Binance.US, the American franchise of the global crypto exchange Binance, will buy up remaining assets from the now-bankrupt crypto lender Voyager Digital as part of a newly announced and surprising deal.
The deal between the two companies values Voyager at about $1bn, and means that Binance.US will make a deposit of $10m, and reimburse Voyager for certain expenses up to $15 million, Reuters reported on Monday.
In total, the purchase price comprises $20 million, in addition to repayments to Voyager’s customers.
As noted in a Forbes article also published on Monday, the deal would essentially allow Binance.US to spend $20m for the right to acquire 3.5m customer accounts from Voyager. It will then be up to Binance.US to do what it can to keep the customers and their assets on the platform following the takeover.
The $1bn valuation for Voyager is, in other words, not the amount paid by Binance.US, but instead a number made up largely by Voyager liabilities to its clients.
Voyager has said that it will seek approval from the Bankruptcy Court to proceed with the proposed deal with Binance.US. This is expected to happen at a hearing scheduled for January 5, 2023.
According to unnamed sources that Forbes spoke with, Binance.US is expected to receive the funds around March next year.
Voyager users to be transferred to Binance
In addition to early media reports, the deal was also commented on directly by Binance.US CEO Brian Shroder.
Writing on Twitter, Shroder said that Voyager users will be able to access their crypto directly from Binance.US’s platform once the deal goes through.
“We hope our selection brings to an end a painful bankruptcy process which saw customers unfairly dragged into it at no fault of their own. Our goal is simple: return users their cryptocurrency on the fastest timeline possible,” Shroder added in a follow-up tweet.
Surprising announcement
The announcement of Binance.US’ takeover bid of Voyager comes at a surprise for the crypto community, given the lingering uncertainty in the crypto market at the moment. In particular, this has affected Binance’s global crypto exchange, which in recent days has seen billions of dollars in customer withdrawals.
Despite this, Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao (CZ) has in TV interviews insisted that his company is in a “strong financial position.” He has also said that no amount of customer withdrawals can threaten the exchange, since all customer deposits are “held one-to-one.”
With the takeover bid of Voyager now announced to the public, Binance and Binance.US could perhaps come out stronger, potentially helping restore some order in the market.
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