California-based online payments company Bolt is pulling out of an agreement to buy crypto provider Wyre. The news of the scrapped deal, which was agreed to earlier this year, comes amid plunging valuations in the crypto and fintech sectors.
Bolt Gives Up Plan for $1.5 Billion Wyre Acquisition
Bolt Financial, a U.S. technology company headquartered in San Francisco, said Friday it had scrapped a deal to buy crypto infrastructure provider Wyre Payments, Reuters reported on Saturday. A definitive agreement to acquire Wyre for a reported $1.5 billion was announced by the e-commerce platform in early April.
The deal was considered one of the largest crypto business acquisitions this year. After a funding round in January, Bolt was last valued at $11 billion. The report notes, however, that high tech valuations have since come under increased pressure as investor sentiment was hit by recession fears and negative developments in the equity markets.
Payments processor Stripe and fintech Klarna Bank have also taken significant valuation cuts, Reuters pointed out. Industry valuations have dropped significantly in the crypto sector as well during the market slump in the past months.
In a released statement, Bolt emphasized it will continue its partnership with Wyre. The online checkout firm elaborated that remaining independent would allow it to focus on its core areas of business. Company CEO Maju Kuruvilla was quoted as stating:
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.
Wyre offers blockchain-connected payment APIs and fiat-to-crypto onramps, foreign exchange, and cryptocurrency liquidity to users of various crypto projects. It was established in 2013 and like Bolt, which was founded a year later, is headquartered in San Francisco.
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