San Francisco-based cryptocurrency payments firm Wyre is shutting down after nearly a decade in business due to financial challenges stemming from the bear market. The company emphasized that its decision to wind down operations was not influenced by any regulatory agency direction in the United States. In a blog post on June 16, Wyre stated that it made this difficult choice to protect the interests of its key stakeholders and customers.
Wyre assured its users that their assets would be secure during the shutdown process. Customers were allowed to withdraw their assets through Wyre’s dashboard until Friday, July 14th, and a separate process would be established for recovering any remaining assets on the platform.
The company also mentioned that its assets, along with those of its subsidiaries, were up for sale. Interested parties were directed to contact 88 Partners for inquiries regarding the acquisition of Wyre’s assets.
Wyre had been facing difficulties since Bolt, a one-click checkout company, canceled its plans to acquire Wyre for $1.5 billion in September 2022. Subsequently, fiat-to-crypto on-ramp provider Juno urged its users on January 4 to transfer their crypto assets off the Juno platform and into self custody, citing uncertainty surrounding its custodial partner, Wyre.
MetaMask, a popular cryptocurrency wallet, also discontinued support for Wyre’s crypto payment services due to the same issue. Wyre attempted to address concerns by imposing a 90% withdrawal limit for all users. However, on January 13, the company lifted the withdrawal cap after securing financing from an unnamed strategic partner, signaling a potential recovery.
It is worth noting that in January, Wyre reportedly laid off 75 employees, further indicating the challenges faced by the company.
