The crisis in the cryptocurrency market continues to expand in 2023. The “victim” of the time is Wyre, a digital asset payment platform. Last week, the company announced that it is imposing limits on withdrawals on its platform. According to the January 7th announcement, Wyre customers can only withdraw up to 90% of their funds. “We are modifying our withdrawal policy. While customers will continue to be able to withdraw their funds, at this time we are limiting withdrawals to no more than 90% of the funds currently in each customer account, subject to current daily limits.” he wrote the company on Twitter. There are extra withdrawal limits of 5 BTC and 50 ETH per day and limits for withdrawals in fiat currencies.
Wyre promotes structural changes
In the aftermath, Wyre stated that acting in the interest of the community is its top priority. In addition, it reported that it is “exploring strategic options” to “navigate the current market environment”. As part of a restructuring, Wyre also made some changes to its management structure, with Yanni Giannaros stepping down as CEO and taking over as chief executive. Meanwhile, Chief Risk and Compliance Officer Stephen Cheng has taken over as interim CEO, according to the company. “We sincerely appreciate the support and positive sentiments from our community, as well as the broader crypto ecosystem, as we look for options that will allow Wyre to flourish. Our operations follow and we will share information with the community as it becomes available.”
Juno and MetaMask End Wyre Partnership
The announcement about the withdrawal cap comes on the heels of increased concerns about a potential liquidity crunch at Wyre. As CriptoFácil reported, last week, the digital asset bank Juno told its customers to sell their cryptoassets or else do their self-custody due to “uncertainties” about Wyre. “We strongly recommend withdrawing crypto assets to your self-custodial wallet or selling your cryptos for cash in your FDIC insured Juno checking account up to $250,000 through our partner bank.” Wyre also ended its partnership with crypto wallet provider MetaMask. On January 5, MetaMask posted an update that the platform has been removed from its mobile aggregator: “Please do not use Wyre. We are currently working on removing the extension and thank you for your patience.” said to MetaMask on Twitter.
Wyre is winding down operations?
Founded in 2013, Wyre has experienced a lot of financial difficulties in recent months. In September, checkout company Bolt backed out of its acquisition agreement with the company. Then, in December, Axios reported that Wyre reportedly told employees it would shut down operations in the month of January. Michael Staib, who worked as a technical engineer for Wyre, posted on his LinkedIn account on December 31, 2022 that “Wyre will not continue to be a profitable business”. There are still no confirmations of a closure of activities, but, apparently, the crisis has already settled in Wyre.
