Stock Implosion
Trading, deposits, withdrawals and loyalty rewards on the Voyager platform remain temporarily suspended, Ehrlich said. Clients who have crypto in their accounts will receive a mix of their digital assets, proceeds from the Three Arrows recovery, shares in a reorganized Voyager and Voyager tokens.
The Voyager coin has tumbled 98% from its peak, according to CoinGecko.
Customers with US dollars in their accounts “will receive access to those funds after a reconciliation and fraud prevention process is completed with Metropolitan Commercial Bank,” Ehrlich said in the tweet.
Shares in Voyager plunged 42% on Monday, slashing its market value to C$66 million ($51 million). The company was valued at C$2.7 billion at the start of the year.
Rapid Unwinding
Tighter monetary policy from central banks seeking to stem a global surge in inflation has weighted heavily on digital tokens, one of last year’s frothiest asset classes. The rout that started in late 2021 gathered pace with the collapse of the TerraUSD stablecoin in May, then worsened further as Bitcoin suffered its biggest-ever monthly drop in June.
With rapid unwinding of leverage blowing up companies across the cryptosphere, Bankman-Fried emerged as a lender of last resort, providing credit to Voyager and striking a deal to inject capital into BlockFi Inc. Bankman-Fried, the co-founder of crypto exchange FTX US, is also open to exploring acquisitions of battered crypto miners, he said in an interview last week.
“The big question is can FTX backstop everything, they’re becoming a central bank-like lender of last resort,” said Simon Taylor, head of strategy and content at crypto fraud prevention startup Sardine.
Bitcoin was down 1.2% at $20,196 on Wednesday morning in Europe, taking this year’s decline to 57%.
This article was provided by Bloomberg News.