Payments provider Bolt Financial to buy crypto startup Wyre

Bolt Financial said it agreed to acquire the crypto infrastructure payments firm Wyre Payments.

The transaction is valued at around $1.5 billion, The Wall Street Journal reported, citing people familiar with the matter. A Bolt spokesperson declined to comment when asked by Bloomberg News to confirm the amount. The purchase is expected to close later this year, Bolt said in a statement Thursday.

The two privately owned San Francisco-based companies are seeking to provide a one-click cryptocurrency checkout system to simplify digital shopping. Bolt sells online services, while Wyre is a blockchain-based payments provider. 

“This acquisition will pave the way for seamless, secure crypto transactions, and NFT enablement for our retailers,” Maju Kuruvilla, chief executive of Bolt, said in the statement. “Both consumers and retailers will benefit from a friction-free buying experience that supports crypto and NFT natively.”