Payments provider Bolt to buy crypto-focused firm

Bolt, a payments provider based in San Francisco, has agreed to buy Wyre, a cryptocurrency infrastructure provider. 

Bolt said in a press release Thursday that it expects the acquisition of the San Francisco company to close later this year. The companies plan to collaborate on projects designed to provide mainstream, secure crypto usage for shoppers, retailers and developers. 

The goal is to connect Bolt’s one-click checkout and fraud prevention product to the cryptocurrency ecosystem. 

The transaction should give shoppers in Bolt's network easier access numerous cryptocurrencies, fiat exchanges and compliance solutions. Shoppers will also be able to buy NFTs through Bolt. 

"This acquisition is the fulfillment of a long-time ambition,” Ryan Breslow, Bolt’s executive chairman, said in the release. “I had always imagined cryptocurrency at its center.”