Binance.US Reportedly Prepares New Bid for Voyager Digital

The U.S. arm of the largest crypto exchange, Binance.US, could soon join the new bidding process for bankrupt crypto lender Voyager Digital, news outlet CoinDesk reported on 17 November.

The publication cited “a person familiar with the plans”, who noted that Binance.US was preparing to once again bid for the assets of Voyager Digital. The crypto lender had filed for bankruptcy earlier this year after the collapse of crypto hedge fund Three Arrows Capital (3AC) — which had defaulted on a $650 million loan from Voyager — after which Binance.US made a $50 million offer for the company, but lost its bid to FTX.US.

Now that 130 entities connected to the FTX Group have filed for bankruptcy — amongst which is also FTX.US — Voyager Digital has once again reopened the bidding process for its assets, and is currently in “active discussions with alternative bidders”. Other entities interested in the Voyager deal are crypto investment manager Wave Financial and trading platform CrossTower.

Shortly after the FTX crisis began, Voyager assured its customers that it had still not transferred any of its assets to FTX.US, and that the exchange had submitted a $5 million “good faith” deposit to Voyager, which are held in escrow. The crypto lender did however reveal that it had a balance of $3 million at FTX — mainly locked LUNA2 and SRM tokens, which it was unable to withdraw due to their vesting schedules — at the time the exchange declared bankruptcy. Voyager had also successfully recalled loans from Alameda Research for 6,500 BTC and 50,000 ETH, and claims to have no outstanding loans with any borrower.

Earlier this week, Binance announced it was forming an industry recovery fund to help projects that are “otherwise strong” but are undergoing a liquidity crisis. The main goal of the fund was to reduce the negative cascading effect caused by the collapse of FTX and its affiliated companies.