What happened
Payment company MoneyGram International (MGI) is having a phenomenal day on Tuesday. As of 10:30. a.m EDT, its shares were trading for $2.92, a gain of more than 101%. Earlier in the day, they had traded as high as $3.70 before cooling off a bit.
Even so, this is a huge one-day move. And the reason isn't related to the company's earnings.
Image source: Getty Images.
So what
The reason for today's move is that MoneyGram is partnering with cryptocurrency company Ripple. As part of the alliance, Ripple is going to invest $30 million in MoneyGram in exchange for a stake of as much as 10% in the company, with the option to invest another $20 million within the next two years.
The best part for shareholders? Ripple is paying $4.10 per share for its stake. This is more than three times the per-share price of MoneyGram just the day before the announcement.
Now what
Ripple is investing in and partnering with MoneyGram in order to kick-start the usage of its namesake cryptocurrency (also known as XRP). MoneyGram will use the digital currency for some of its operations, particularly for cross-border transactions, which Ripple's product is designed to improve.
There are already hundreds of partner companies using Ripple's technology in one way or another, but this marks the first time that Ripple is taking a major stake in a partner company in order to prove the use case for its technology. If the partnership proves successful, MoneyGram (which has a market cap of just $167 million even after today's move) could see its international transaction business soar.
