Mycelium
Mycelium is a private Bitcoin infrastructure company (founded 2008) that operates a self-custody mobile wallet, a non-custodial merchant payment processor (Gear), a blockchain-based card payment network (Card), and hardware/entropy products, serving retail crypto users, online merchants, and issuing banks.
- Company typePrivate
- Founded2008
- HeadquartersLondon, United Kingdom
- Headcount1–10
- GTM typeB2B and B2C
- OfferingSoftware
What Mycelium does
Mycelium is a private Bitcoin and blockchain infrastructure company founded in 2008 and organized under Mycelium Holding LTD, a Cyprus-domiciled holding, with operational headquarters in San Francisco, California and a regional entity (Mycelium SIA) in Riga, Latvia. The company operates a multi-product platform anchored in the self-custody Mycelium Wallet — a mobile Bitcoin and Ethereum/ERC-20 wallet featuring BIP32 HD key generation, ECDSA 256-bit signing, SHA-256/AES encryption, reproducible open-source builds, SegWit, TOR support, and direct pairing with Trezor, Ledger, and KeepKey hardware wallets. Complementary products include Mycelium Entropy (a USB hardware random number generator for cold-storage paper wallets), Mycelium Gear (a non-custodial Bitcoin payment processing API/SDK with hosted checkout and a 0.5% transaction fee), Mycelium Card (a blockchain-based smart-card payment network targeting banks as issuers at 20,000+ card minimums), Mycelium Shop (a crypto-funded gift card marketplace spanning the Americas, Europe, Africa, and Asia), and Mycelium Swish (a hybrid fiat/digital merchant payment system). In 2016 the company also distributed a security token representing 5% non-dilutable Stock Appreciation Rights in the Wallet project, originally issued as Bitcoin colored coins and later converted to ERC-20.
The company monetizes primarily through transaction fees on Gear (0.5% after a 0.1 BTC free monthly threshold) and Card (0.1% of the 1% total merchant fee), supplemented by issuer setup and onboarding fees on Card (~$50,000 minimum deployment, ~$1 per existing user, $50 per card user, $100 per venue), direct-to-consumer hardware sales of Entropy and Card/POS devices, and an affiliate stream on Shop gift cards via giftbit.com. Go-to-market motions are highly segmented: product-led growth and APK/Google Play distribution for the consumer wallet, self-serve API onboarding for SMB merchants on Gear, and an application-based enterprise sales motion targeting banks and financial institutions for the Card product. Over 5,000 customers are disclosed as using Gear, but no named enterprise logos, post-2018 funding, or revenue figures are publicly available, leaving the commercial scale of the Card and issuer businesses opaque to outside observers.
Mycelium firmographics
Firmographics- Name
- Mycelium
- Legal name
- Mycelium Holding LTD
- Website
- https://mycelium.com
- Company type
- Private
- Founded year
- 2008
- Operating status
- Operating
- Headcount range
- 1–10 employees
- Short description
- Mycelium is a private Bitcoin infrastructure company (founded 2008) that operates a self-custody mobile wallet, a non-custodial merchant payment processor (Gear), a blockchain-based card payment network (Card), and hardware/entropy products, serving retail crypto users, online merchants, and issuing banks.
- Ownership category
- akta.pro rank
Mycelium industry classification
Industry- Product category
- Cryptocurrency Wallet and Payment Infrastructure
- NAICS
- Credit Card Issuing (522210)
- SIC
- Security & Commodity Brokers, Dealers, Exchanges & Services (6200)
- akta.pro primary industry
- Crypto Custody & Exchange Wallet Services (Integrated) (FSADAAAG)
- akta.pro secondary industry
- Crypto Card Issuing & Card Programs (Debit/Credit/Prepaid) (FSADAIAC)
Keywords
Where Mycelium is headquartered
LocationHeadquarters
- HQ city
- London
- HQ country
- United Kingdom
- HQ region
- Europe
Offices2 records
Markets served
Mycelium business model
Business model- GTM type
- B2B and B2C
- Offering type
- Software
- Cost components
- Technology or R&D, Personnel, Supply Chain, Infrastructure, Operations
Revenue model
- Mycelium Gear Transaction Fees: Usage-based transaction fee on Bitcoin payment processing volume via the Gear API/hosted checkout. Free up to 0.1 BTC/month for Startup tier; 0.5% per transaction for Business tier; custom for Enterprise tier (>$500k monthly volume).
