On Jan. 8, crypto payments firm Wyre announced that it was “modifying its withdrawal policy.” The move adds a limit to withdrawals of no more than 90% of the funds in customer accounts. In other words, Wyre users cannot completely empty their accounts.
There are additional withdrawal limits of 5 BTC and 50 ETH per day, and limits on fiat withdrawals, however, most crypto exchanges have tiered limits.
The move suggests growing concern about insolvency and a potential liquidity crunch should jittery customers want their money back in a hurry. It could also trigger a frenzy of withdrawals which could result in more restrictions imposed.
Wyre added that it, too, was suffering during the lengthening crypto winter, which has been exacerbated by several high-profile meltdowns in 2022.
“Acting in the best interest of our community is our top priority, and we are exploring strategic options for our company that will enable us to navigate the current market environment.”
There was also a bit of an executive shakeup with Yanni Giannaros stepping down as CEO. He will assume the role of executive chairman, with chief risk and compliance officer Stephen Cheng stepping up as interim CEO, according to the firm.
Wyre has also separated from leading crypto wallet provider MetaMask. On Jan. 6, MetaMask posted an update stating that the platform has been removed from its mobile aggregator, adding, “please do not use Wyre.”
According to an Axios report earlier this month, Wyre told employees that it was shutting down. Then CEO Giannaros reportedly said:
“We’ll continue to do everything we can, but I want everyone to brace themselves for the fact that we will need to unwind the business over the next couple of weeks,”
Wyre was acquired by fintech firm Bolt for $1.5 billion in April 2022.
Crypto markets are a rare sea of green during the Monday morning Asian trading session. Total capitalization is up 3.3% over the past 24 hours to reach $884 billion.
It is the highest markets have traded since mid-December, however, zooming out shows that things are still range bound.
Bitcoin has topped $17K with a 2% daily gain, while Ethereum is up 3.7%, topping $1,300 at the time of writing.