Ripple Labs Inc. may have finally found someone to use its cryptocurrency for real-world transfers.

The company today said it has signed a deal with MoneyGram International Inc. to try out XRP as a way to facilitate international transfers. Under the trial, MoneyGram will access and use Ripple’s XRP.

The transfers will be processed on xRapid, Ripple’s on-demand liquidity service designed for payment providers and other financial institutions that want to minimize costs while improving their customer experience. What that means is that the transfer platform allows for real-time foreign exchange settlements using XRP, in theory saving time and costs.

“The payments problem doesn’t just affect banks, it also affects companies like MoneyGram, which help people get money to the ones they care about,” Ripple Chief Executive Officer Brad Garlinghouse said in a statement. “By using a digital asset like XRP that settles in three seconds or less, our clients can move money as quickly as information.”

Although it’s just a trial to begin with, it’s still good news for Ripple at a time the six-year-old company has gained unprecedented attention as the price of XRP surged to hold the position of the second-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization for a brief time.

From its start, Ripple has been promising to design a platform and supporting cryptocurrency that would facilitate international financial transfers between banks and other financial institutions. Over the years, Ripple has signed trials with about 15 of the top 50 global banks on internal blockchain transfer systems, including founding the Global Payments Steering Group in 2016. But despite the promise, the company has struggled to deliver on its vision.

The MoneyGram deal may be a sign that Ripple will deliver in 2018 and the company has already said that it won’t be the first deal it will announce this year. In a tweet Jan. 5, it said it expects three of the top five global money transfer companies to start using its services, which implies two more deals are coming.

After being hammered along with other cryptocurrencies after South Korea’s announcement that it was moving to ban cryptocurrency trading, XRP turned the corner on the release of the MoneyGram deal. Its price rose as much as 25 percent at one point before settling back to trade at $1.99 as of 8:45 p.m. EST, up from its low of $1.68 yesterday.

Photo: jeepersmedia/Flickr