Wirex – WireUp

Wirex Launches 2023 Rising Women in Crypto Power List

October 2, 2023 Published by TheFintechBuzz.com

Wirex, the leading crypto payments platform, is excited to announce the return of the Rising Women in Crypto Power List initiative for 2023 in partnership with The Cryptonomist, a major crypto media.

The Women in Crypto campaign, now in its fourth year, aims to celebrate excellence in the cryptocurrency industry. Wirex wants this initiative to not only acknowledge the accomplishments of female leaders but also inspire younger generations worldwide to view it as an incredible career path.

Pavel Matveev, CEO & Co-Founder of Wirex, commented: “The Women in Crypto campaign is not just an annual initiative; it’s a testament to the invaluable contributions that women make to the cryptocurrency industry. We believe that fostering diversity and recognising the achievements of leaders is essential for the continued growth and innovation of our ecosystem.”

This Power List was launched in 2020 as part of Wirex’s first Women in Crypto campaign. Since then, the Power List has received over 800 nominations from more than 50 countries, emphasising the global impact of this initiative.

He further added, “As we launch the 2023 Rising Women in Crypto Power List in collaboration with The Cryptonomist, we are not only celebrating the accomplishments of tenured change-makers but also striving to inspire a new wave of talent to join the crypto revolution.”

For the 2023 Power List, there will be 12 winners, including two additional awards to recognise extraordinary talent:

Social media influencer of the year – for those who have not only mastered the art of content creation but have also used it to drive positive change and inspire others.
Compliance leader of the year – for those who have shown outstanding contributions to compliance, regulation and building trust in the crypto field.

Nominations will be open to the public from 2^nd October until 6^th November 2023, with the panel of judges announcing a shortlist of 12 overall winners on 27th November 2022.

Individuals can nominate themselves or someone they know, with judging criteria based on their achievements, potential, influence, ambition, leadership skills and innovation.

Wirex Launches Crypto-Backed Credit

July 5, 2022 Published by TheFintechBuzz.com

Wirex, the leading payments platform, has launched Wirex Credit, offering highly competitive interest rates and no origination fee for crypto-backed loans. Users can easily borrow up to $100,000 in stablecoins, with a loan to value (LTV) of up to 80% within the Wirex app.

Crypto loans have become hugely popular in recent months due to their advantages over traditional loans. Wirex’s core aim is to bring the benefits of DeFi to the mass market, and Wirex Credit adds new use cases for crypto to their 5 million customers.

The product enables users to gain access to credit regardless of market conditions, whether that earning funds from investing into DeFi protocols or purchasing a getaway using the Wirex card. As the first company in the world to develop a crypto-enabled card, it’s linked up to the award-winning Wirex app, meaning credit can be spent at over 80 million locations globally, in-store or online, wherever Visa or Mastercard is accepted.

Wirex Credit is set to shake up the competitive landscape, offering a near-instant loan of up to $100,000 issued in USDC, USDT and NXUSD, with a LTV of up to 80% within the Wirex app. There will be no origination fee, set up fee, or requirement for credit and affordability checks, and users can borrow up to 5 lines of credit at once. Wirex offers complete flexibility; customers can pay back at any time and are only required to pay interest for the days that the credit line is live, where credit health can easily be checked in-app.

Wirex Credit adds to the London-based company’s arsenal of DeFi to CeFi products in their ecosystem. At the end of 2021, they released the world’s first mass market non-custodial wallet, whose unique biometric access system, next-generation user experience and cross-chain compatibility with zero exchange fees has proven hugely popular with fintech fans and core crypto users. Users can easily move their loans from the Wirex app to the Wirex Wallet, allowing them to earn crypto from staking and locking after connecting it to DeFi protocols such as Nereus Finance. Wirex recently invested 5 billion of their native token, WXT into Nereus for its rewards mechanism, where Nereus has since become one of the fastest growing DeFi platforms ever.

