Bolt, an online payment service provider, purchased crypto-focused Wyre. This tie-up could make it easier to accept crypto-based web payment.
Bolt, a payment platform that allows for one-click shopping similar to Apple Pay and PayPal, announced on Thursday that Wyre, a crypto-service provider, has been acquired by Bolt. This will allow more merchants to accept online crypto payments.
Bolt and Wyre didn’t confirm the deal’s value, but Kuruvilla said that a $1.5 Billion price tag was reported by the Wall Street Journal and included a mix cash and stock.
The Journal also mentioned research that made the deal the largest cryptocurrency acquisition, even excluding those that were conducted using a SPAC (a controversial shell-company gimmick that has been losing popularity in recent months).
Kuruvilla predicts that merchants will embrace crypto payments because, according to Bolt’s data, crypto shoppers spend twice the amount of those who use credit cards and because it attracts new customers.
Bolt CEO Maju Kuruvilla stated that “we are going to make crypto one-click and make it super simple for merchants to support cryptocurrency out of the box,” Decrypt. He also said that current crypto checkout experiences are “highly friction.”
Bolt and Wyre have signed a deal Wednesday. Kuruvilla states that it will need to be approved by the regulator, which means that merchants won’t be able add crypto payment options until later in the year.
Wyre founder Yanni Giannaros stated that the service is “crypto agnostic”, and can facilitate payments tied with seven different blockchains as well as more than 40 tokens.
Bolt-Wyre’s tie-up could increase cryptocurrency payments in shopping but it will depend on whether merchants are willing to use Bolt. The company is not as well-known as PayPal. It is also less popular than PayPal. Kuruvilla explains that Bolt has a “while label”, which allows merchants to use their brands at the point where payment is made.
Ryan Breslow (founder of Bolt), says Wyre’s acquisition is a “full-circle moment” for Bolt, since crypto was originally part of the company’s plans eight years ago. However, it dropped these plans due to difficult business conditions.
