Binance Considers Pulling Out of Voyager Deal
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Hey Peeps!
On March 3rd, Binance CEO Changpeng "CZ" Zhao published a tweet that eludes to Binance potentially pulling out of the hotly-contested Voyager deal for $1.02 billion.
The Binance/Voyager deal has been under scrutiny since it was accepted, as both the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) objected to the deal.
The tweet by CZ comes after the most recent Voyager bankruptcy court hearing, on March 2nd, where the court would decide if the deal should continue or not.
“You come here and tell me … that I should stop everybody in their tracks because you might have an issue, It's kind of a weird objection. I get the feeling that this objection has been made as a kind of cover, so you can say later that we'll see we raised these issues. You haven't really, you have done nothing … I need to know specifics.”
- Michael Wiles, U.S. Bankruptcy Court Judge
Surprisingly, at the beginning of the Bankruptcy Court Hearing, U.S. Bankruptcy Court Judge Michael Wiles went on a rant picking apart the SEC's objection to the Binance/Voyager deal.
The Judge brought into question that the SEC did not bring up any specifics in their objection, and that they were simply holding up the process for no good reason.
Judge Wiles also made an excellent point that he believes the SEC and other regulatory agencies only objected to the deal now, so that later in the future they could potentially turn around and cause issues.
In response to these cutting remarks by Judge Wiles, the SEC Senior Trial Attorney William Uptegrove stated that he believes Binance.US is operating an "unregistered securities exchange".
He went on to state that Voyager also is an unregulated securities exchange after they offered and sold their own VGX tokens to the public.
However, after making these claims, the attorney then said that these claims were only the personal views of the staff, and that the SEC has not made any determinations on these issues.
This did not sit well with Judge Michael Wiles as he dismantled the SEC's odd argument by calling it unprofessional and expressed shock at how staff members of the SEC could express personal views as allegations without evidence.
After the hearing concluded, Binance.US wasted no time in releasing a statement, responding to the allegations, that pointed out the SEC made allegations without actually being specific or explaining how.
"It is regrettable that an SEC staff member would make allegations, that Binance.US and platforms like ours are operating an unregistered exchange, without specifying the assets listed on our exchange that the SEC considers to be securities. We, along with others in our industry, remain committed to constructive dialogue with regulators and supporting a comprehensive regulatory framework drafted and passed by Congress to ensure innovation continues in the United States."
- Binance.US Spokesperson
I believe it is also important to note that all this drama comes after the Binance/Voyager deal was voted on by customers, and passed with 97% voting in favor of the deal.
At the end of the day, as a Voyager customer/victim, I just want this all to be over and I will accept whatever crypto/assets I get back from the deal.
I think this is why you see 97% voting in favor of this deal; we are just so tired of this whole process.
What are your thoughts on this news?
Do you think the Binance/Voyager deal will go through successfully?
Are you surprised the Judge is actually standing up to these rogue regulatory agencies?
See ya!
:)
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