Pavel Matveev, CEO and Co-Founder of Wirex, commented, “This is a landmark point in Wirex offering more ways for everyday users to utilise crypto, and we’ve made it as convenient and straightforward as possible for our customers to take a crypto-backed loan. Wirex’s vast ecosystem of products means there are huge opportunities for using Wirex Credit, from HODLing to debit card purchases, or using the Wirex Wallet to earn in DeFi protocols.”

In the coming months, the company plans to expand the tokens that credit are offered on and the regional availability.

Wirex Credit is subject to the T&Cs, Privacy Policy and availability by region may differ. All credit lines are provided in stablecoins. Cryptocurrency is volatile and all lending is conducted at the user’s risk

Wirex Wallet and Paraswap Partner for Unrivalled DeFi Access

March 8, 2022 Published by TheBlockchainExaminer.com

Leading crypto platform, Wirex, has partnered with DEX aggregator, Paraswap, to make DeFi more accessible than ever before. Using Paraswap’s market-leading price algorithm, Wirex Wallet users will now be able to seamlessly exchange multiple tokens, saving users large amounts of money and effort.

Since inception in 2014, Wirex has endeavoured to break down barriers to access for crypto, blockchain and DeFi. With a growing number of tokens and blockchains emerging with an infinite number of benefits and use cases, interoperability is vital in realising a mainstream digital economy, and Paraswap’s application is helping to make this a reality.

As one of the most prominent DEX aggregators, Paraswap has launched on the Wirex Wallet to enable users to easily swap their tokens at a low cost. Using a market-leading price algorithm locating the best possible trading rate on various DEX, it will offer zero-commission swaps between tokens, making the Wirex Wallet one of the most competitive products in the space.

Wirex’s non-custodial wallet launched in December, cementing their vision to create one of the world’s most user-friendly wallets, and follows their overwhelming success with the Wirex app that boasts over 4.5 million customers. Utilising keyless technology using biometric access, multi-party computation technology for enhanced security, as well as an industry-leading user interface, millions of users are now able to access the benefits of DeFi.

The partnership with Paraswap has become even more pertinent as Wirex has sought to expand the blockchains on the Wirex Wallet, having recently announced the addition of the popular Avalanche, Polygon, Binance Smart Chain and Fantom blockchains. Cross-chain compatibility thanks to a recent integration with Celer Network’s cBridge application complements the Paraswap partnership, by also allowing tokens to be exchanged between blockchains.

Pavel Matveev, CEO and Co-Founder of Wirex, noted that: “For many years, it’s been difficult for everyday users to take advantage of DeFi and crypto. We’ve begun growing the number of blockchains on the wallet to enable users to access more blockchains and tokens with less congestion, lower transaction fees and faster speeds, and a partnership with Paraswap will allow them to easily move between these at low costs.”

“We are delighted to partner with Wirex and help enable their large community of users to benefit from the rich opportunities offered by DeFi,” said Mounir Benchemled, Founder of ParaSwap. “Through this integration, we hope it provides an edge to the product and expands the fundamentals of DeFi to a new market segment.”

Wirex has also recently partnered with uTorg, providing a user-friendly, direct on-ramp for purchasing tokens directly on the blockchain within the Wallet, and in the coming weeks, plans to add the Solana blockchain.

Wirex Reveals White Label for its Hybrid Crypto, Fiat & DeFi Services

October 14, 2021 Published by TheFintechBuzz.com

Leading next-gen payments platform Wirex is white labelling its unique hybrid fiat and crypto services for the first time. The white label solution enables businesses across the fintech, DeFi, banking and crypto industries to benefit from the company’s innovative technologically-advanced and compliance-ready products and features.

Following dramatic growth in the crypto and DeFi market over the past year, there has been an astronomical increase in demand for DeFi projects that are integrated with traditional financial infrastructure. With a seven-year track record of payments innovation, Wirex are perfectly positioned to meet this demand. The company has developed a world-class product that allows users to buy, hold, exchange and spend multiple traditional and cryptocurrencies using a single, intuitive platform and debit card. The Wirex platform also offers easy access to DeFi-powered savings features with none of the associated user complexity or cost.

