Binance.US Withdraws $1B Offer for Voyager Assets Amid Hostile US Climate

Binance.US has withdrawn its $1 billion offer to purchase cryptocurrency assets frozen in the Voyager Digital Holdings bankruptcy. 

iexclusivenews reports that the company cited a “hostile and uncertain regulatory climate in the United States” as the reason for the withdrawal.

Voyager announced the termination of the deal on Twitter on Tuesday afternoon, New York time.

The company said it will seek to directly compensate investors whose assets have been frozen since July.

This will be done using a “toggle option” in the company’s bankruptcy plan.

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Zachary Tindall of Binance.US confirmed the termination in an emailed statement.

He blamed regulators for having “introduced an unpredictable operating environment impacting the entire American business community.”

What You Should Know 

There have been several U.S. actions this year against digital-assets businesses by various agencies.

Binance was charged by the Commodities Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) in March with offering crypto derivatives without registering as a futures commodity merchant.

In a blog post at the time, Changpeng Zhao, the founder and CEO of Binance’s parent company—who was named in the CFTC action—said.

 “The complaint appears to contain an incomplete recitation of facts, and we do not agree with the characterization of many of the issues alleged.”

The Binance statement on Tuesday did not directly address the CFTC complaint.

It also did not address attempts by the SEC and New York State to derail the asset purchase.

Voyager is a brokerage that failed in July, part of a string of crypto-related defaults.

It had a previous deal to sell its assets to FTX US, an arm of the Bahamas-based digital-assets empire that filed for bankruptcy in November.

FTX had offered to reimburse much of the frozen assets in exchange for the chance to acquire them.