- Binance US pulls away from a $1 billion deal to acquire assets of bankrupt crypto lender Voyager Digital.
- Binance says that U.S. regulatory environments is increasingly becoming ‘Hostile’ to the crypto industry.
- Voyager Digital to pursue self-liquidation, to directly distribute the remaining assets to customers.
On March 25, Binance.US sent an email to Voyage Digital, terminating the deal to purchase its assets immediately. Binance asked the company to provide instructions to the Escrow Agent to release the total amount of the deposit of $10 million, along with any investment income earned, to its bank account within three business days from the date of the notice. The payment should be made immediately through a wire transfer of available funds.
On March 26, Voyage Digital confirmed the termination on Twitter, saying:
“Today, we received a letter from Binance.US terminating the asset purchase agreement.”
The company said it would seek self-liquidation to distribute assets and cash to its customers directly. It added:
“While this development is disappointing, our chapter 11 plan allows for direct distribution of cash and crypto to customers (a “toggle option”) via the Voyager platform.”
The bankrupt crypto lender said Binance is required to permanently delete and remove all accounts created with Voyager customer information and to destroy all received customer information under the terms of the asset purchase agreement.
Voyager’s Struggles To Exit Bankruptcy: Second Deal Fails
In July 2022, Voyager Digital filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection due to a borrower defaulting on a $650 million loan, causing a “run on the bank.” Recently, Voyager’s attempt to exit bankruptcy and repay customers has faced another setback with the termination of a deal with Binance. The US. This is the second deal that has failed for Voyager.
Voyager had previously made a deal with FTX US, a division of the Bahamas-based digital assets empire, which went bankrupt in November. FTX had offered to repay a significant portion of the frozen assets in exchange for the opportunity to bring investors on as new customers. Binance’s proposal was similar, involving a $20 million payment to the Voyager bankruptcy estate and a payment of around $1 billion for the frozen funds. Additionally, Binance was planning to acquire clients by purchasing the cryptocurrency, which would then be returned to Voyager’s customers.
Regulatory Climate in the US Affects the Business Community
Binance.US stated in a tweet that the reason for the termination of the purchase deal was the unfavorable and uncertain regulatory environment in the United States. This situation has created an unpredictable operating environment affecting the American business community.
The crypto exchange said:
“While our hope throughout this process was to help Voyager’s customers access their crypto in kind, the hostile and uncertain regulatory climate in the United States has introduced an unpredictable operating environment impacting the entire American business community.”
This year, several US agencies have taken action against digital assets businesses. In March, Binance was accused by the Commodities Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) of offering crypto derivatives without registering as a futures commodity merchant.
Changpeng Zhao, the founder and CEO of Binance’s parent company, who was named in the CFTC action, stated that the complaint seemed to have an incomplete account of the facts, and Binance disagreed with how many of the issues were described.