- Mycelium Card Issuer Fees: Revenue share on payment card transactions: 1% total merchant fee split as 0.9% to the issuing bank and 0.1% to Mycelium. Plus deployment/setup fees from issuing banks.
- Mycelium Card Venue/User Onboarding Fees: One-time/transactional onboarding charges from issuers: ~$1 per existing user, $50 per card user, and $100 per venue for venue onboarding.
- Mycelium Entropy Hardware Sales: Direct-to-consumer hardware sales of the Entropy USB hardware random number generator used for cold-storage key generation, available on Amazon and via Mycelium.
- Mycelium Card POS Hardware Sales: Sale of point-of-sale hardware (~$100 range) and Mycelium Card units (~$50 range) to merchants and end users.
- Gear Startup Freemium Tier: Free-tier onboarding (no charge) for merchants processing up to 0.1 BTC/month through Gear, designed to land-and-expand into paid Business/Enterprise tiers.
- Mycelium Shop (Gift Cards): Affiliate/referral revenue stream where Mycelium earns a share of purchases when users buy gift cards (powered by giftbit.com) through the Mycelium wallet.
Pricing tiers
| Model | Billing | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Freemium | Pay-as-you-go | Mycelium Gear Startup tier |
| Transaction based/ take rate | Pay-as-you-go | Mycelium Gear Business tier |
| Other | Multi-year contract | Mycelium Gear Enterprise tier |
| Transaction based/ take rate | Pay-as-you-go | Mycelium Card merchant fee |
| Unit Pricing | One time/ perpetual license | Mycelium Card deployment & onboarding fees |
| One time/ perpetual license | Pay-as-you-go | Mycelium Entropy hardware |
| Unit Pricing | Pay-as-you-go | Mycelium Card POS hardware & Mycelium Card units |
Go-to-market motion5 records
Distribution channels6 records
Marketing channels7 records
Mycelium product offering
Product offeringCore offering
Mycelium operates a multi-component Bitcoin and blockchain ecosystem anchored by its self-custody mobile Bitcoin/Ethereum wallet (Mycelium Wallet), complemented by a hardware USB entropy device (Mycelium Entropy), a non-custodial Bitcoin payment processor with REST API and hosted checkout (Mycelium Gear), a blockchain-based smart-card payment network for issuers and merchants (Mycelium Card), a crypto gift card marketplace (Mycelium Shop), and a multi-asset merchant ordering/payment system (Mycelium Swish). The combined offering enables self-custody, low-cost Bitcoin acceptance, and infrastructure-light card payments for consumers, merchants, and financial institutions.
Product overview
Mycelium operates a multi-component blockchain ecosystem rather than a single product, organized as a platform-plus-modules architecture anchored in the Bitcoin space. The core product is the Mycelium Wallet, a self-custody mobile Bitcoin/Ethereum wallet, which is complemented by Mycelium Entropy (a hardware USB device for paper-wallet generation), Mycelium Gear (a non-custodial Bitcoin payment processor with a REST API and hosted widget/page products), the Mycelium Card network (a blockchain-based smart-card payment system with merchant hubs), Mycelium Shop (a crypto gift-card marketplace), Mycelium Swish (a merchant ordering and payment system accepting fiat, digital cash, and digital assets), and the Mycelium Token (a security token representing Stock Appreciation Rights in the Wallet project).
Differentiator
Problem solved
Functional benefit
Brands
- Mycelium Wallet: Bitcoin mobile wallet (Android and iOS), reproducible, open-source, self-custody wallet for Bitcoin and Ethereum/ERC-20 tokens.
