United States-based crypto exchange Binance.US has finally decided to withdraw from its agreement to acquire $1 billion in assets from bankrupt cryptocurrency brokerage Voyager Digital, according to an April 25 Twitter post by Binance.US
https://t.co/AZwoBOgsqS has made the difficult decision to exercise its right to terminate the asset purchase agreement with Voyager.
While our hope throughout this process was to help Voyager's customers access their crypto in kind, the hostile and uncertain regulatory climate…
— Binance.US 🇺🇸 (@BinanceUS) April 25, 2023
Binance explained that the U-turn was necessitated by the harsh and uncertain regulatory climate in the United States against crypto-related companies. It should be noted that on April 19, Voyager, the Voyager Official Committee of Unsecured Creditors, and the U.S. government reached an agreement for the purchase to proceed.
The clearance was issued following the judgment on March 28 by an emergency stay granted by a judge while the U.S. Department of Justice appealed Voyager’s bankruptcy plan.
Meanwhile, the decision by Binance.US to abandon the months-long deal despite the clearance of the legal tussle was seen as a shock to Voyager and the Voyager Official Committee of Unsecured Creditors.
Reacting to the development, Voyager clearly expressed disappointment in a letter from Binance.US terminating the asset purchase agreement. Nonetheless, it maintained that there is still provision for the direct distribution of cash and crypto.
1/ Today we received a letter from https://t.co/yG7Airmib5 terminating the asset purchase agreement. 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.
— Voyager (@investvoyager) April 25, 2023
Voyager further asserted that it will accelerate efforts in returning value to customers through the direct distributions, stressing that more information will soon be released regarding that.
2/ Consistent with the plan, we will now move swiftly to return value to customers via direct distributions. We will provide more information on next steps and any actions customers need to take in the coming days.
— Voyager (@investvoyager) April 25, 2023
On the other hand, Binance.US established the fact that it has the right to its decision to terminate the asset purchase agreement and reaffirmed its original intent to help Voyager’s customers access their crypto in kind.
Unfortunately, the company regretted pulling out due to the prevailing uncertain regulatory climate in the U.S.
The Race Toward Acquiring Voyager
While there were many other bids for the acquisition of Voyager Digital, Binance.US is no longer interested in the agreement to acquire $1 billion in assets from Voyager Digital, it is instructive to note that Binance.US played the frontline role.
On March 7, 2023, crypto lender Voyager Digital won court approval to sell over $1 billion of its assets to Binance.US but the subsequent appeal by the U.S. Department of Justice stalled the process again.
Since the whole legal tussle has been cleared, it is unknown what specific factors led to Binance.US’s change of mind, as they were already well aware of the U.S. regulatory environment.
