Payments Startup Wyre Acquires Bitcoin Smart Contract Developer

Crypto payments startup Wyre has acquired 100 percent of Hedgy, a venture-backed bitcoin smart contract development firm, for an undisclosed sum.

The deal will help Wyre broaden the scope of the services it provides to crypto startups, the company’s co-founder and COO Ioannis Giannaros told CoinDesk. Wyre provides cross-border payments using bitcoin, ethereum, litecoin and other cryptocurrencies to settle transactions.

Specifically, acquiring a smart contract platform will aid Wyre provide a wider financial ecosystem to crypto startups, according to Giannaros, with access to financial instruments such as forward contracts, swaps and more.

Wyre plans to take advantage of Hedgy’s ability to “navigate” the regulatory space, he added, explaining:

“This is a really highly regulated area, and in this sense Hedgy generally has been extremely ahead of the time. They were doing smart contract derivatives at the time ethereum wasn’t even there yet.”

As well as being a blockchain application development platform, Hedgy provides bitcoin derivatives. It takes a particular focus on commercial miners who can lock in a price at which they want to sell bitcoin in the future, using smart contracts to settle the transaction on the bitcoin blockchain.

“In the world of bitcoin, the volatility that the markets have seen is part of its appeal to bring retail speculators, investors, and professional traders into the space. Over time, we’re going to see this volatility cool down (might be a while!). When markets become less volatile, we see the increase in the demand for creative financial products that can offer things such as options and futures,” a Wyre Medium post states.

As part of the deal, Hedgy co-founder and CEO Matt Slater will join Wyre as an advisor.

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