U.S. money transfer giant MoneyGram is teaming up with blockchain firm Ripple to test payments using the latter's cryptocurrency.
MoneyGram, based in Dallas, Texas, will use the XRP cryptocurrency to speed up and reduce the cost of transferring money through Ripple's payment network xRapid.
XRP was seen surging on the news, and flew almost 15 percent higher to $2.22 at 9:55 a.m. ET, according to Coinmarketcap data. The move marked a recovery following downward pressure across most major cryptocurrencies Thursday after reports of South Korea preparing a bill to ban cryptocurrency trading.
Ripple claims an average transaction on its network takes between two and three seconds to process. Bitcoin transactions, on the other hand, take around 51 minutes on average to go through, according to data by industry website Blockchain.info.