- Mycelium Gear
- Mycelium Card
- Mycelium Entropy
- Mycelium Swish
- Mycelium Shop
Products and services
- Mycelium Wallet Self-custody mobile Bitcoin and Ethereum wallet for individual users, featuring reproducible open-source builds, HD spending and single-address savings accounts, SegWit, hardware wallet support (Trezor, Ledger, KeepKey), FIO protocol inter-wallet operability, optional TOR routing, in-app exchange, and BIP-70 payment requests.
- Mycelium Entropy USB hardware device that uses hardware-based entropy to generate and print real Bitcoin paper wallets for cold storage in two steps, sold direct-to-consumer and via Amazon.
- Mycelium Gear Non-custodial Bitcoin payment processor and gateway that lets online merchants accept BTC directly into their own wallet via hosted payment pages, embeddable widgets, and a REST-based developer API with webhooks and WebSocket order updates; no KYC/AML required and supports Startup (free up to 0.1 BTC/month), Business (0.5%/tx), and Enterprise (custom) tiers.
- Mycelium Card Blockchain-based smart-card payment network that replaces infrastructure-heavy global schemes with a lightweight card and merchant hub using blockchain-distributed digital tokens backed by an issuing institution; supports wireless contactless POS, mesh-network readiness, and Chip-and-PIN (EMV) compatibility.
- Mycelium Shop Crypto gift card marketplace that lets users buy gift cards for everyday brands (Amazon, Airbnb, Walmart, eBay, etc.) with cryptocurrency, available worldwide across the USA, Canada, Latin America, Europe, Africa, and Asia.
- Mycelium Swish Online and in-store merchant ordering and payment system that accepts traditional fiat currencies, digital cash, and digital assets.
Quantifiable outcome
- Over 5,000 customers trust Mycelium Gear for Bitcoin payment processing
- +3 more outcomes
Companies that use Mycelium
Customer profileSegments5 records
Ideal customer profiles4 records
Mycelium technology and API
TechnologyTechnology focussed Yes
API detail
- Has API
- Yes
- API docs
- API detail
Core technology
AI maturity
App detail
Integration6 records
Feature9 records
Mycelium partnerships and signals
Strategic signalScale indicators7 records
Recent moves6 records
Expansion highlights6 records
Mycelium competitors and assessment
Company assessmentBroad incumbents
- Ledger: The dominant hardware wallet company, also integrated with the Mycelium Wallet. Comparable to Mycelium Entropy in the hardware-wallet / cold-storage category, but at vastly greater scale and brand.
- Blockchain.com: A broader incumbent crypto wallet and exchange platform that also offers merchant services. Compares to Mycelium Wallet on the consumer self-custody side but is a much larger multi-product company.
- Block (Square): Block's Cash App enables consumer Bitcoin purchases and spending, and BitPay-style merchant acceptance is a long-term adjacency. Compares to Mycelium on the consumer Bitcoin payment and merchant acquisition axes, but at far greater scale.
- Trezor: A leading hardware wallet manufacturer whose devices integrate with the Mycelium Wallet. It is an incumbent in the cold-storage hardware space that Mycelium Entropy competes with for security-focused Bitcoin holders.
Emerging players
- Fold: A Bitcoin rewards and merchant payments app that, like Mycelium Card, focuses on enabling everyday spending in Bitcoin through cards and merchant integrations — an emerging competitor in the Bitcoin-as-payment narrative.
Direct peers
- BitPay: BitPay is a leading Bitcoin payment processor offering merchant APIs, hosted checkout, and a Bitcoin debit card. It directly overlaps with Mycelium Gear (merchant processing) and Mycelium Card (card issuance for merchants and consumers).
- Electrum: One of the oldest open-source Bitcoin wallets, comparable to the Mycelium Wallet in its self-custody, open-source, BIP32 HD wallet architecture, and advanced-user positioning.
