Binance.US is set to buy bankrupt rival cryptocurrency exchange Voyager Digital’s assets for $1.022 billion, Voyager announced Monday.
The bid is equal to the fair market value of Voyager’s crypto portfolio, plus $20 million in incremental value, Voyager said.
Binance.US will make a good-faith deposit of $10 million now and another $10 million deposit once the deal closes. It will also reimburse Voyager for certain expenses up to $15 million, according to the press release.
“Our bid is a reflection of our guiding principle that customers should come first,” Binance.US CEO Brian Shroder wrote in a Monday blog post. “Our goal is simple: return users their cryptocurrencies on the fastest timeline possible.”
The firms will seek bankruptcy court approval Jan. 5.
“We hope our selection brings to an end a painful bankruptcy process which saw customers unfairly dragged into it at no fault of their own,” Shroder said. “Upon close of the deal, users will be able to seamlessly access their digital assets on the Binance.US platform where they will continue to receive future disbursements from the Voyager estate.”
Monday’s price is around $400 million less than the $1.42 billion FTX US bid in September for Voyager’s assets. That deal fell through because of FTX’s own bankruptcy Nov. 11.
Binance.US was also among Voyager’s September bidders.
Voyager declared bankruptcy in July amid market turmoil after crypto hedge fund Three Arrows Capital defaulted on a $650 million loan from Voyager.
Following FTX’s bankruptcy, which was filed after a whirlwind week that included a quickly abandoned acquisition attempt by Binance, Voyager announced that it once again planned to auction off its assets.
At the time, Voyager emphasized that it didn’t transfer any assets to FTX US in connection with the transaction between the companies, and that it “successfully recalled loans from [FTX sister company] Alameda Research for 6,500 [Bitcoin] and 50,000 [Ethereum].”
Binance.US’s acquisition of Voyager comes about a month after Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao told Bloomberg that his company’s U.S. subsidiary would bid again to acquire Voyager’s assets.
