[NEWS] Binance US reverses Voyager acquisition, describes US as "hostile"

On the 26th, Binance.US, a US cryptocurrency exchange, announced that it would withdraw its acquisition of Voyager, which went bankrupt last year.

In its announcement, Binance.US said, "We have made the difficult decision to exercise our right to terminate the Voyager acquisition agreement. Throughout this acquisition process, we hoped to enable Voyager customers to access their crypto assets in real-time."

It then cited a "hostile and uncertain regulatory environment in the US" as the reason for its decision to withdraw the acquisition.

This appears to be an implicit criticism of the SEC's (US Securities and Exchange Commission) strong crackdown on cryptocurrency-related companies this year and its lack of a clear stance on regulation.

Last month, the CFTC (US Commodity Futures Trading Commission) also filed a lawsuit against Binance and its CEO, CZ (Cahngpeng Zhao), for providing derivative services in the US without registration.

Voyager filed for bankruptcy in early July last year. After that, cryptocurrency exchange FTX announced that it would acquire Voyager. However, FTX itself also went bankrupt, so the acquisition itself was temporarily scrapped.

A second bidding took place in December last year, at which point an agreement was reached for Binance US to acquire Voyager for approximately $1.3 billion (approximately 174 billion yen).

On the 7th of last month, the US Bankruptcy Court dismissed the SEC's objection to the acquisition and approved Binance US's Voyager restructuring plan. Also, on the 19th of this month, the US federal government had just reached an agreement with Voyager and the creditors' committee to proceed with the acquisition of Binance. This time, the $1.3 billion acquisition has suddenly fallen through.

In response to Binance US's withdrawal, Voyager said, "We are disappointed by this development. Our Chapter 11 plan allows us to distribute cash and crypto assets directly to customers via the Voyager platform. Going forward, we will work to expedite the return of assets directly to customers in accordance with our plan," and indicated its intention to provide more details to customers in the near future.

References:Binance US, Voyager
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