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26/11/2022

Following The Failure Of FTX, Binance And Other Cryptocurrency Firms Are Lining Up Bids For The Bankrupt Voyager Digital




Following The Failure Of FTX, Binance And Other Cryptocurrency Firms Are Lining Up Bids For The Bankrupt Voyager Digital
After FTX, which had agreed to acquire Voyager Digital, declared bankruptcy, Binance and other cryptocurrency firms are preparing takeover bids for the troubled digital currency lender.
 
After crypto hedge fund Three Arrows Capital defaulted on a $670 million loan from the company, Voyager filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in July, which seeks to restructure troubled businesses as viable business operations.
 
FTX's American unit, FTX U.S., was set to acquire Voyager for $1.4 billion after Sam Bankman's firm Fried's won a bankruptcy auction in the United States. It was then brought back to square one when FTX declared bankruptcy in the aftermath of its own bank run-style withdrawal surge.
 
Voyager customers have been unable to withdraw funds since the company stopped accepting them due to an industry-wide liquidity crisis.
 
This week, Binance confirmed that its US subsidiary Binance.US intends to make a bid to save Voyager from bankruptcy. Binance.US had previously offered to buy Voyager as part of its insolvency auction.
 
According to Bloomberg, Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao stated that Binance.US "will make another bid for Voyager now, given FTX is no longer able to follow through on that commitment."
 
Zhao has also set up a $1 billion fund to assist struggling industry firms.
 
CrossTower, a crypto and NFT trading platform, was one of the first bidders in the Voyager court auction.
 
The company has stated that it intends to make a new offer for the company, though details are scarce at this time.
 
CrossTower is "submitting a revised bid that it believes will benefit both customers and the larger crypto community," according to an email from a CrossTower spokesperson to the media.
 
CrossTower is also thinking about starting its own industry recovery fund. According to reports, the company does not consider the fund to be "competitive" with Binance's.
 
“This is about stabilizing an industry, regaining trust and rebuilding what is arguably the future of finance,” the CrossTower spokesman said.
 
“We will do so, with funds and talent, and we will collaborate with governments and policy makers and promote transparency. One venture fund did not build the technology industry and one recovery fund will not rebuild this one.”
 
Wave Financial, which lost to FTX in the first round, is planning a new bid for Voyager, according to a report in London's Financial News.
 
Wave's president of international, Matteo Perruccio, stated last month that his company "felt that our bid was better for the investors and the debtors."
 
Wave's bid, he said in an October interview, "saw us reinvigorating VGX," Voyager's exchange token.
 
Customers of Voyager are hoping that any corporate bailout will include VGX, a token created by Voyager as a kind of loyalty rewards program that offers trading fee discounts.
 
“We also had some, I think, pretty clever ideas about how to bring traffic at a much lower cost of acquisition at a higher per customer balance, which were the two big problems at Voyager,” Perruccio said in October.
 
Voyager paused VGX trading and transfers in August, outlining a plan for customers to exchange their tokens for new coins on a separate blockchain. The fate of the token, which has dropped more than 85% since the beginning of the year, is unknown.
 
For $10 million, FTX US offered to buy all of the VGX held by Voyager and its affiliates. However, Voyager stated that it was working on a "higher and better solution" for the token that would be compatible with FTX U.S.′ offer.
 
FTX U.S., along with its parent company and other affiliates such as Alameda Research, is now in bankruptcy proceedings in Delaware.
 
Voyager initially rejected the company's offer, calling it a "low-ball bid disguised as a white knight rescue."
 
Ethos.io, a startup Voyager acquired in 2019, is another player in the messy restructuring process. Voyager only acquired Ethos.io's technology, and the company intends to relaunch as a separate brand following Voyager's demise.
 
Shingo Lavine, co-founder of Ethos.io, says his company's technology was critical in assisting Voyager in expanding its crypto capabilities. He added that after offering support for dogecoin, a meme-inspired digital coin, Voyager experienced significant growth.
 
Shingo's father and Ethos.io co-founder Adam Lavine stated that the company has set up its own recovery program for VGX holders and Voyager creditors and has "seen a good response so far across the Voyager community."
 
According to the elder Lavine, "several thousand users representing 10% of the total VGX market cap" have signed up for the recovery initiative so far.
 
(Source:www.barrons.com)

Christopher J. Mitchell

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