Crypto payments firm Wyre set to shut down next month

At one point, Wyre was set to be acquired for over $1 billion. Now, it's shutting down. 

The crypto payments firm said Friday evening that it plans to wind down its operations, citing "market conditions."

"We made this decision to protect the best interest of our key stakeholders and customers," the firm said in a tweet. "This decision is not due to any regulatory agency direction. Wyre continues to secure customer assets."

The firm plans to keep withdrawals open to clients until July 14 after which point it will have a process to recover assets left on the platform.

Founded in 2013, Wyre has offered fiat-to-crypto infrastructure to companies operating in the crypto market. 

In April 2022, the firm was set to be acquired by checkout and shopper network firm Bolt in a deal that valued Wyre at a $1.5 billion — making it one of the biggest crypto deals to be announced. 

The firms' ambitions at the time were to "decentralize commerce — uniting their technologies to evolve and simplify digital shopping."

The firms announced in September the deal's termination, joining a flurry of fintech deals that have fallen apart including deals between UBS and Wealthfront and Galaxy Digital and BitGo. 

Wyre initially raised nearly $30 million from a number of investors, including the Stellar Development Foundation and crypto venture fund Pantera.