Sling Money, the app designed to simplify international payments, today announced its official launch in the United States. The app makes instant stablecoin-based peer-to-peer payments accessible to customers of all major banks in the United States. Sling Money users in the United States can instantly send money to anyone in the United States or in 75+ countries where Sling Money supports instant transfers.
Sling Money uses modern real-time payment systems, the fast and inexpensive Solana blockchain, and high-quality reserve-backed stablecoins to facilitate the nearly instant and extremely low-cost transfer of volume both within national borders and across borders. This means that transfers on Sling Money can be both faster and less expensive than traditional money transfer services.
âWe can instantly send photos or a text message anywhere in the world at almost no cost, and money should work the same way,â said Mike Hudack, CEO and co-founder of Sling Money. âWe believe that all Americans should have access to a global instant financial system. Stablecoin technology has the potential to positively impact the lives of so many â especially the more than five million Americans living abroad, myself included, who need to send money to friends and family quickly and easily.â
When funds are added to Sling Money, they are converted to USDP, also known as the Pax Dollar, which is a fully reserve-backed US Dollar stablecoin issued by the Paxos Trust Company and regulated by the New York Department of Financial Services. U.S. users can load funds into the app with a debit card, which can then be sent to Sling Money users anywhere in the world in less than a second and for free. Funds can also be withdrawn from the app directly to a user’s bank account.
In the United States, funds in the Sling Money app can be removed using a variety of instant payment methods, including the Automated Clearing Houseâs Real Time Payment (RTP) system, the Federal Reserveâs FedNow system and Visa Direct and MasterCard Send. If a userâs bank does not support any real-time payment systems, the app will automatically fall back to an ACH payment, using same-day ACH whenever possible.
All told, Sling Money supports instant or real-time payment systems in 75+ countries around the world and can support adding and removing money with stablecoins such as USDP and USDC in an additional 75+ countries. Real-time payment coverage now includes most of Europe, much of Africa, Brazil and the United States, with more countries being added regularly.
All transfers in Sling Money are currently fee-free. Any future fees will be implemented minimally and transparently, and the savings will be passed along to customers.
Sling Money has raised $20 million from Union Square Ventures, Ribbit Capital and Slow Ventures. The companyâs most recent funding round, a $15 million Series A led by Union Square Ventures, was raised to help the company accelerate the rollout of Sling Money around the world. The Sling Money app is available on the iOS and Google Play app stores for download today.