There are few other businesses in the crypto space that are capable of white labelling a combined crypto-and-traditional-currency solution – and with nearly 4 million customers across 130 countries having thoroughly-battle tested Wirex’s products and services, a high level of interest in the white label solution has been generated already. The London-based fintech leverages a long-standing reputation for innovation, experience, security and regulatory compliance; their use of next-generation technology recently saw Wirex awarded the FSTech ‘Cryptoasset Innovation of the Year’ prize.

As both the first company to develop a crypto-enabled debit card and crypto rewards programme and the first crypto-native company to achieve principal membership of Mastercard, Wirex has made its mark on the industry. The fintech is also renowned for its unwavering commitment to customer security, working with trusted partners such as Fireblocks, Chainalysis, ZeroHash and Elliptic. Its knowledgeable and diligent in-house Compliance team endeavours to secure the appropriate licences where they exist – and applies gold-plated regulatory standards where they don’t – making the use of Wirex services attractive for businesses seeking hybrid crypto and fiat solutions based on extensive experience, expertise and existing licences.

The crypto-enabled Visa/Mastercard card product allows for instant crypto-to-fiat conversion, providing a real-time rate and seamless user experience. Similarly, Wirex’s native WXT token is deeply integrated into the platform, acting as a universal loyalty scheme for customers with up to 2% Cryptoback rewards on any purchases made. One of the company’s most popular features is X-Accounts, a revolutionary savings tool that allows for DeFi-generated high yield of up to 16% AER interest on both fiat and digital assets. White labelling the X-Accounts represents a huge opportunity for traditional financial institutions and fintechs to give their customers uncomplicated, inexpensive access to DeFi benefits.

Pavel Matveev, CEO and Co-Founder of Wirex, says “We expect there to be a huge demand for this service, as most of the white-label solutions from crypto companies like ours only offer the fiat side. We have always combined best-in-class expertise and technology to enable everyday users to have straightforward access to the benefits of crypto, and with our white labelling solution, we can enable the customers of crypto and DeFi projects, traditional financial banks and institutions, and fintech companies around the world to experience the same.”

Interest in X-Accounts Skyrockets as Wirex Lists 15 New Coins on Platform

July 13, 2021 Published by TheBlockchainExaminer.com

Wirex, the leading digital payments platform enabling everyone to access the benefits of blockchain technology, has added 15 new coins to their platform. The news follows the recent addition of their X-Accounts feature, which has now seen nearly $10 million worth of funds secured in them.

Since inception in 2014, Wirex have been on a mission to enable users of all abilities to easily buy, hold, exchange and sell crypto. With an explosion of interest in the decentralised finance (DeFi) space in recent years, Wirex have sought to develop their product to give nearly 4 million customers worldwide the ability to take advantage of this.

Since 7th June, Wirex have added 15 tokens from some of the most popular DeFi players*. These include Universal Market Access (UMA), OMG Network (OMG), Basic Attention Token (BAT), 0x (ZRX), Synthetix (SNX), FTX Token (FTT), Loopring (LRC), Kyber Network (KNC), Curve (CRV), Compound (COMP), SushiSwap (SUSHI), Augur (REP), Bancor (BNT), Balancer (BAL) and 1INCH. In May, the company announced that they had launched Aave (AAVE), Maker (MKR), Chainlink (LINK), Uniswap (UNI) and Yearn.Finance (YFI).

Since then, Wirex has made headlines globally after releasing their game-changing X-Accounts feature on the platform. Solidifying their endeavour to become one of the world’s most accessible interest-paying accounts ever, the company has already seen nearly $10 million worth of funds stored in across more than 12,000 accounts, which continues to grow at an astronomical rate. Unprecedented when compared to competitors and high-street banks, it offers users the ability to earn up to 16% interest back and demonstrates the staggering demand for next-generation DeFi services.