- BTCPay Server: An open-source, self-hosted Bitcoin payment processor with a REST API and hosted checkout, similar in positioning (non-custodial, no KYC) and developer audience to Mycelium Gear.
- Strike: Strike provides Bitcoin payment rails (Lightning-based) for merchants and a consumer app for spending/sending Bitcoin. It competes with both Mycelium Gear (merchant side) and the consumer payments angle of Mycelium Card.
- Coinbase Commerce: Coinbase's merchant payment processing product enables online businesses to accept Bitcoin and other crypto via API/hosted checkout, directly competing with Mycelium Gear for SMB merchant payment volume.
Market position
Strengths4 records
Weaknesses4 records
Competitive moat5 records
Key risks6 records
Key highlights7 records
Customer concentration
Mycelium social profiles
Digital presenceMycelium compliance and trust
Trust signalCompliance4 records
Mycelium financial estimates
Financial estimateRevenue estimate
Valuation estimate
Mycelium leadership team
Management profileNumber of profiles
Profiles1 record
Mycelium subsidiaries and ownership
Company hierarchySubsidiaries1 record
Mycelium funding detail
Funding detailFunding overview
Funding rounds3 records
Investors
Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Mycelium M&A and investment
M&A and investmentM&A
Investments
M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Frequently asked questions about Mycelium
What does Mycelium do?
Mycelium operates a multi-component Bitcoin and blockchain ecosystem anchored by its self-custody mobile Bitcoin/Ethereum wallet (Mycelium Wallet), complemented by a hardware USB entropy device (Mycelium Entropy), a non-custodial Bitcoin payment processor with REST API and hosted checkout (Mycelium Gear), a blockchain-based smart-card payment network for issuers and merchants (Mycelium Card), a crypto gift card marketplace (Mycelium Shop), and a multi-asset merchant ordering/payment system (Mycelium Swish). The combined offering enables self-custody, low-cost Bitcoin acceptance, and infrastructure-light card payments for consumers, merchants, and financial institutions.
Is Mycelium a public or private company?
Mycelium is a private company. It is classified as founder individual operated bootstrapped and is currently operating.
When was Mycelium founded?
Mycelium was founded in 2008. It employs 1 to 10 people.
Where is Mycelium based?
Mycelium is headquartered in London, United Kingdom, in the Europe region.
How does Mycelium make money?
Seven revenue lines are on record. Mycelium Gear Transaction Fees are the primary driver. The others are mycelium Card Issuer Fees, mycelium Card Venue/User Onboarding Fees, mycelium Entropy Hardware Sales, mycelium Card POS Hardware Sales, gear Startup Freemium Tier and mycelium Shop (Gift Cards).
Who are Mycelium's main competitors?
Broad incumbents on record are Ledger, Blockchain.com, Block (Square) and Trezor. Fold is listed as an emerging player. Direct peers are BitPay, Electrum, BTCPay Server, Strike and Coinbase Commerce.
Does Mycelium have an API?
Yes. Public, REST-based Bitcoin payment processing API (Gear) at https://gateway.gear.mycelium.com/. Endpoints cover gateway lifecycle (list, create, get, update), order creation, manual order status checks, order cancellation, and last keychain ID retrieval. Real-time order status available via WebSocket; payment status also pushed via HTTP GET callbacks/webhooks. Authentication uses HMAC-SHA512 signed requests with X-Nonce and X-Signature HTTP headers. API conforms to JSONAPI v1.0 and supports HTTP-header-based versioning via Accept-Version (e.g., Accept-Version: v2). A Ruby client library (straight-server-kit) is provided. Developer documentation is at gear.mycelium.com/docs.
What industry is Mycelium in?
Mycelium's product category is Cryptocurrency Wallet and Payment Infrastructure. Its primary akta.pro industry code is FSADAAAG, Crypto Custody & Exchange Wallet Services (Integrated), with a secondary code of FSADAIAC, Crypto Card Issuing & Card Programs (Debit/Credit/Prepaid). Its NAICS code is 522210 and its SIC code is 6200.