Crypto Bank Juno has recommended its customers to self-custody their digital assets or sell them for cash

Wyre is widely regarded as the "crypto partner" mentioned by Juno

Published: Jan 5, 2023 05:32:52 PM IST

Updated: Jan 5, 2023 05:36:25 PM IST

Image: Shutterstock

Juno, a crypto banking firm, has recommended its customers to self-custody their digital assets. The firm has also suggested that customers can sell their assets for cash while it works to migrate client funds to a new custodian. In an official tweet posted on Wednesday, Juno said,

“1/ Update on @JunoFinanceHQ in the last 24 hours

At Juno, we aim to be the easiest and fastest on and off-ramp for crypto. ~90% of our crypto native users have always used Juno as an on and off-ramp.

Juno offers these services via its banking and crypto partners.

2/ Juno as a platform doesn’t custody crypto assets & relies on our crypto partner for these services.

Due to uncertainty with our crypto partner, we have taken preemptive action in the interest of our customers.”

Wyre, a well-known money transfer company in the United States, is widely regarded as the “crypto partner” mentioned by Juno. Wyre announced its closure on January 4 and had already begun laying off employees. The company’s CEO, Giannaros, stated that the company was “still operational” but was scaling back to consider its next steps.

Juno’s team has already started working with a new custodian, who has yet to be identified. Client funds will be transferred from Wyre to the new custodian in the coming weeks. Juno CEO and co-founder Varun Deshpande said,

“We are switching custodians because we expect potential issues with Wyre, given they might be scaling back or winding down.”

Juno stated in its most recent Twitter thread that it still has $1.25 million in crypto assets on its platform. The banking firm also stated that it has been in touch with customers to encourage them to self-custody their holdings. Wyre, which was once valued at $1.5 billion, has faced some difficult challenges in recent months. Bolt, a one-click checkout company, backed out of its acquisition in September.

Juno also temporarily disabled crypto buying on its platform. It continues to convert stablecoins to US dollars only in "users’ government-insured accounts, which are FDIC Insured up to $250,000 via our partner bank.” Juno has further increased daily withdrawal limits for all “metal” account holders by five times. It is Juno's highest tier account.

Shashank is founder at yMedia. He ventured into crypto in 2013 and is an ETH maximalist. Twitter: @bhardwajshash