• Wirex, which has 4.5 million users across Europe and Asia, launched its crypto-to-fiat services in the U.S. today to all U.S. users, except those in New York and Hawaii
• The company is partnering with Zero Hash, Checkout.com, Visa, and Sutton Bank for the distribution of its crypto-enabled debit card
• The launch comes 18 months after Wirex received its first money transmission license in the U.S.

Remember in 2020 when we wrote that Wirex was “inching” toward a U.S. launch? Well, the slow crawl is over; the cryptocurrency payments platform announced it has officially expanded its services to the U.S.

Wirex’s platform, which enables users to buy, store, exchange, and spend fiat currency and more than 37 cryptocurrencies, is leveraging partnerships with Zero Hash, Checkout.com, Visa, and Sutton Bank to distribute its crypto-enabled debit card to American users. The London-based company is expanding beyond the EEA and APAC regions, where it already serves 4.5 million users.

“U.S. users have been demanding an alternative to traditional forms of payments that are antiquated, slow and non-transparent, and that’s where Wirex steps in,” said Wirex USA Managing Director Harold Montgomery. “We’re known for upholding regulatory and licensing standards where required, and applying industry-best practices where regulations don’t yet exist. American customers can expect the same level of compliance.”

Founded in 2014, Wirex’s app links to a Visa debit card that allows customers to spend their cryptocurrency online and in-store at over 61 million locations. Additionally, the company offers free domestic and international ATM withdrawals, no annual fee, zero exchange fees, near instant crypto transactions, live transaction notifications, and the ability to instantly top up via their debit card with zero fees.

Today’s launch comes 18 months after the company received its first money transmission license in the U.S. from the State of Georgia Department of Banking and Finance. Starting today, Wirex’s services are available to users in all states except New York and Hawaii. The company said it will launch in those regions later this year.

In December of last year, Wirex launched its non-custodial wallet, an app within the Wirex ecosystem that serves as a secure way for users to send, store, and receive digital assets. Earlier that month, Wirex invested five billion Wirex Tokens in a new, cross-chain DeFi lending protocol called Nereus.

Wirex has almost $8 million in funding. Pavel Matveev is CEO.

Photo by Ewan Kennedy on Unsplash

• Blockchain technology company ConsenSys is acquiring MyCrypto
• ConsenSys will combine MyCrypto’s tech with its own Web3 wallet, MetaMask
• Financial terms of the deal were undisclosed

Blockchain technology firm ConsenSys made its seventh acquisition today. The Switzerland-based company is buying Ethereum interface MyCrypto, a California-based startup that helps users manage and store their crypto assets.

Specifically, ConsenSys will combine its Web3 wallet, MetaMask, with MyCrypto to improve security and standardize the user experience across desktop, mobile, extension, and browser wallets. MyCrypto launched in 2015 to help users unify their Ethereum accounts. Founded one year later, MetaMask offers its 21 million monthly active users a non-custodial crypto wallet for mobile and browser extensions.

“I think we’ll be able to provide a wallet experience that is much more able to help its users make the best decisions through this rapidly evolving Web3 wallet landscape,” said MetaMask Co-founder Dan Finlay.

The MyCrypto and MetaMask teams have collaborated since 2016. The groups have teamed up to educate the customers on security best practices and have helped integrate and maintain MetaMask’s phishing detection service. User security and education will continue to be a major priority. Moving forward, MyCrypto and MetaMask aim to prioritize user security and education.

“With the rapid growth of the ecosystem and products racing to ship slick features, it is imperative that the leading wallet continues to build foundational and secure self-custody tools that empower the user,” said MyCrypto CEO and Co-founder Taylor Monahan. “Combining our years of experience and shared values allows us to accelerate our mission of providing a way for users to fully realize their self-sovereignty.”

ConsenSys plans to eventually merge the MetaMask and MyCrypto features and brands. For now, however, they will operate independently. MetaMask Co-founders Dan Finlay and Aaron Davis, will lead the unified Desktop, Mobile, Extension, and Browser product offerings alongside MyCrypto founder Taylor Monahan. MyCrypto’s team of 12 employees will join ConsenSys.

