Binance Lunges for Voyager Digital
Posted on 11/24/2022
Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao (CZ), through its U.S. unit Binance.us, is making a bid for bankrupt crypto lender Voyager Digital. This is after the failed cryptocurrency exchange FTX failed to come through on buying Voyager. Binance’s bid was rumored to be held back over U.S. national security concerns. Changpeng Zhao was born in China, but grew up in Canada and is a Canadian citizen. CZ believes the national security rumors were spread by FTX to push them out of the bid for Voyager.
Similar to FTX, Binance maintains billions of dollars worth of its own digital tokens on its balance sheet. On November 10, 2022, Binance wallets were estimated to hold US$ 65 billion in wallets worth of assets combined, including 21.3B BUSD — a stablecoin issued by Paxos in partnership with Binance, and US$ 6 billion worth of BNB — Binance Smart Chain’s network token. The two tokens account for 42% of its known reserve assets at the time.
Binance is trying to raise US$ 1 billion for an Industry Recovery Initiative (IRI), which would benefit Binance. The fund will be used to buy distressed crypto assets. Aptos Labs and Jump Crypto (a unit of Jump Trading) and others are committing US$ 50 million to the fund. Aptos Labs is the entity behind the newly launched Aptos blockchain. Venture capital firms Polygon Ventures and Animoca Brands as well GSR, Kronos, and Brooker Group in contributing to the fund.
