This is one of the largest takeovers in the crypto industry not involving a SPAC.

Bolt Financial Inc will acquire Wyre Payments Inc in a transaction valued about $1.5 billion, according to Bloomberg, which quoted the WSJ for the deal amount. Both firms announced the takeover today citing the growing adoption of crypto for purchases of goods and services, as well as Web3. (CISION PR Newswire)

Bolt is a ecommerce startup specializing in checkout services, while Wyre is a fiat-to-crypto and payment infrastructure company. Both are based in San Francisco. The acquisition is expected to be consummated within 2022.

Bolt + Wyre

“Once complete, the acquisition will bring the power of Bolt’s CheckoutOS—one-click checkout, authentication, payments, and fraud protection—to the cryptocurrency ecosystem,” the company said in a statement. “Bolt will join forces with Wyre’s groundbreaking crypto infrastructure to securely exchange crypto to fiat—which enables retailers to accept cryptocurrency as a payment method, with the security and ease of traditional currency.”

“Simply put, we want to allow every retailer to transact easily in cryptocurrency, removing long-standing barriers,” commented Ioannis Giannaros, co-founder and CEO of Wyre.

“Both consumers and retailers will benefit from a friction-free buying experience that supports crypto and NFT natively,” said Maju Kuruvilla, CEO of Bolt.

Post-closure, the millions of shoppers on the Bolt network would be able to use cryptos to transact their purchases, while retailers would easily accept cryptocurrency.

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