Pavel Matveev, CEO and Co-Founder of Wirex, said that: “Democratising access to crypto, and now DeFi, has always been at the heart of Wirex, and no better has this been demonstrated by the huge excitement of our customers over the last few months. The rollout of tokens from leading DeFi projects, as well as the incredible popularity of X-Accounts has cemented our position as a market-leader, and we hope to continue to innovate to ensure our commitment to the digital economy.”

Bringing DeFi to the Masses: Launch of X-Accounts & Fireblocks Partnership

June 23, 2021 Published by TheBlockchainExaminer.com

Digital payments platform, Wirex, has announced the launch of their game-changing X-Accounts feature, and partnership with Fireblocks, an industry-leading crypto provider. Set to become one of the world’s most accessible interest-paying accounts, X-Accounts will allow users to earn up to 16% on their crypto and fiat funds*.

Wirex’s long-term goal has been to make crypto ‘open to all’, offering the ability to utilise crypto in the everyday with the world’s first crypto-enabled debit card. With decentralised finance (DeFi) becoming hugely popular in recent months, the latest announcement will open up the often complex and expensive DeFi space to everyone, from hardcore crypto investors to casual, everyday users, and bring the benefits of DeFi to the mass market.

X-Accounts will allow customers to earn unprecedented levels of interest on both fiat and crypto funds* when compared to competitors and high-street banks. Avoiding the expensive fees and complicated processes often associated with DeFi and yield farming, users will have the ultimate control over their funds, with instant access, no minimum holdings and no maintenance fees for each pot.

Combined with Wirex’s other market-leading benefits, the addition of X-Accounts reaffirms the company’s vision to become the go-to crypto platform for users of all abilities. This includes consistently low fees, exclusive interbank and OTC exchange rates, free international ATM withdrawals, up to 2% Cryptoback rewards on card purchases, and the ability to hold multiple crypto and fiat accounts with a single intuitive app.

Further removing the complexity and trust issues often associated with owning a crypto wallet, Wirex have also announced the upcoming integration with Fireblocks’ enterprise technology to offer maximum security of user’s funds. Developing Wirex’s reputation for regulatory compliance and customer safety, the partnership will give Wirex up to $30 million of insurance on crypto assets.

Pavel Matveev, CEO and Co-Founder of Wirex, said that: “X Accounts will give everyday users easier than ever access to DeFi, offering quick cryptodeposits and high interest rates on anyone’s fiat and crypto holdings, meaning customers can sit back and watch their assets grow like never before. By working with Fireblocks to offer secure, scalable and built-in compliance protocols, customers can use X-Accounts without worrying about the risk that’s often found with many DeFi products.”

Michael Shaulov, CEO and Co-Founder of Fireblocks, describes the technology’s significance: “Maximising digital asset security is extremely important with this level of operational scale and efficiency, especially when it comes to DeFi. Building on top of the Fireblocks platform will bring an additional layer of security to Wirex’s customers as they become a part of the growing DeFi ecosystem.”

The latest news has further solidified Wirex’s support for the DeFi space, following a series of important announcements. In May, Wirex migrated 20% of their native token, WXT, to the Ethereum blockchain, and recently hosted an exclusive NFT giveaway. Since then, they’ve launched multiple ERC-20 tokens on the platform, including UNI, AAVE and MKR, with plans for many more.

Crypto-Friendly Fintech Wirex Temporarily Pauses Recruiting New UK Customers

March 24, 2021 Published by TheFintechBuzz.com

The Fintech company Wirex has announced its decision to voluntarily pause new UK customers of its popular app as of 24^th March 2021. The pause is a temporary measure and follows constructive dialogue with the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), the UK regulator.

From this date, Wirex will temporarily pause accepting new clients who are resident in the UK. The company – which serves nearly 3.5 million customers worldwide – will dedicate resources to further strengthen its 5AMLD (Fifth Anti-Money Laundering Directive) compliance protocols, conforming with the updated best practice guidelines set by the UK regulator. As Pavel Matveev, Co-Founder & CEO of Wirex explains:

“As a fintech with a global outlook, we’re at the frontier of making cryptocurrencies accessible to the widest possible audience. The UK’s ‘5AMLD’ will help increase transparency in financial transactions. The FCA have, in dialogue with us, made suggestions on how we can implement changes to our operational procedures, which we welcome and intend to follow. We believe London is the capital of fintech and the FCA’s recommendations will help us create a stable environment to operate in. We fully endorse the Khalifa Fintech Review findings about growing the UK-based fintech ecosystem and see ourselves as an integral partner in achieving this. UK-based users keen to register for our app and card will be invited to join our waiting list during this temporary pause.”

