Bitcoin Startup Purse to Shut Down After 6-Year Run

Bitcoin startup Purse will shut down after six years in the space, according to an email sent to customers Thursday and confirmed by CoinDesk.

“We’ve made the very difficult decision to dissolve the company,” the email states. “We’re grateful for the opportunity afforded by our supporters to build products and infrastructure for the cryptocurrency community.”

Purse offered discounts of up to 5 percent at Amazon by connecting Amazon gift card holders and cryptocurrency investors. Users could buy gift cards at discounted rates using bitcoin or bitcoin cash, according to Purse’s website.

“It was a business decision, nothing funky going on,” Purse support manager Eduardo Gómez said in a Twitter DM. Purse will disclose more information in a forthcoming blog post, he added.

Purse will continue to facilitate services until June 26 but signups will cease Thursday. Additionally, the startup’s “Shop and Earn” functionality will be disabled next week on April 23 and open orders that have not been matched will be canceled, the email states.

As CoinDesk previously reported, Purse was once an active developer in the Bitcoin community. The firm proposed a third scaling solution called “Bcoin” during the 2017 debates that spawned Bitcoin Cash. The Bcoin specification was never adopted, however.

Gómez said the decision to wind down the company was not related to the recent move by Amazon to slash commissions on its affiliate program.