Binance preparing to buy bankrupt crypto lender Voyager

Back in September, crypto exchange giant FTX acquired bankrupt Voyager’s assets for $1.42 billion. But with FTX now bankrupt following the drama of last week, Binance is preparing to relaunch a bid to buy the embattled Voyager Digital, CoinDesk reported, citing sources familiar with the matter.

With the rescue of BlockFi back in July, FTX emerged as the “white knight” that saved the crypto industry. However, as it turns out, FTX itself was a distressed company built on a house of cards. Voyager said it had reopened the bidding process for the company following FTX’s announcement of bankruptcy last week.

In July, Voyager Digital rejected FTX’s bid to acquire the company saying it was a “low-ball bid dressed up as a white knight rescue.” The FTX bid comprises a fair market value of all Voyager cryptocurrency, at a to-be-determined date, which is pegged at about $1.31 billion at current market prices and an additional $111 million in incremental value, Voyager said in a statement.

On July 5, Voyager filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court of the Southern District of New York on Tuesday, according to a filing from the company. In its bankruptcy filing, Voyager estimated that it had more than 100,000 creditors and between $1 billion and $10 billion in assets and liabilities in the same range.

Voyager was founded in 2017 by established Wall Street and Silicon Valley entrepreneurs and veterans who teamed up to bring a better, more transparent, and cost-efficient alternative for trading crypto-assets to the marketplace. Its founders, Gaspard de Dreuzy, Oscar Salazar, Philip Eytan, Serge Kreiker, and Stephen Ehrlich, also have combined decades’ worth of experience from leading organizations like E*TRADE, Uber, TradeIt, and Lightspeed Financial.

FTX was founded in 2019 by 29-year-old MIT graduate Sam Bankman-Fried and his co-founder Gary Wang. The Bahamas-based crypto exchange FTX offers derivatives products like futures and options as well as spot trading. Once an unknown startup, FTX has become a key player in the crypto space, rivaling the likes of Coinbase and Binance.