U.S. review could delay or block Binance deal for Voyager Digital

With a deal that includes $20 million in cash and crypto assets that will be used to pay back Voyager's clients, the U.S.-based affiliate of the cryptocurrency exchange, Binance.US, plans to acquire the crypto lending platform of the cryptocurrency exchange.

However, the U.S. Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS), an interagency body that assesses foreign investments into American businesses for risks to national security, stated on Friday that its examination "could affect the ability of the parties to complete the transactions, the timing of completion, or relevant terms."

Requests for comment on Friday were not immediately answered by counsel for Voyager or Binance.US.

Washington has been using CFIUS more and more as a weapon to thwart Chinese investment in the US.

Changpeng Zhao, a Chinese-born resident of Singapore and the owner of Binance, does not have a physical headquarters. The business is the focus of an investigation for money laundering by US authorities. The Palo Alto, California-based company Binance.US has said that its own American exchange is "completely autonomous" of the main Binance platform.

In its court brief, CFIUS did not specifically address any security issues brought up by the Voyager transaction, but it did note that bankruptcy courts have sometimes determined that a company's ability to bid on assets in bankruptcy might be limited by national security considerations.

Months after the collapse of two significant crypto currencies, TerraUSD and Luna, sent shockwaves across the digital asset sector, Voyager filed for bankruptcy in July.

When FTX Trading filed for bankruptcy in November as a result of a flurry of client withdrawals and fraud claims that resulted in the arrest of CEO Sam Bankman-Fried, Voyager's first plan to transfer its assets to FTX Trading collapsed.