Nium Buys Cypher to Build Crypto-Fiat Payment Rails

Nium has acquired Cypher, a non-custodial wallet and card-issuing startup, to build a single infrastructure layer for moving money between fiat currencies and digital assets, the company said Wednesday.

The deal folds Cypher's crypto-native wallet technology into Nium's existing cross-border payments network. Nium said it will use the combined stack to serve Web3 companies and traditional fintechs that need to issue cards, move money globally, and bridge fiat and stablecoin rails.

Demand for those products has picked up since Nium launched a stablecoin-backed card issuance platform in March and joined Circle's Payment Network (CPN) as a payout partner in May, the company said. Through CPN, financial institutions can settle in USDC and pay out in local currencies across more than 190 countries.

“We’re building the critical infrastructure to drive this change, and the Cypher acquisition gives us the muscle to accelerate what we build,” Nium CEO Prajit Nanu said in the release.

Cypher founder Kuberan Marimuthu and the startup's engineering team have joined Nium. Marimuthu wrote on LinkedIn that the team is “joining hands with Prajit Nanu and team in scaling their existing money movement business in their ambitious digital asset initiatives.”

Cypher is sunsetting its services, with a Sept. 6 end date posted on its homepage.

The acquisition is the latest sign that payments infrastructure firms see stablecoins not as a speculative asset class but as a settlement rail. Nium's stablecoin card product lets companies holding USDC or other stablecoins issue spending cards on Visa and Mastercard networks through a single API. That turns a crypto wallet balance into spendable money at hundreds of millions of merchant locations.

Nium's move mirrors a broader push by payments processors to absorb crypto-native engineering teams rather than build wallet tech from scratch. The Cypher team brings non-custodial architecture experience that Nium can layer onto its regulated, licensed payments network.

For Nium, the bet is that the next wave of demand comes from companies that want to hold and spend stablecoins without leaving the compliance and settlement framework of traditional finance. The Cypher acquisition gives it the wallet layer. The Circle partnership gives it the settlement layer. The question is whether the market for that stack is large enough to justify the build-out before the next crypto cycle turns.

Nium's stablecoin card platform went live in March. The Cypher deal closed in July. The integration timeline has not been disclosed.