An application filed by the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on Wednesday has filed a limited objection to Binance.US’s plans to acquire bankrupt cryptocurrency lender Voyager Digital for $1 billion. The regulator pointed out the failure to include necessary information in Binance.US’s disclosure statement.
SEC indicated that the purchase agreement does not tell it what the crypto exchange won’t be able to do after the deal closes. It also asked for further information on the nature of the company’s business operations following the transaction.
Attorneys for Voyager and Binance.US did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Last month, the US Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) said its review could delay or block the deal.
Binance has been the subject of a money laundering probe by US prosecutors. Binance.US, based in California’s Palo Alto, has said that its separate American exchange is “fully independent” of the main Binance platform.
Withdrawals from Binance spiked at the end of December after FTX, a rival crypto exchange that succumbed to liquidity issues collapsed. At the time, CEO Changpeng Zhao had called this ‘normal market behavior’ while attempting to pacify crypto investors.
Between 2021 and 2022, the overall crypto sector lost over $2 trillion. The Russia-Ukraine war, the recession that followed the COVID-19 pandemic, repeated hack attacks, and the collapse of promising crypto projects like LUNA and FTX slashed investor engagement in the sector.
CryptoCom, Binance, and a number of other companies have cut their payrolls in response to market stress, while BlockFi, Celsius, and Voyager Digital have filed for bankruptcy.
