- FTX US has won the auction for Voyager Digital’s assets, paying $1.4 billion
- The company’’s bid was accepted two months after a prior bid was rejected and slammed by the board
- The improved offer beat off competition from Binance
FTX US has won the auction for the assets of bankrupt exchange Voyager Digital, two months after the firm’s first offer was called “a low-ball bid dressed up as a white knight rescue”. Sam Bankman-Fried has had the last laugh however, scooping up the bankrupted platform’s assets and bringing a host of new users to FTX US. The final bill is $1.4 billion, which is almost all made up of the remaining cryptocurrency on the platform.
FTX’s Rocky Journey to Voyager Ownership
FTX US’s journey to owning Voyager Digital has been a rocky one, with its opening bid back in July disparaged by the Voyager board, who said it was “designed to generate publicity for itself (FTX) rather than value for Voyager’s customers.” Under the terms of the deal, Voyager customers would have been able to claim a portion of the funds that were frozen by the platform on July 1st, with users able to receive an early distribution of a portion of their bankruptcy claims if they opened an FTX US account.
FTX US had also advocated the elimination of the VGX token, which FTX said “would destroy in excess of $100 million in value immediately” and would put other bidders off. This turned out not to be the case, with Binance putting in a bid just last week.
$1.4 Billion Deal Accepted
FTX US’s presumably returned with a better offer which has now been accepted, with a statement from Voyager late Monday offering a very different take on the deal:
FTX US’s bid maximizes value and minimizes the remaining duration of the Company’s restructuring by providing a clear path forward for the Debtors to consummate a chapter 11 plan and return value to their customers and other creditors. FTX US’s market-leading, secure trading platform will enable customers to trade and store cryptocurrency after the conclusion of the Company’s chapter 11 cases.
The value of the deal is broken down into two parts – fair market value of all Voyager-owned cryptocurrency, which at current market prices is estimated to be $1.311 billion, plus “additional consideration” estimated as providing approximately $111 million of incremental value.
Not included is Voyager’s claims against Three Arrows Capital, which will remain with the bankruptcy estate and which will be distributed separately as and when such a point comes, if it ever does.
