FTX and Binance Lead Bids to Purchase Voyagers Assets

Major crypto exchanges FTX and Binance are reportedly the top bidders in the battle for defunct crypto lending firm Voyager Digital assets, with each having bid around $50 million.

According to a Tuesday report released by the Wall Street Journal, Binance's bid is slightly higher than FTX, though it should be noted that no offer has been accepted at this time.

Voyager began selling its assets at the beginning of this month after a tumultuous year that saw the company file for chapter 11 bankruptcy when it was determined it could not pay back its outstanding debts of $10 billion.

Other bidders reportedly include trading platform CrossTower and digital asset manager Wave Financial. The auction for the New York-based firm began on September 13th.

Voyager is one of the more prominent victims of going out of business amid the mid-year market crash. The corporation became defunct shortly after one of its biggest debtors, the Singapore-based crypto hedge fund Three Arrows Capital (3AC), filed for bankruptcy in July, leaving all of its customer's funds at risk. AC owed Voyager more than $650 million in Bitcoin and the stablecoin USDC.

One of Voyager's other borrowers was crypto trading firm Alameda Research, which the owner of FTX Sam Bankman-Fried founded.

Alameda owed Voyager about $377 million worth of cryptocurrencies just before it filed for bankruptcy; Alameda extended two credit lines to Voyager—one for $200 million in cash and a second for 15,000 Bitcoin.

When Voyager filed for bankruptcy, Alameda was its largest creditor with a new $75 million loan.

Earlier this week, Alameda agreed to pay $200 million worth of Bitcoin and Ethereum in exchange for $160 million in collateral Voyager had been holding.

Soon after Voyager announced its bankruptcy, FTX stepped in to say that it would save the crypto lender, though Voyager dismissed the proposal calling it “a low-ball bid dressed up as a white knight rescue.”