Wirex has announced the launch of its own appchain in partnership with Tanssi, a decentralized infrastructure provider. The dedicated blockchain network, now live on Tanssi’s testnet and scheduled for mainnet deployment later this year, will support Wirex’s global transaction volume of over $20 billion annually.
The appchain allows Wirex to reduce its dependence on third-party infrastructure while embedding compliance features and enhancing scalability. The move aims to streamline operations, lower transaction costs, and support integration with decentralized finance protocols, stablecoins, and tokenized assets.
Dmitry Lazarichev, Co-founder of Wirex, commented, “Tanssi enables us to take a giant leap forward in decentralizing Wirex’s ecosystem. Their infrastructure-first approach and ready-to-deploy appchain environment significantly reduce technical friction while giving us greater autonomy and scalability. This collaboration is a crucial step in our journey to make crypto-powered payments mainstream.”
Wirex processes crypto transactions for 6 million users in over 130 countries and is a principal member of both Visa and Mastercard. With a growing demand for faster, lower-cost, and compliant payment systems, the company said the launch of its own blockchain infrastructure will allow faster product innovation and tighter control over regulatory requirements.
Tanssi provides infrastructure-as-a-service to deploy decentralized, compliance-ready blockchains. Through Ethereum-based security mechanisms, such as Symbiotic’s Universal Staking framework, Wirex’s appchain benefits from shared validation and avoids the overhead of building a separate validator ecosystem.
Wirex selected Tanssi for its automated deployment model, EVM compatibility, embedded compliance features, and scalable architecture. These features allow Wirex to embed Know Your Customer and Anti-Money Laundering rules directly into the appchain while customizing governance and transaction fee structures.
Wirex’s infrastructure move also aligns with broader market trends. Global payments revenues are forecast to exceed $3 trillion by 2028, and tokenized real-world assets are projected to reach $17 billion in on-chain value this year. For a firm processing multibillion-dollar crypto volumes, Wirex said that launching its own infrastructure is necessary to ensure operational control and capital efficiency.
The new appchain will allow deterministic 12-second transaction finality and offer developers the tools to deploy their own sovereign networks. Wirex expects that infrastructure independence will enable faster rollout of features and improvements for end users, enhancing its crypto-enabled debit card and payments platform.
The mainnet deployment of the Wirex appchain is scheduled for later in 2025.
