The SEC wants to see more information included in the $1.022 billion deal between Binance’s U.S. arm and Voyager Digital before it agrees to the acquisition.
Binance, a cryptocurrency exchange, has received a “limited objection” from the Securities and Exchange Commission of the United States (SEC). US’s planned $1 billion acquisition of insolvent cryptocurrency lender Voyager Digital, which it rejected due to a lack of “sufficient information.”
The limited objection was filed on Jan 4, with the SEC pointing to a lack of detail regarding Binance.US”s ability to fund the acquisition, what Binance.US’s operations would look like following the deal, and how the customer assets will be secured during and after the transaction.
A limited objection is similar to a normal objection but only applies to a specific part of the proceedings. The agency also requests more information from Voyager regarding what would occur if the acquisition were to not close by April 18.
The lender wants to provide a revised disclosure statement prior to a hearing on the topic, according to the SEC’s filing, which said that it has previously discussed its concerns with Voyager.
The objection was viewed by some critics as the SEC endorsing Binance. Some commentators interpreted the objection as the SEC suggesting Binance.US would not be able to afford the acquisition without “some untoward dealing” such as receiving funds from Binance’s global entity.
While Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao (CZ) has publicly stated that Binance.US was a “fully independent entity,” an Oct. 17 Reuters report alleged that the U.S. entity acts more like a “de facto subsidiary” that was created to “insulate Binance from U.S. regulators.”
In response, CZ claimed in a blog post published on October 17 that Binance was committed to following regulations, that the author of the piece was biased, and that she had utilized a presentation created by an outside consultant that was never used.
Binance is the crypto market, according to this: Arcane declares the winner of the 2022 Exchange.On December 19, Voyager revealed that it had accepted Binance.US’s to buy its assets in a deal worth a total of $1.022 billion.
The lender stated in a news release that the bid was the “highest and best bid for its assets,” resulting in “expedited timeframe” and the greatest value being restored to clients and creditors.
On September 27, Voyager announced that FTX.US had won the auction for its assets with an offer of $1.4 billion. However, the deal has since fallen through, and customers will now not be able to recover 72% of their frozen cryptocurrency.
