Important crypto news today: Binance.US closed the $1 billion deal to acquire the assets of Voyager Digital, the now-bankrupt cryptocurrency lending specialist.
Below is everything there is to know.
Crypto exchange Binance buys Voyager Digital’s resources.
The news of Binance‘s purchase of the assets of Voyager Digital, the former crypto lending company, was also confirmed on its official Twitter profile:
It is worth noting that the news comes after the federal government gave the go-ahead to the $1 billion acquisition deal put in place by the US arm of the cryptocurrency exchange following its earlier termination of the acquisition project.
Hence, after a long process involving the intervention of the US government, Voyager has officially revealed that Binance.US is terminating the asset purchase agreement.
Moreover, according to reports, it appears that the acquisition is terminated following a letter sent to Voyager by the US arm of Binance. As we have seen, on Twitter, Voyager described the development as “disappointing” while maintaining its Chapter 11 plan.
As we know, Binance’s acquisition of Voyager has dominated headlines across the blockchain industry in recent weeks.
Specifically, the plan proposed by Binance.US would see the exchange pay about $20 million in refunds to Voyager customers. Now, the deal appears to be null and void.
In fact, the deal had previously been halted by the US government because it was feared that laws had been violated. Alternatively, the government had approved the offer by initiating Binance’s acquisition of the remaining assets from the cryptocurrency lender.
Binance’s comments regarding the acquisition
Following this, Binance released a statement regarding the reasons behind the termination of the purchase. Specifically, the crypto exchange stated the following on Twitter:
Hence, it appears that the decision to permanently end the Voyager Digital acquisition was also a difficult one for the exchange itself. After all, as anticipated, the events before reaching this point were many.
Initially, precisely in January 2023, Binance.US had obtained court approval to purchase some of Voyager’s assets.
However, the SEC had expressed concern about the $1 billion transaction, saying that the deal could end up being discriminatory and illegal.
In any case, back in March Voyager received approval from US Bankruptcy Judge Michael Wiles to sell over $1 billion of its assets to Binance.US.
This time, however, it was the US Department of Justice (DOJ) that had some concerns.
Despite all this, on 15 March, a bankruptcy judge affirmed that Binance’s $1 billion bid to purchase the lender’s assets should have gone ahead, and indeed it did today.
Source: https://en.cryptonomist.ch/2023/04/26/crypto-news-binance-closes-voyager-deal/