Crypto Lender Voyager Digital Seeks to ‘Unwind’ $200M Loan to Alameda Research

Alameda, a firm run by FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried, had said it is "happy to return" the loan to the firm that's now in bankruptcy.

AccessTimeIconSep 20, 2022 at 4:06 a.m. UTC
Updated May 11, 2023 at 4:17 p.m. UTC
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Voyager Digital, an insolvent crypto lender that is auctioning off its assets, has asked a federal bankruptcy court in New York for permission to “unwind” a $200 million loan it made to trading firm Alameda Research, according to a court filing.

In exchange for repaying the loan, Alameda would receive $160 million back in its pledged collateral. The loan, which was made in September of last year, is denominated largely in bitcoin (BTC), ether (ETH) and USD Coin (USDC).

Alameda was founded by Sam Bankman-Fried, the billionaire crypto entrepreneur who also founded FTX, a crypto exchange. FTX has its own link to Voyager. Last week, CoinDesk reported that it's in the lead to purchase Voyager's assets through an auction taking place in its bankruptcy case.

In July, Alameda tweeted that it's "happy to return the Voyager loan and get our collateral back whenever works for Voyager."

Alameda Ventures, a firm that is separate from Alameda Research but that is also controlled by Bankman-Fried, has also loaned $200 million in cash and USDC as well as 15,000 BTC to Voyager in order to “mitigate current market conditions.” Alameda Ventures is a Voyager shareholder.

Changpeng Zhao, CEO of Binance, the world's largest crypto exchange, has previously tweeted that the complex relationship between all of the firms is "hard to follow." Binance has also tried to buy Voyager, CoinDesk has reported.

The court filing also requests that both parties' cryptocurrency wallet addresses remain confidential.

Voyager filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in July after it faced a swarm of requests by customers to withdraw their funds as cryptocurrency prices spiraled down in the aftermath of the collapse of Terra network's UST stablecoin and related LUNA token.

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