According to a bankruptcy court filing on Friday, Binance's $1 billion acquisition of bankrupt crypto lender Voyager Digital could be delayed or halted by a U.S. national security investigation.
Binance, the cryptocurrency exchange's affiliate in the United States.
The US aims to buy Voyager's crypto lending business for $20 million in cash and crypto assets, which will be used to reimburse Voyager's consumers.
However, the U.S. Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS), an interagency body that vets foreign investments into U.S. companies for national security risks, stated on Friday that its review “could affect the parties' ability to complete the transactions, the timing of completion, or relevant terms.”
Voyager and Binance's legal counsel. The US did not reply quickly to demands for comment on Friday.
Washington has increasingly utilized CFIUS as a tactic to impede Chinese investment in the United States.
Binance is controlled by Changpeng Zhao, a Chinese-born Singaporean with no permanent headquarters. US prosecutors are investigating the corporation for money laundering. Binance.US, headquartered in Palo Alto, California, claims to be “completely autonomous” of the main Binance platform.
In its court brief, CFIUS did not specify any specific security concerns raised by the Voyager transaction, but it did state that bankruptcy courts have occasionally determined that national security considerations can bar a business from bidding on assets in bankruptcy.
Voyager declared bankruptcy in July, months after the collapse of major crypto currencies TerraUSD and Luna shook the digital asset industry.
Voyager had planned to sell its assets to FTX Trading, but the agreement fell through when FTX declared bankruptcy in November after a flurry of customer withdrawals and fraud claims, leading to the arrest of founder Sam Bankman-Fried.
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