Crypto Bank Juno Tells Customers to Self-Custody or Sell Amid Custodian Wyre's Turmoil

Crypto banking firm Juno has advised its customers to self-custody their digital assets or sell them for cash as it works to migrate client funds to a new custodian, according to a tweet Wednesday morning.

The decision comes as Juno's current custodian, Wyre, prepares to wind down its operations in the coming weeks, said Juno CEO and co-founder Varun Deshpande.

"We are switching custodians because we expect potential issues with Wyre given they might be scaling back or winding down," Deshpande told CoinDesk.

Juno's team has already begun working with a new custodian, which it has not yet identified. The migration of clients' funds from Wyre to the new custodian will be complete in the coming weeks, according to Deshpande.

Wyre, once valued at $1.5 billion, has experienced significant headwinds in recent months. In September, one-click checkout company Bolt abandoned its acquisition deal with the company. Then, in December, Axios reported Wyre allegedly told employees it would liquidate and terminate its offerings in January.

Popular crypto wallet MetaMask also announced that it had removed Wyre from its mobile aggregator. It warned users in a tweet "not to use Wyre."

Read More: Crypto Banking Platform Juno Raises $18M in Series A Funding

UPDATE (Jan. 6, 08:44 UTC): Adds details of Metamask removing Wyre from mobile aggregator.