Global money-transfer provider MoneyGram is letting customers buy and sell bitcoin at MoneyGram physical store locations thanks to a partnership with cryptocurrency exchange Coinme.

Why should we care?
The rollout of bitcoin buying and selling at physical locations is yet another push toward the ‘mainstreaming’ of cryptocurrencies in everyday, consumer use cases. Bitcoin buying and selling will first roll out at MoneyGram stores in the U.S. and will expand to MoneyGram locations in other countries. It will allow bitcoin trades in 20,000 stores across 32 U.S. states by the third quarter of this year. MoneyGram joins PayPal, and other traditional financial companies that are now offering bitcoin to retail customers. Of course, widespread crypto adoption is still a bet these companies are making, but MoneyGram and Coinme are positioning this week’s launch as an access play. “By integrating its global infrastructure with our licensed crypto exchange technology, we can enable the purchase and sale of cryptocurrencies across its system using cash,” Coinme CEO Neil Bergquist said in a statement. The tie-up with Coinme is MoneyGram’s latest foray into crypto after winding down a partnership with Ripple, the company behind cryptocurrency XRP, in March, after the Securities and Exchange Commission filed suit against Ripple. Under that agreement, Ripple had been paying MoneyGram to use the XRP token in international settlement.