With the cryptocurrency market still having trouble recovering after a rocky 2022, different “victims” of the downtrend continue to emerge. Many businesses have closed in recent months, with the most recent being wyre, which was valued at more than US$ 1.5 billion. According to information from Axios, Wyre announced that it will start to fire its employees in a process of reducing its activities until the inevitable complete closure of the company.
The site points to one of the people familiar with the company as a source, saying that Wyre’s CEO, Ioannis Giannaros sent an email to some employees during the holiday season saying the company would be closed. One of the employees, according to Axios, is concerned that the company has not talked about severance plans and so he believes he could be fired without any kind of “entitlement”. By all indications, the company has laid off at least 75 employees so far. Another former employee, Michael Staibwho worked at Wyre between September 2021 and January 2023, said on his LinkedIn that he does not believe Wyre will remain a profitable company.
“Well, I thought I could get back on track. But it looks like life has more challenges for me to complete. In my opinion, Wyre will not remain a profitable business,” said Staib.
Other reports on employee layoffs can also be found on social media.
“January 3 was the first day of work of 2023, but for many it was not a happy day. Wyre has informed staff that it will cease operations by the end of January. Employees losing jobs, customers losing services, investors losing money .”
3 Jan was the first day of work in 2023, but for some it was not a pleasant first day. Wyre informed staff that it was shutting down operations by end-Jan. Employees losing jobs, clients losing services, investors losing money. $1.5b valuation to $0. The crypto winter continues — Bobby Ong (@bobbyong) January 4, 2023
“From $1.5B to $0. Crypto Winter Continues”
Upon information of Wyre’s closure, CEO Ioannis Giannaros stated that the company is still operating and will continue to operate in the future, but with a reduced headcount.
“We are still operating, but will scale back to plan our next steps,” said the CEO of wyre.
Interestingly, not only was Wyre valued at $1.5 billion recently, it just went through a successful investment round, raising $29 million. This has made some question whether there isn’t more to the story.
“They raised $29m. There must be more to this story. Their run rate must be between $50m to $100m to be valued at $1.5B. There are no concerns to scare off investors, unless there’s something bogus (fake income, money in FTX, etc.)”
Yeah, something doesn’t add up as to why they couldn’t find another acquirer after the Bolt acquisition fell through — Bobby Ong (@bobbyong) January 4, 2023
Wyre may indeed be having problems with the market downturn, but it may also be falling prey to as-yet-undisclosed (or uncovered) internal problems.
