about 6% for the past ten years. "That's the margin now under pressure, and it's a big reason why some large remittance institutions want to own the infrastructure stack," he said.
Behavior may lag technology. "Remittances have a history of overestimating digitization," said Ismail Ahmed, who founded WorldRemit and now runs Odola. "Even years after digitization, the majority of transactions through Western Union are still cash." The bottom line: watch whether Western Union and MoneyGram can pull balances onto their own rails, lower end-to-end costs, and stabilize app engagement as stablecoin volumes keep rising.
If you want quick, clear context on remittances, crypto and real estate, sign up for the free Market Briefs delivered daily.
