Binance.US, the US subsidiary of global crypto exchange Binance, is set to buy the remaining assets of now bankrupt crypto lender Voyager Digital in a recently announced and surprise deal.
The agreement between the two companies values Voyager at around $1 billion and means Binance.US will pay a deposit of $10 million and reimburse Voyager for certain expenses up to $15 million, Reuters reported on Monday.
The total purchase price is $20 million, plus refunds to Voyager customers.
As noted in a Forbes article also published on Monday, the deal would essentially allow Binance.US to spend $20 million for the right to acquire 3.5 million client accounts from Voyager. It will then be up to Binance.US to do whatever it takes to keep customers and their assets on the platform after the takeover.
Thus, the $1 billion valuation for Voyager is not the amount paid by Binance.US, but a number made up largely of Voyager’s debts to its customers.
Voyager said it would seek bankruptcy court approval 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 Forbes spoke to, Binance.US is expected to receive the funds around March next year.
Voyager users will be transferred to Binance
In addition to early media reports, the deal was also commented directly by Binance.US CEO Brian Shroder.
Shroder wrote on Twitter that Voyager users will be able to access their cryptocurrencies directly through the Binance.US platform once the deal is done.
“We hope our selection ends a painful bankruptcy process where customers have been unfairly dragged into no fault of their own. Our goal is simple: get users back to their cryptocurrency as soon as possible,” Shroder added in a follow-up tweet.
Surprising announcement
The announcement of Binance.US’ takeover bid for Voyager comes as a surprise to the crypto community given the ongoing uncertainty in the crypto market at the moment. This has particularly impacted global crypto exchange Binance, which has seen billions of dollars in customer withdrawals over the past few days.
Despite this, Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao (CZ) has stressed in TV interviews that his company is in a “solid financial position”. He also said that no amount of customer withdrawals can threaten the exchange, as all customer deposits are held “one-to-one”.
Now that Voyager’s takeover bid has been made public, perhaps Binance and Binance.US could emerge stronger and help restore some order to the market.