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San Francisco-based crypto payments company Wyre is shutting down after nearly 10 years of operation, citing bear market financial woes rather than any hawkish “regulatory guidance” in the United States.
In a June 16 blog post, the firm said it made the difficult decision to wind down to “protect the interests of our key stakeholders and customers.”
“Wyre continues to protect client assets. If you have assets on the Wyre platform, you can continue to withdraw them through Wyre’s Dashboard until Friday, July 14th. After that, we will have a separate process for the recovery of assets remaining on the platform,” the company 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 are interested in acquiring the assets of Wyre or its subsidiaries, please contact 88 Partners.”
The firm has reportedly been in decline since one-click checkout company Bolt canceled its plans to acquire Wyre for $1.5 billion back in September 2022.
Trouble began a few months later as on Jan. 4, fiat-to-cryptocurrency quick-transfer solution provider Juno urged its users to withdraw their crypto assets from the Juno platform and store them on their own due to reports of “uncertainty” around holding it. Wire partner.
The next day, MetaMask also stopped supporting Wyre cryptocurrency payment services due to the same issue.
Just days after that, Wyre set a 90 percent withdrawal limit for all of its users, but then quickly removed that 90 percent limit on Jan. 13 after receiving funding from an unnamed “strategic partner.” to correct.
Notably, however, Wyre also laid off 75 employees in January.
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Wyre is adding itself to the ever-growing list of crypto/blockchain firms and projects that have succumbed to the pressures of the long bear market.
Just in May, cryptocurrency fintech firm Unbanked, Lightning Network payment platform BottlePay, cryptocurrency exchange HotBit, NFT platform Terressa, and institutional trading platform TradeBlock Digital Currency Group closed due to the cryptocurrency winter.