Giannaros, the ceo of crypto payments company wyre, has allegedly told his employees via email that he is liquidating the company and plans to terminate services this month. the report was made by axios, citing two unnamed employees as sources, alongside a recent layoff posted on linkedin. the industry is uneasy at the prospect of further layoffs amid the ongoing crypto winter.
Alleged liquidation of wyre happened in september when the company’s deal with bolt was scrapped. the two companies had previously agreed to remain partners and entered “a commercial agreement […] to implement wyre’s one-click solution for the bolt customer platform.” wyre turns 10 this year and had a $1.5 billion price tag at its height.
Cause of the liquidation is unclear, but it may be linked to the ripple effects from the collapse of crypto exchange ftx, which resulted in layoffs at bybit, swytfx, and koinly. additionally, exchanges coinbase and crypto.com have done multiple rounds of layoffs since summer. giannaros said in a follow-up email that the company is “still operating but will be scaling back to plan our next steps.” one of the unnamed employees said the company hasn’t “yet” offered a severance package. decrypt has reached out to wyre for comment. giannaros declined to comment on the claims by his alleged former employees.
https://decrypt.co/118357/wyre-scaling-back-operations-amid-crypto-winter-ceo
