From Ripple to Solana: crypto-TradFi partnerships that go nowhere

After Solana boasted this week about its exclusive partnership with remittance giant Western Union for its USDPT stablecoin, researchers remained skeptical that the partnership will gain meaningful traction. The unfortunate reality of such announcements is initial hype and minimal follow-up.

Indeed, for nearly a decade, crypto partnerships with traditional finance — and remittance companies in particular — have almost always fizzled out after their initial fanfare.

Crypto giants have announced a dizzying array of press releases that ultimately resulted in minimal on-chain activity.

According to a complaint by the US Securities and Exchange Commission, for example, a certain crypto company “made an avalanche of public statements” over the years in an attempt to increase the value of its token as it sold over $2 billion worth of the token.

This company contested that characterization and lost one complaint on the slightly lower amount of $728 million worth of unregistered securities via institutional sales of its token.

We have already covered this company’s lackluster deals with:

• FairFX
• RationalFX
• Exchange4Free
• UniPAY
• UnionPay
• Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
• Mercy Corps
• Mojaloop Foundation
• Institute for Business and Social Impact
• Lunu
• Travelex Bank
• Moneygram

Failed crypto-TradFi partnerships

Another crypto company, founded by a co-founder of the previously mentioned company, has also announced a variety of partnerships that expired after minimal traction.

This company’s marquee partnership with a major tech corporation for cross-border payments has now been sunsetted as open-source with the corporation publishing the code on GitHub and mostly abandoning the initiative.

This company also had a partnership with Wyre to develop on- and off-ramps for digital asset payments. Wyre ended those business operations in June 2023, terminating the partnership.

Like the first company, this one also had a failed pilot program with MoneyGram. The remittance giant announced plans to launch a non-custodial wallet at a September 2023 meeting.

MoneyGram had initially planned to launch it in Q1 2024 but instead, while it didn’t exactly cancel plans outright, pivoted to developing an app that enables users to send and receive USDC with an apparent off-ramp.

Although over 90% of USDC volume occurs on the Ethereum, Solana, and BNB blockchains, in that order, a tiny amount of USDC does technically transact on another blockchain.

Ultimately, partnerships between decentralized finance and traditional finance often disappoint early supporters.

Indeed, a 2019 study of remittance announcements concluded, despite early optimism about the partnerships, that meaningful integration remained elusive.

Similarly, a 2024 study of crypto-remittance partnerships detailed how they have repeatedly encountered technical complexity and resistance by incumbent financial institutions.

A 2025 OECD working paper concluded, “The use of blockchain technology is unlikely to eliminate or address the challenge of last-mile delivery in cash.”