A global business with offices around the world, Wirex has experienced explosive growth during the last two years, driven by its expansion worldwide and a heightened public interest in cryptocurrencies. The Wirex app allows users to buy, exchange and spend both cryptocurrencies and traditional fiat currencies in conjunction with a multicurrency payment card.

Fintech Wirex Wins Court Ruling in Favour of Cryptoback Trade Mark

March 18, 2021 Published by TheBlockchainExaminer.com

Wirex, a leading digital payments platform, has succeeded in its High Court trade mark infringement claim regarding their UK registered trade mark for Cryptoback, which is used in conjunction with Wirex’s popular crypto rewards scheme.

The victory is against Cryptocarbon Global Ltd, Cryptocarbon UK Ltd and Bee-One UK Ltd in respect of their unauthorised use of the Cryptoback trade mark. Mr. Subash Manuel, a director of these companies, was held jointly liable for the infringing activities of Cryptocarbon Global Ltd and Cryptocarbon UK Ltd.

Wirex is an innovative crypto payments platform, giving customers the ability to buy, hold, exchange and sell up to 20 traditional and cryptocurrencies from a centralised, intuitive app. Cryptoback is one of Wirex’s most popular features, and the company is proud to have been the world’s first to offer a cryptocurrency rewards scheme. The programme automatically rewards customers up to 2% back in WXT, Wirex’s native token, for using their crypto-enabled debit card in-store or online.

Wirex issued its claim for trade mark infringement in September 2019 after discovering that the defendants were using the Cryptoback name in conjunction with a cryptocurrency rewards scheme. After a High Court trial in January this year, His Honour Judge Hacon found that Wirex’s Cryptoback trade mark was valid and infringed by the defendants, and all of their counterclaims (including to invalidate the Cryptoback trade mark) were dismissed.

The news comes at a significant time for Wirex, as they release a product overhaul, including their X-tras rewards programme. Building on the success of the crypto-rewards scheme and rewarding loyal customers, it offers enhanced Cryptoback rewards and up to 12% annual Savings Bonus on users WXT balance*. Last week, the company also announced their brand new crypto-enabled and multicurrency Mastercard debit card in the UK and EEA regions, with real-time point-of-sale conversion, exclusive interbank and OTC exchange rates, free international ATM withdrawals, zero monthly fees and free fiat-to-fiat exchanges.

Dominique Simon, Global General Counsel at Wirex remarked, “We are delighted that the Court has found in our favour after a long and hard-fought battle against these infringers. We would like to thank our legal team, Andrew Norris QC (Hogarth Chambers) and Brown Rudnick LLP, for all of their fantastic work in helping to deliver this outcome. We look forward to developing and expanding our Cryptoback program in the UK and worldwide, along with other exciting innovations. ”

Read the full judgment here: https://www.bailii.org/ew/cases/EWHC/IPEC/2021/617.html

To find out more about the new X-tras scheme, visit: https://wirexapp.com/blog/post/a-new-era-wirex-x-tras-programme-0280

To find out more about how Cryptoback works, visit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J8QWzMUglbU

Wirex Partners with Zero Hash Ahead of US Launch

February 18, 2021 Published by TheFintechBuzz.com

Digital payments platform, Wirex, today announced their partnership with Zero Hash to support their upcoming US launch. This will allow Wirex to launch their revolutionary product across the United States in April, giving over 300 million Americans instant access to crypto.

Utilizing the services of Zero Hash, a crypto trading infrastructure platform owned by Seed CX, Wirex, the London-based fintech will now be able to launch fully into 51 jurisdictions in the US.

