Crypto payment platform Wyre shuts down, citing bear market conditions

San-Francisco-based crypto payments firm Wyre is shutting down after nearly 10 years in business, citing financial challenges of a bear market, and nothing to do with any “regulatory agency direction” in the United States.

June 16th blog PostThe firm said it made the difficult decision to close in order to “protect the best interests of our key stakeholders and customers”.

“Vyre continues to secure customer assets. If you have assets on the Vyre platform, you can continue to withdraw them through Vyre’s dashboard until Friday, July 14. After that, we will have the balance on the platform There will be a separate process to recover the assets,” the firm said.

Wyre is coming to an end after nearly a decade. Due to market conditions, we took this decision to protect the best interests of our key stakeholders and customers. This decision is not due to the direction of any regulatory agency. 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 are interested in acquiring the assets of Wyre or its subsidiaries, please contact 88 Partners.”

Firm reportedly rolling down the drain since one-click checkout company Bolt Cancelled There are plans to acquire Wyre in September 2022 for $1.5 billion.

A few months later, fiat-to-crypto on-ramp solutions provider Juno urged its users on January 4 to get their crypto assets off the Juno platform and into self-custody due to the “uncertainty” surrounding their custodial Take it Companion Wire.

The next day, MetaMask also discontinued support for Wyre’s crypto payment services over the same issue.

Days later, Wyre implemented a 90% withdrawal limit for all of its users, but then promptly removed that 90% cap on January 13 after securing funding from an unnamed “strategic partner”, suggesting that Given that the firm was operational. Improvement.

notably though, Wyre also reportedly did laid 75 employees leave in January

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Wyre adds itself to a growing list of crypto/blockchain firms and projects that have buckled under the pressure of a prolonged bear market.