From $1.5B to $0, Crypto Payments Platform Wyre Shuts Down

Wyre will be terminating services in January after a failed acquisition with Bolt in September

article-image

Blockworks exclusive art by Axel Rangel

share

Crypto payments and infrastructure provider company Wyre is shutting down, months after Bolt Financial scrapped a $1.5 billion deal to buy the firm.

Wyre was first founded in 2013 by Michael Dunworth and Ioannis Giannaros and had raised a total $29.1 million across nine rounds of funding, data from Crunchbase shows. Some of its investors include Pantera Capital, Stellar Development Foundation and Amphora Capital. 

Michael Staib, who previously worked as a technical engineer for Wyre, posted on his LinkedIn profile on Dec. 31, 2022, that, “Wyre won’t continue as a profitable business.”

Former employees told Axios that Giannaros had sent an email during the holiday season informing team members that Wyre would liquidate and terminate its offerings in January 2023. It is alleged that no severance will be provided to employees. 

Loading Tweet..

Giannaros has not replied to Blockworks’ request for comment.

Dunworth stepped down from Wyre and cashed out 12.5% of his holdings at the company soon after tech platform Bolt failed to acquire the company in September last year. 

According to Dunworth, crypto market volatility and general market conditions in tech had been one of the main reasons for the deal falling through. 

Fintech writer Noah Weidner suspects that the company may have experienced balance sheet issues as early as September.

“I sent an email to Wyre some months back asking about their Yield product — in large part because Wyre+Yield was used by a bunch of small CeDeFi and fintech apps,” he tweeted. “Their response insinuated Wyre+Yield had been closed for months, but some apps were still using it for their treasury.”

Wyre’s now-failed acquisition had been considered monumental, as the $1.5 billion valuation would have been one of the largest non-SPAC deals. The payments platform’s decision to shut down operations may signify the prolonged crypto winter ahead.


Don’t miss the next big story – join our free daily newsletter.

Tags

Upcoming Events

Hilton Metropole | 225 Edgware Rd, London

MON - WED, MARCH 18 - 20, 2024

Crypto’s premier institutional conference returns to London in March 2024. The DAS: London Experience:  Attend expert-led panel discussions and fireside chats  Hear the latest developments regarding the crypto and digital asset regulatory environment directly from policymakers and experts   Grow your network […]

Salt Lake City, UT

WED - FRI, OCTOBER 9 - 11, 2024

Pack your bags, anon — we’re heading west! Join us in the beautiful Salt Lake City for the third installment of Permissionless. Come for the alpha, stay for the fresh air. Permissionless III promises unforgettable panels, killer networking opportunities, and mountains […]

recent research

logo.jpeg

Research

Akash is a general-purpose compute platform with GPUs, storage, LLM training or inference, and validator hosting through its two-sided marketplace.

article-image

The SEC could allow half a dozen or more such funds to launch at once, Ark Invest CEO says

article-image

2023 saw a decline in a16z crypto funding, but the behemoth VC firm teased what it’s excited for next year

article-image

“Iran Unchained” launched a new version of its grant platform to make donations to activists easier

article-image

The stablecoin marks the first time a regulated European bank has made a euro-pegged stablecoin available on a crypto exchange

article-image

Build it and they will come, perhaps, but making crypto easier to use is turning out to be just as important

article-image

Amid moves by Itau Unibanco and Nubank, the country could serve as “a proof of concept” for TradFi-crypto integrations, industry research exec says