The companies are shared advocates of the mass adoption of the digital economy. They also share the mission of empowering everyone to have straightforward access to crypto.

Wirex serves nearly 3.5 million people across more than 130 countries, in which they offer an award-winning product that allows users to buy, hold, exchange and sell up to 20 different traditional and cryptocurrencies from a single, and intuitive app. This is linked to a contactless crypto-enabled debit card, giving users the ability to spend crypto in over 61 million locations globally.

Wirex made headlines recently, by becoming only the second crypto-enabled company to receive Visa principal membership, and have imminent plans to launch X-Tras, upgrading their rewards scheme, Cryptoback. The feature will reward users up to 2% back in WXT on any purchases with their Wirex card.

Harold Montgomery, Managing Director of Wirex USA, has been leading the partnership and expressed his excitement about the upcoming launch: “Wirex has already proven hugely popular in other countries across the globe, so it’s exciting that we have reached one of our last big milestones in the run up to our US launch. It’s integral that we carefully select reliable and experienced partners such as Zero Hash for this to ensure that the Wirex product continues to give everyone cheap, seamless and safe access to crypto.”

This was complemented by Edward Woodford, CEO of Zero Hash, who said: “We are pleased that Zero Hash is powering Wirex’s US crypto expansion. Zero Hash provides the infrastructure enabling Wirex to rapidly expand into the United States, introducing an exciting product that is loved by clients globally to market there. Through the partnership, Wirex enables clients to seamlessly purchase and sell crypto, allows peer-to-peer crypto transfers and crypto rewards.”

With an ambition to reach 10 million customers by the end of 2021, the highly anticipated US-wide launch in April this year will play a key role in helping Wirex achieve this.

Wirex Becomes Principal Member of Visa Network in Europe

December 22, 2020 Published by TheBlockchainExaminer.com

Leading payments platform, Wirex, has become a principal member of Visa in Europe, a highly respected achievement for the London-based business with ambitious plans for 2021.

Having successfully completed Visa’s FinTech Fast Track Programme, Wirex have secured the sought after principal membership from the global payments company. Principal membership will allow Wirex to issue Visa cards themselves, offer new innovative products, and apply for additional licences.

The announcement comes at a pivotal time for the digital economy, with Bitcoin recently hitting its all time high¹ and a series of large industry players recently showing support for cryptocurrency.

Wirex already offers their services to over 3 million people across the EEA and APAC regions, and research shows the use of crypto is continuing to grow². Wirex themselves have experienced a 271% increase in the number of crypto exchanges on their platform compared to this time last year.³

“Digital currencies have the potential to extend the value of digital payments to a greater number of people and places,” said Cuy Sheffield, Senior Director and Head of Cryptocurrency, Visa. “We’re excited to work with innovative Fintechs like Wirex and enable their customers to use digital currencies at more than 61 million merchants on the Visa network.”

Pavel Matveev, CEO and Co-Founder of Wirex, said that: “It’s been our core goal to unite the traditional and digital economies, and collaborations with trusted global payments companies such as Visa are making this possible by providing straight and cost-effective solutions for utilising crypto in the everyday. It’s no easy feat to achieve principal membership and will present numerous opportunities to continue developing a revolutionary product.”

Wirex have had a long-standing partnership with Visa, having worked together to ensure Wirex was the first company in the world to issue a contactless crypto-enabled debit card in 2014⁴. The card enables customers to seamlessly spend up to 20 traditional and cryptocurrencies at over 61 million locations globally. Linked up to a next-generation app where they can be bought, held, exchanged or sold, the company was also the first to develop a cryptocurrency rewards scheme, Cryptoback, that rewards users up to 1.5% in Bitcoin for any purchases made with their debit card.

After a record-breaking crowdfunding campaign in October that raised nearly $5 million (US), the announcement rounds off a hugely successful year for the SBI group-backed company. With an overhaul of their rewards programme and launch in the US imminent, it’s thought that 2021 will be an even more extraordinary year for Wirex.

Tag: Wirex