Bolt’s Ryan Breslow pins his hopes on a new app that takes on Coinbase, Zelle, and PayPal

Summary

Ryan Breslow is officially back. While the founder of one-click checkout company Bolt re-assumed its helm as CEO in March, Breslow is unveiling Wednesday a new “superapp” that he hopes will formally mark his return as the fintech’s leader. He describes the new product as “one-click crypto and everyday payments” in a single platform, in an exclusive interview with TechCrunch. The controversial entrepreneur famously stepped down in January 2022 from the San Francisco-based company he started in 2014 after dropping out of Stanford. In recent years, Breslow has been the target of more than one investor lawsuit and faced allegations that he misled investors and violated security laws by inflating metrics while fundraising the last time he ran the company. Breslow acknowledges that Bolt’s revenue has not been robust in recent years. But he hopes to change that with this new consumer app, which he ambitiously hopes will serve as “a centralized and personalized hub for financial services.” The app at once competes with a number of other companies such as crypto exchange Coinbase, payments platform Zelle, and PayPal. Its advantage, Breslow claims, is the ability to do what all these others do from one place via mobile. For example, the app will allow users to buy, sell, send, and receive major cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin, Ethereum, USDC, Solana, and Polygon directly within the app. Users are provisioned an on-chain balance powered by Zero Hash and will be able to see their balance in real time, Breslow says. “I founded Bolt 11 years ago to build the easiest app to buy, sell, and send crypto. I believe this still hasn’t been done well in the marketplace. Today marks a significant day: the return of that original vision,” said Breslow. “We call it ‘Coinbase for the 99%’ who may not be the most technical, but still want to participate in the buying and selling of crypto.” (Bolt in 2022 paid $1.5 billion for cryptocurrency payments company Wyre. It started out as an “easy w...