The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has moved to block Binance.US’ planned $1.02 billion U.S. purchase of bankrupt lender Voyager Digital’s cryptocurrency assets.
The SEC has objected to the proposed deal in a New York court, saying the sale of Voyager Digital’s crypto assets to Binance.US could be “discriminatory and unlawful.”
The move follows increasing interventions in the cryptocurrency sector by the SEC, whose crackdown on the sale of unregistered securities caused crypto exchange Kraken to shutdown its crypto staking operations in the U.S.
The deal between Binance.US, which is the American arm of cryptocurrency exchange Binance, and Voyager Digital was also opposed in court by New York State’s Department of Financial Services and Attorney General Letitia James, who allege that Voyager Digital was unlawfully serving customers in the Empire State.
The court filings claim that Voyager Digital “illegally operated a virtual currency business within the state without a license.”
In January of this year, the SEC filed an objection in court to the deal, saying there wasn’t enough detail to show that Binance.US could afford to pay just over $1 billion for Voyager Digital’s crypto assets.
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has said that it is probing the collapse last summer of Voyager Digital, which filed for bankruptcy protection from its creditors in July 2022.
The FTC has said that it is investigating possible deceptive marketing practices by Voyager Digital.
Voyager Digital has argued that the Binance.US deal offers the best possible outcome for its creditors, and that the objections of regulators are “hypocritical.” Voyager Digital’s creditors have voted in favour of the asset sale to Binance.US.
