Crypto Startup Wyre Being Acquired by Payments Company Bolt for $1.5 Billion

Bolt Financial, an online payment provider, is acquiring Wyre, a crypto-based payments platform for $1.5 billion.

First covered by WSJ and later confirmed by Bolt, the deal represents the largest crypto M&A deal in history, behind Galaxy Digital’s $1.2 billion pending acquisition of BitGo.

What Is Bolt?

Founded in 2014 by Ryan Breslow, Bolt created a way for merchants to compete more directly with Amazon’s one-click buying experience. It allows shoppers to create a single Bolt account that can be used on any company that uses the software.

To date, the company has raised ~$1.3 billion in venture capital, and was valued at $11 billion.

What Is Wyre?

Wyre provides APIs and infrastructure to merchants who want to build crypto businesses by allowing users to exchange fiat for cryptocurrencies. They have worked primarily with exchanges and NFT marketplaces to date.

What’s The Big Deal?

Although crypto is in the news constantly, consumers have been hesitent to use digital assets as a means of traditional payment. With the acquisition of Wyre, Bolt plans on changing that by integrating Wyre’s capabilities with Bolt’s technology and entrenchment in existing companies payment processes.

As the digital payment provider space heats up with the likes of PayPal, Apple Pay, and Block’s CashApp, Bolt is going for more of a “buy then build” approach.