California-based online payments company Bolt is pulling out of a deal to buy crypto provider Wire. News of the canceled deal, which was agreed earlier this year, comes amid falling valuations in the crypto and fintech sectors.
Bolt abandons $1.5 billion Wire acquisition plan
Bolt Financial, a US technology company headquartered in San Francisco, said on Friday that it had canceled a deal to buy crypto infrastructure provider Wire Payments, Reuters reported on Saturday. In early April a definitive agreement was announced by the e-commerce platform to acquire Wire, reportedly for $1.5 billion.
The deal was hailed as one of the biggest crypto business acquisitions of the year. After the funding round in January, Bolt was last valued at $11 billion. However, the report added that higher technical valuations have since come under pressure as investor sentiment was hit by bearish fears and negative developments in equity markets.
Payment processor Stripe and fintech Klarna Bank also took significant valuation cuts, Reuters reported. Industry valuations in the crypto sector have dropped significantly during the market downturn over the past months.
In a released statement, Bolt stressed that it will continue its partnership with Wire. The online checkout firm elaborated that staying independent would allow it to focus on its core areas of business. The company’s CEO Maju Kuruvilla was quoted as saying:
We will continue our existing commercial partnership with Wire to pave the way for crypto integration into our ecosystem, bringing Wire’s innovative crypto infrastructure to the world.
Wire provides users of various crypto projects with blockchain-connected payment APIs and fiat-to-crypto OnRamp, forex and cryptocurrency liquidity. It was founded in 2013 and, like Bolt, which was founded a year later, is headquartered in San Francisco.
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