Wyre would be the latest victim of Crypto Winter

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Wyre is reportedly shutting down, the latest cause of an ongoing crypto downturn.

Well, keep doing all we can, but I want everyone to be prepared for the fact that we will have to unwind the business over the next two weeks, CEO Ioannis Giannaros said in an email to employees. , according to a report published Tuesday (Jan. 3) by Axios.

Giannaros later told the outlet that the crypto payment platform was still running but would be back down to plan our next steps, without commenting further on the shutdown.

The report also quotes a former employee who says workers have yet to be told about a severance package, with employees fearing the severance package is coming.

PYMNTS has reached out to Wyre for comment via email. The phone number on the company’s website went straight to voicemail, with a recording saying Wyre was unable to offer phone support.

Wyre was to merge with FinTech Bolt Payments earlier this year. The companies announced the deal in April, but called off the $1.5 billion merger in September.

Bolt remains a strong supporter of crypto and a supporter of Wyre, Bolt CEO Maju Kuruvilla said in an email to PYMNTS at the time. We will continue our existing business partnership with Wyre to lead the way in integrating crypto into our ecosystem, bringing Wyres’ innovative crypto infrastructure to the world.

News of Wyres’ latest reversal of fortune came the same day crypto firm Genesis told clients it needed 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 delivering the best outcome for all clients involved, said Derar Islim, CEO of Genesis Global Capital Interim, adding that the company was working with advisors to assess options to preserve client assets and move the business forward.

Although we are committed to act as quickly as possible, this is a very complex process that will take additional time, Islim said in the letter.

Genesis announced in November that it was suspending withdrawals from its Genesis Loan business due to unprecedented market turmoil.

The company had $175 million in funds locked in its FTX trading account. The lender was seeking a new capital injection of nearly $1 billion to help weather the turmoil following the FTX collapse.

This collapse marked the culmination of a year in which the cryptocurrency industry fully entered the mainstream and nearly drowned, as PYMNTS wrote last month.

In addition to the high-profile, multi-billion dollar fraud case against the founder of FTXs, this year also saw TerraUSD, and its native coin Luna, collapse in May, costing stakeholders around the world approximately $48 billion.

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