Quantitative trading firm Alameda Research will return an estimated $200 million to bankrupt Voyager Digital. Alameda borrowed the funds in cryptocurrencies in September 2021. At that time, the sum was close to $380 million.
According to a recent filing in the Bankruptcy Court of the Southern District of New York, the parties have reached an agreement and Alameda will return around 6,553 Bitcoin (BTC) and 51,000 Ether (ETH) by September 30. On its corporate Twitter account, Alameda confirmed its willingness to return the funds:
happy to return the Voyager loan and get our warranty back as long as it works for Voyager
— Alameda Research (@AlamedaResearch) July 8, 2022
In turn, Voyager will have to return collateral in the form of 4.65 million FTX (FTT) tokens and 63.75 million serum tokens, amounting to $160 million at the time of publication. The company has been in Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings since July and began auctioning off its assets in September to return some of the funds to customers.
During the bankruptcy case, court proceedings and financial documents have shown a deep relationship between Voyager and Alameda. In June, when Voyager ran into trouble, Alameda switched from a borrower to a lender and offered a $500 million bailout. However, this led to a public conflict between the two parties with Voyager rejecting a purchase, claiming it could “harm customers”.
Related: Alameda Research and FTX merge VC operations
In addition, Voyager’s financial books indicate that it lent $1.6 billion in crypto loans to an entity based in the British Virgin Islands, the same place where Alameda is registered. At the same time, Alameda was also Voyager’s largest shareholder, with an 11.56% stake in the company acquired through two investments for a combined total of $110 million. Earlier this year, Alameda sold 4.5 million shares to avoid reporting requirements, reducing its equity to 9.49%.
Like several other crypto platforms and lending institutions, including Celsius, BlockFi, and Hodlnaut, Voyager struggled to continue operations after the global crypto market crashed in early summer 2022.
