Voyager bankruptcy plan approved, customers may recover 35.7% of claims initially

Crypto brokerage Voyager’s bankruptcy plan was approved by the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York on May 17, according to a Reuters report. Judge Michael Wiles’ order approving the procedure was published by the court a day earlier. 

The so-called third bankruptcy plan was proposed on May 5 after Binance.US backed out of plans to buy $1 billion worth of Voyager assets on April 25. That deal had overcome resistance from the U.S. government before Binance.US’ last-minute reversal. Voyager will now liquidate — that is, distribute its assets to its creditors.

Why are lawyers & executives for #Voyager not forfeiting their pay if they didn’t do their jobs, especially when many are working other #crypto bankruptcy cases?

In what other industry can you fail at literally everything & still come out with millions?

Make it make sense. https://t.co/BQEu0J9h9H

— VGX Heroes (@VGX_Heroes) May 15, 2023

In September, before the Binance.US deal, FTX US had won an auction for Voyager’s assets, bidding $1.4 billion, but that sale fell through when FTX collapsed. The FTX sale would reportedly have allowed creditors to receive 72% of the value of their accounts. FTX sued Voyager for $445.8 million in January, claiming loan repayments it made in 2022 are liable to clawback because they occurred immediately prior to FTX’s bankruptcy.

Related: US officials appeal protections for Voyager execs in Binance.US sale

Voyager said on its website that customers could now expect to receive 35.72% of their claims initially, either in crypto through the Voyager app or in cash after 30 days. According to Voyager, it had $1.33 billion of assets for recovery as of May 8, of which $629.8 million was available for initial recovery, on claims of $1.8 billion.

Customers with crypto in their account(s) will receive in exchange a combination of the crypto in their account(s), proceeds from the 3AC recovery, common shares in the newly reorganized Company, and Voyager tokens.

— Stephen Ehrlich (@Ehrls15) July 6, 2022

The size of the creditors’ initial recovery could increase if FTX/Alameda Research’s claim for preferential recovery is unsuccessful. Voyager is holding back $445 million to cover that claim. In addition, Voyager may still recover funds from bankrupt Three Arrows Capital. Voyager issued a notice of default to Three Arrows on a loan of 15,250 Bitcoin (BTC) and 350 million USD Coin (USDC) in late June. Those assets were worth $655 million then and approximately $768 million at the time of writing.

Voyager filed for bankruptcy on July 5.

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