TL;DR:
- Binance US has received approval from a US bankruptcy judge to buy Voyager Digital’s assets, despite objections from the SEC and other regulatory agencies.
- The deal will involve Binance US returning money to Voyager’s customers, and the company claims to be independent from its parent company, Binance.
- The SEC had previously filed an objection to the deal, citing concerns over Binance US’s financial viability and Voyager’s VGX token potentially being an unregistered security. However, the judge ultimately dismissed the objections and approved the sale of Voyager’s assets to Binance US.
Binance gets approved
In a development that has caught the attention of the cryptocurrency world, Binance US has received approval from US bankruptcy judge Michael Wiles to buy the assets of Voyager Digital. This comes despite objections from the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), which had raised concerns about the financial viability of Binance US’s business.
Binance US is the American affiliate of Binance, which is currently the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange. While Binance US caters to US customers, it claims to operate independently of Binance. However, this claim has been repeatedly called into question, including during Voyager’s bankruptcy proceedings.
Under the terms of the deal, Binance US will buy Voyager’s distressed assets and then handle the return of money to the company’s customers. Voyager, which went bust last July after disclosing a large exposure to the failed cryptocurrency hedge fund Three Arrows Capital, has been working out how to return assets to investors who used its services.
Initially, the SEC had filed an objection to the deal in January, but this was only the beginning. Several other regulatory agencies, including the Federal Trade Commission, the Texas State Securities Board, and the Texas Department of Banking, filed their own objections to the deal, citing various reasons.
In late February, the SEC added that it believed Voyager’s VGX token may be an unregistered security, which could violate its rules against the sale of unregistered securities. This put Binance US in a precarious position, as it was also deemed to be an unregistered securities exchange.
Despite these objections, Judge Wiles was not convinced that Binance US and Voyager were in violation of securities laws. The SEC would not take an official position on the matter and only stated that its staff “believed” that the companies may be violating securities laws.
Voyager’s restructuring plan includes legal protections for the company, and the SEC wanted to maintain its ability to file charges against the company later. However, Judge Wiles was not swayed by this argument, and the SEC had until March 7th to come up with a better argument.
This decision by Judge Wiles is significant, as it shows that cryptocurrency companies can still operate in the US despite regulatory scrutiny. It also highlights the growing importance of Binance US, which has emerged as a major player in the US cryptocurrency market.
The cryptocurrency market is no stranger to regulatory challenges, with several countries around the world cracking down on crypto-related activities in recent years. However, the US has been especially strict in its regulation of cryptocurrencies, and the SEC has been at the forefront of this push for tighter regulations.
The SEC has been scrutinizing Binance US for some time now, and this latest decision is unlikely to be the end of the regulatory challenges facing the company. However, Binance US appears to be well-equipped to handle these challenges, and its continued success could be a sign of a more crypto-friendly regulatory environment in the US in the future.
Overall, the decision by Judge Wiles to approve the deal between Binance US and Voyager Digital is a significant one for the cryptocurrency world. It shows that despite regulatory challenges, cryptocurrency companies can still operate in the US and that there is still room for growth and innovation in this exciting and rapidly-evolving industry.
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