Wyre is reportedly shutting down, the latest causality of an ongoing crypto downturn.
“We’ll continue to do everything we can, but I want everyone to brace themselves for the fact that we will need to unwind the business over the next couple of weeks,” CEO Ioannis Giannaros said in an email to employees, according to a report Tuesday (Jan. 3) by Axios.
Giannaros later told the news outlet that the crypto payments platform was “still operating but will be scaling back to plan our next steps,” without commenting further on the shutdown.
The report also quotes a former employee who says workers have not yet been told about a severance package, with employees concerned that severance won’t be forthcoming.
PYMNTS has reached out to Wyre for comment via email. The phone number on the company website went directly to voicemail, with a recording saying Wyre was “unable to offer phone support.”
Wyre had been set to merge with payments FinTech Bolt earlier this year. The companies announced the deal in April but called off the $1.5 billion merger in September.
“Bolt remains a strong believer in crypto and a supporter of Wyre,” Bolt CEO Maju Kuruvilla said at the time in an email to PYMNTS. “We will continue our existing commercial partnership with Wyre to pave the path of crypto integration into our ecosystem, bringing Wyre’s innovative crypto infrastructure to the world.”
News of Wyre’s latest reversal of fortune came the same day that crypto firm Genesis told its clients it needs more time to repair its borrowing and lending intermediation business.
“We remain focused on finding a solution for our borrowing and lending intermediation business and reaching the best outcome for all affected clients,” Genesis Global Capital Interim CEO Derar Islim said letter, adding that the company is working with advisors to evaluate options to preserve client assets and bring the business forward.
“While we are committed to moving as quickly as possible, this is a very complex process that will take some additional time,” Islim said in the letter.
Genesis announced in November that it was pausing withdrawals from its lending business Genesis due to “unprecedented market turmoil.”
The company had $175 million in funds locked in its FTX trading account. The lender was looking for a fresh capital injection of almost $1 billion to help weather the turmoil following FTX’s collapse.
That collapse marked the climax of a year in which the “cryptocurrency industry fully entered the mainstream — and almost drowned,” as PYMNTS wrote last month.
In addition to the high-profile, multi-billion-dollar fraud case against FTX’s founder, this year also saw TerraUSD, and its native coin Luna, collapse in May costing stakeholders around the world an estimated $48 billion.
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