Crypto exchange Binance’s U.S. unit is relaunching its bid to buy bankrupt crypto lender Voyager Digital, Coindesk reported on Thursday, citing a person familiar with the matter. The report comes after Voyager called off FTX’s bid to acquire the company following its collapse.
Binance did not immediately respond to Reuters request for comment. Voyager declined to comment. In September, the Wall Street Journal had reported that Binance and FTX came up with the leading bids to buy Voyager’s assets. FTX had won Voyager’s assets in a $1.42-billion bid at an auction thereafter.
However, Voyager said in a tweet on Wednesday that the company’s proposed sale would not move forward and that it is in active discussions with several alternate bidders after FTX filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection last week.
The collapse of FTX, which reverberated across the crypto world, sending bitcoin and other digital assets plummeting, impacted nearly one million customers and several investors as they faced billions of dollars in losses.
The announcement sent crypto markets into a tizzy, with most coins seeing double-digit losses. The price of Bitcoin, the largest cryptocurrency by market capitalisation, dropped to 2020 levels, and it was a similar story for Ethereum.
The damage was not limited to cryptocurrencies; firms that invested in FTX were also affected by the crash. This is because the embattled exchange halted withdrawals, leaving a large chunk of investor funds frozen. This has led to a domino effect where several other exchanges and DeFi protocols with exposure to FTX have also halted withdrawals.
FTX went from the gold standard of crypto exchange to complete chaos in a few days. Since then, plenty of industry big-wigs have come out and criticised SBF for how he handled the finances of both FTX and Alameda Research. The crash of FTX will have long-standing repercussions, and we can only wait and watch how things unfold from here.
