Crypto payments platform Wyre shutters, citing bear market conditions

Wyre has begun the process of winding down and noted that interested parties can now start inquiring about purchasing the firm’s assets.

San-Francisco-based crypto payments firm Wyre is shutting down after almost 10 years in business, citing the financial challenges of the bear market and not having anything to do with hawkish “regulatory agency direction” in the United States.

In a June 16 blog post, the firm stated that it made the difficult decision to wind down to “protect the best interest of our key stakeholders and customers.”

“Wyre continues to secure customer assets. If you have assets on the Wyre platform, you can continue to withdraw them via Wyre’s dashboard until Friday, July 14th. After then, we will have a separate process to recover assets remaining on the platform,” the firm said.

After nearly a decade, Wyre is winding down. Due to market conditions, we made this decision to protect the best interest of our key stakeholders and customers. This decision is not due to any regulatory agency direction. Wyre continues to secure customer assets.

— Wyre (@sendwyre) June 16, 2023

The Wyre team also suggested that its assets are now up for sale, noting that: “If you’re interested in acquiring Wyre’s or its subsidiaries’ assets, please reach out to 88 Partners.”

The firm has reportedly circled the drain since one-click checkout company Bolt canceled its plans to acquire Wyre for $1.5 billion in September 2022.

On Jan. 4, 2023, trouble started brewing, with fiat-to-crypto on-ramp solution provider Juno urging its users to get their crypto assets off the Juno platform and self-custody due to the reported “uncertainty” surrounding its custodial partner Wyre.

The following day, MetaMask also winded down support for Wyre’s crypto payment services over the same issue.

Just a few days after this, Wyre imposed a 90% withdrawal limit for all its users but promptly lifted that 90% cap on Jan. 13 after securing financing from an unnamed “strategic partner,” suggesting the firm was on the mend.

Wyre had also reportedly laid off 75 employees in January.

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Wyre adds itself to an ever-growing list of crypto and blockchain firms and projects that have buckled under the pressure of a long-running bear market.

In May alone, crypto fintech firm, Unbanked; Lightning Network payments platform, BottlePay; crypto exchange, HotBit; nonfungible token platform, Terressa; and Digital Currency Group’s institutional trading platform, TradeBlock, all shut down.

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