Binance to bid for Voyager again

After an earlier failed bid, Binance has relaunched its bid for Voyager following FTX bankruptcy.

With the pull-out of FTX from the purchase of Voyager following its own bankruptcy, Binance has gained pole position in the new sale of the crypto lending and trading platform.

In the original auction, Binance bid $50 million for Voyager’s assets, which was a slightly higher bid than that of FTX. However, there was reportedly some push back from the US government due to national security concerns, and the FTX bid was accepted.

This could have been construed as a little odd given that Binance had made many investments into American companies in the past, and CZ, the CEO of Binance is a Canadian citizen despite his Chinese heritage.

Nevertheless, on the news that Voyager had once again opened the bidding process for its assets, Binance will prepare another bid. It will face competition from other players including Wave Financial, which also bid last time, and Cross Tower, a trading platform.

A complication in the matter was pointed out by Thomas Braziel, managing partner at 507 Capital, who was quoted in a CoinDesk article as saying:

“The problem is that the claim is only going to be against FTX US. I worry a lot of the collateral is going to be held in trust. So any cause of action they have could end up being behind all the customers. And the problem is that if customers aren’t going to be made whole, then what’s your unsecured claim going to be worth? It’s going to be worth bupkis.”

In the same article, Binance CCO Patrick Hillmann took pains to deny that Binance was looking to be the “white knight” of crypto. He was quoted as stating:

“There are no Luke Skywalkers or Darth Vaders in business. This is a company, with the most to lose as its market leader, looking around to see where we can help bolster the industry through a black swan event.”

Hillmann’s comment may also have something to do with the news announced by CZ earlier this week, that his company will be putting together a fund to help stronger crypto projects that may be suffering from liquidity issues. The fund is known as the “Industry Recovery Fund”.

Disclaimer: This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.