Purse is here to stay

Over 6 years ago, we started with a very simple mission: Make Bitcoin Useful. We dreamt of a world where everyone uses bitcoin everywhere. Today, I’m happy to announce that we will continue on our mission.

A few months ago, we announced that we will close the company. The decision wasn’t driven by cash or runway which is the most common reason startups fold. We just weren’t sure what to do next and thought we’d return capital to our investors who could make better use of it.

With the crypto market gravitating towards speculation, we didn’t want to build speculative use cases. We bought into the idea of bitcoin as sound money underpinned by “A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System.” If everyone just HODLs, however, bitcoin doesn’t need us to build use cases or continue protocol development.

Bitcoin doesn’t need further development or use cases if it’s just for institutional HODLers.

After we announced the closure, we received an outpouring of support. Countless people around the globe wrote to us saying that they couldn’t live without Purse because they’re unbanked. Others told us that when the Venezuelan supply chain collapsed, they survived because of Purse. While smaller than the speculative market, these messages helped us realize that there’s still a vibrant community that depends on using bitcoin as money. Most of them aren’t on Twitter, and journalists don’t write about them.

We finally realized HODLers on Twitter were too wealthy to care about saving 15%+ on Amazon.

We want to thank everyone who helped us come to this realization that people still rely on bitcoin as useful money. We also want to thank those who have been involved in this process including those who provided advice, volunteered ideas, and offered funding. Lastly, we want to thank our loyal customers who continued to use Purse despite the limbo state of things. Sustained growth in transaction volume and liquidity post-announcement gave us the confidence to continue and buy back most of our investors.

Instead of closing Purse or selling the marketplace, we came up with an exciting roadmap doubling down on our commitment to serve our customers. Purse is here to stay.

Thank you,

Andrew Lee
CEO at Purse