Photo by Lukas from Pexels

San Francisco, California-based Banking-as-a-Service company Treasury Prime unveiled its new compliance solution this week. The new offering – a suite of compliance tools, resources, and guidance from regulatory experts – gives fintechs the ability to create and launch their own risk-based compliance programs in a matter of weeks.

The compliance suite has three main components. First is a toolkit that enables firms to customize their compliance program and have more control over the account opening experience. Second, the new offering provides for direct partnerships with bank partners rather than outsourcing compliance to third parties. And, third, Treasury Prime’s compliance suite includes guidance from regulatory experts on key issues such as Bank Secrecy Act (BSA) and Anti-Money Laundering (AML) compliance. Each of these features is tailored to the specific and unique risk profiles of individual fintechs.

Sheetal Parikh, Associate General Counsel and VP of Compliance Solutions for Treasury Prime noted that the rise of stricter compliance standards for fintechs make new compliance solutions for this industry all the more urgently needed. “Regulators now expect fintechs to adhere to the same level of regulatory obligations as banks if they’re going to be offering banking products,” Parikh said. “Our new solution provides fintechs (with) the sophisticated tools and expert guidance needed to quickly build a strong compliance framework that meets the robust compliance standards imposed on banks.”

To facilitate the new compliance offering, Treasury Prime had teamed up with a pair of regtech innovators, Alloy and Unit21. The Alloy partnership will bring compliance and identity management solutions for both KYC and AML via a single API connection. Courtesy of Treasury Prime’s partnership with Unit21, banks and fintechs will be able to deploy pre-configured rule-sets and models to monitor transactions for suspicious activity. Real-time collaborative alert investigation is also a feature of the Unit21 collaboration.

Founded in 2017, Treasury Prime was recognized last fall as “Best Banking-as-a-Service” platform at the Tearsheet Embedded Awards, and named to CB Insights Fintech 250 roster of top fintech startups for 2021. In recent months, the company has partnered with Emprise Bank ($2.3 billion in assets) to help the institution with its new embedded banking initiative. Treasury Prime also teamed up with women-owned Piermont Bank to help early stage startups go live with basic banking services as part of the collaboration’s Quick Start Program.

Treasury Prime has raised more than $31 million in funding according to Crunchbase. The company’s investors include QED Investors, Deciens Capital, Nyca Partners, Pacific Western Bank, Susa Ventures, and Y Combinator, among others. Chris Dean is co-founder and CEO.

U.K. digital bank Monzo is officially entering the U.S. market this week. The startup announced it’s now allowing U.S. clients to apply for a Monzo account.

Monzo has been in closed beta for the past 18 months, during which time it has onboarded thousands of new U.S. customers, processed millions of dollars of transactions, and gathered user feedback.

The company has launched new features inspired by this feedback, one of which is a salary sorter. This tool that helps users divide their paycheck, separating their spending, savings, and bills once their paycheck is received.

This week’s news comes after Monzo withdrew its U.S. banking license application last October. “While this isn’t the outcome we initially set out to achieve, this allows us to build and scale our early-stage product offer in the U.S. through existing partners and invest further in the U.K.,” a Monzo spokesperson told CNBC last year. “We have big ambitions for Monzo U.S. There are many routes to market we’re exploring that have been successful for other market entrants who are now major players.”

One of those “routes” is a partnership with a traditional bank based in the U.S. While Monzo is a fully licensed bank in the U.K., the startup is partnering with Ohio-based Sutton Bank to provide its U.S. accounts. Sutton will hold user deposits and provide protection with FDIC insurance.

Monzo was founded in 2015 and seeks to be a hub for users to manage their entire financial lives via its mobile app. In addition to financial management and budgeting, Monzo also offers a Mastercard debit card with no overdraft fees, no minimum balance, and no foreign exchange fees.

The digital bank has five million U.K. customers. This number is small when compared to competitor Revolut, which counts more than 14.5 million users. However, Monzo U.S. Product Manager Thomas George noted that it’s not just about the number. “We don’t believe it’s possible to build a globally impactful company without considering the impact we have on the communities we serve,” George said. “Too many people around the world lack access to vital banking services. So we’re also working to improve financial inclusion, support customers in vulnerable circumstances, and play our part in creating a more just society.”

Photo by frank mckenna on Unsplash