At the current time of writing, it has been almost two weeks with no access to Topps NFTs. Who is Wyre, and is the platform responsible?

I’m not the biggest fan of NFTs, as I’d always prefer to own a physical copy of the card. However, I do have a Topps NFT account, and I did get an email from the service last week that did prompt some questions. 

Questions such as; how long is the Topps NFT shop and marketplace likely to be down for, and is there any cause for concern? As for the email in question, here are the contents in full:

“You may have seen reports that Wyre, a wallet service provider for our secondary marketplace, may be shutting down or scaling back operations. Our customers are our top priority and as a precautionary measure, we are temporarily suspending transactions in the Shop and Marketplace. Rest assured that your collection continues to be safe and secure. We are working quickly to reopen the Shop and Marketplace as soon as possible and will share additional updates as they may become available. Thank you for your patience. 

“If you have any additional questions, please reach out to our customer service team at https://toppsnfts.com/support and we will be happy to help.”

– Topps NFT Team

Who is Wyre and why are transactions suspended?

Wyre is a crypto payments company that Topps uses as a wallet service for its NFT platform. On January 4th, Bitcoin.com News reported that Wyre was ceasing operations. Two days later, they released a statement, discussing the challenges brought by the ‘current macroeconomic climate’ and the recent events that have shaken the crypto industry. As well as changing their management structure;

“We are modifying our withdrawal policy. While customers will continue to be able to withdraw their funds, at this time, we are limiting withdrawals to no more than 90% of the funds currently in each customer account, subject to current daily limits. This will best position us to serve and maximize value for our customers and stakeholders.”

That’s especially worrying. The Topps NFT site was down for a few days in early January, and there has been a lack of news for a while. It’s likely to be a precautionary measure, as they continue to assess the situation in an increasingly volatile market. In any case, we’d assume the Topps/Wyre partnership is coming to an end.

Summary 

It’s been a frustrating couple of weeks for Topps NFT owners, with the platform seemingly in disarray. They’ve been especially quiet on social media, with their last tweet posted January 7th, 13 days before this roundup was published. Given the value of some Topps NFT collections, I’d expect a response from the company soon.  

What are collectors saying? Forum discussion – Topps NFT Problems