Wyre

Wyre serves as a bridge for fintech companies and projects between the fiat world and blockchain ecosystem via their full suite of APIs, including an instant fiat-to-crypto checkout gateway that allows builders to develop financial applications from the ground up. By covering compliance, licensing, regulation, liquidity, and payment processing, Wyre empowers their partners to develop their products to their fullest potential on blockchain. 

Businesses on Stellar tend to focus on payment use cases such as remittances or corporate disbursements. Wyre, a crypto infrastructure provider with a full suite of APIs, has always been more interested in equipping these businesses with the tools they need to bring their projects to life on Stellar. 

Over time, Wyre noticed how this barrier to entry was hurting new entrants and sought to increase accessibility to other USDC offerings. By natively integrating USDC with Stellar capabilities into its API, Wyre allows developers and businesses to move money between the world’s leading digital dollar stablecoin and local fiat currencies, making use of Stellar’s low fees, speed, and reliability to provide end-users a positive experience.

On top of its suite of APIs, Wyre offers businesses and developers innovative products that leverage USDC on Stellar. One such product is Wyre Checkout, which offers credit & debit card onramps to XLM and USDC on Stellar in nearly 60 countries. 

Speed, Low Transaction Fees, and the Stellar Decentralized Exchange (DEX)

• Wyre initially relied on Bitcoin or exchange markets to support USD<>MXN, one of Wyre’s biggest corridors for cross-border payments. However, these entities command high transaction fees while delivering slow transaction speeds.
• With USDC on Stellar, Wyre can take advantage of the Stellar DEX and the network’s low fees, high speed, and reliability, achieving favorable foreign exchange rates and moving money quickly. By leveraging liquidity from both custodial exchanges and the Stellar DEX, with trusted anchors on each end, Wyre can provide better, faster, and less expensive service to its customers. 

Interoperability

• What distinguishes Stellar from other blockchains is its interoperability and unique network of anchors – financial institutions that can issue assets on Stellar and/or offer on/off ramps to the network. Anchors set up infrastructure on Stellar that enables products and services to offer in-app deposits and withdrawals by following best practices specified in open-source Stellar Ecosystem Proposals (SEPs).
• Becoming a USDC anchor on Stellar was a no-brainer for Wyre. Using SEP-24 (“Hosted Deposit and Withdrawal”), whenever Wyre takes a payment in fiat, whether it’s from a card or bank, Wyre can convert it into USDC on Stellar which it then transfers to a Stellar-enabled wallet and vice versa.

Global Expansion and Access to Markets

• Having established a USD<>MXN corridor, Wyre will focus on building new corridors between USDC and other currencies and jurisdictions. Establishing these new corridors allows other businesses on Stellar to take advantage of the new on/off ramps and expand its services to different markets. The Stellar network and ecosystem is primed to grow substantially via these on/off ramps into new markets.