- Sam Bankman-Fried has hit back at Voyager Digital’s criticism of FTX’s offer for the company
- FTX tabled a bid for Voyager last week, but it was rejected over the weekend
- Voyager criticised the offer as a “low-ball bid dressed up as a white knight rescue”
FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried has responded to Voyager’s angry dismissal of FTX’s bid for the company by saying that he has the customers’ holdings at heart. FTX offered to buy Voyager last week but Voyager refused the offer, publicly castigating FTX in the process and saying that its offer didn’t present any value to Voyager customers and was simply a land grab by FTX. Bankman-Fried responded with a tweet thread yesterday that sought to clarify his position, saying that his bid was the only one that would make customers as whole as possible as quickly as possible.
Bankruptcy “Bleeding the Customer’s Frozen Assets Dry”
Bankman-Fried began the tweet thread by explaining that the remaining customer funds are now available for the platform to use on bankruptcy consultancy fees, which will slowly chip away at the amount that users could realistically get back as part of any rehabilitation process, something that Bankman-Fried said FTX didn’t approve of:
4) Meanwhile, that entire time, various bankruptcy agents are slowly bleeding the customer’s frozen assets dry with consulting fees.
This can cost customers hundreds of millions of dollars by the time all is said and done.
And, finally, there’s an imbedded option.
— SBF (@SBF_FTX) July 25, 2022
FTX’s offer, Bankman-Fried said, would mean that, “If accepted, any customer who wanted could come and get back their share of everything that remained, as soon as possible”, adding that “It would let customers–if they chose–get the remaining assets back right away, with no fees or additional haircut.”
The only parties that would lose out in FTX’s offer were, apparently, “third parties who want to take some of the customer assets as fees”, such as consultants, who earn more money by dragging the process out for as long as possible.
FTX Offer is Best for Users, Claims Bankman-Fried
Bankman-Fried summarised his position by saying that “our offer would give Voyager customers back 100% of the remaining assets that Voyager has, including claims on anything recovered in the future.”
The response to the thread was mixed, with some seemingly surprised that FTX wanted to benefit from the deal:
As a Voyager customer I do appreciate the offer however, this isn’t necessarily as altruistic as it may seem. With the market currently being down around 80% you know that our assets will be worth quite a flip in the future. Also, all the new customers it would likely bring FTX.
— Steven Steele (@MrStevenSteele) July 25, 2022
Others, however, were keen to take the offer at face value:
Think deeper ser
— À Block 🚁💰 (@aBlock0) July 25, 2022
With Voyager seemingly dismissing FTX’s offer out of hand, it seems that the long drawn out approach is going to be more probably than a quick resolution, at least one done through FTX’s offer.
