Voyager Seeks ‘Strategic Alternatives’ Following Pause to Withdrawals

Voyager said it holds $1.3 billion in crypto assets on its platform, as well as claims of more than $650 million against Three Arrows Capital

article-image

blockworks exclusive art by axel rangel

share

key takeaways

  • Voyager has halted withdrawals, trading, deposits and loyalty rewards on its platform in a bid to buy more time, it said
  • The cryptocurrency lender has faced liquidity troubles after Three Arrows Capital’s insolvency

Cryptocurrency lender Voyager is the latest firm caught in market contagion spurred by Three Arrows Capital’s (3AC) downfall, which has triggered liquidity crises across the digital asset industry.

In a letter to users on Friday, Voyager said it was suspending trading, deposits, withdrawals and loyalty rewards on its platform in a bid to buy time while it seeks out “strategic alternatives.”

It’s an about-face to its recent statement last week, when Voyager said it was continuing to operate and fulfil customer orders and withdrawals.

Blockworks attempted to contact Voyager to understand its exposure risk to a further slide in crypto prices and what its “strategic alternatives” might allude to, but has not yet received a response.

In a tweet thread on Saturday, Jersey City company said it currently holds roughly $1.3 billion worth of crypto assets on its platform in addition to claims of more than $650 million against 3AC. Voyager also said it held more than $350 million in cash at New York’s Metropolitan Commercial Bank.

“[Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation] insurance does not protect against the failure of Voyager, any act or omission of Voyager or its employees, or the loss in value of cryptocurrency or other assets,” the bank said in a statement on Sunday. “The standard FDIC insurance coverage amount is currently $250,000 per depositor for each account.”

Multiple companies continue to chafe under unsavory market conditions furthered by revelations of 3AC entering liquidation following a British Virgin Islands court order last week.

The Singapore-based hedge fund firm filed for Chapter 15 bankruptcy on Friday while founders Kyle Davies and Zhu Su have been unable to be located, according to the law firm representing 3AC in New York.

Hong Kong crypto lender Babel Finance has now hired US investment bank, Houlihan Lokey, following a pause to Babel’s withdrawals last month, hinting it could be the next domino to fall into insolvency or default.

Celsius, another major platform offering yield on deposits, is resisting calls from its lawyers to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy as it attempts to navigate its own headaches following a withdrawal freeze on June 12.

“3AC’s investment ‘thesis’ could be easily described as ‘get in, take loans, hype and hope,'” Anna Becke, CEO of AI trading platform EndoTech told Blockworks in an email. “They bet on demi-frauds like Terra and took risky loans from other organizations (some of whom have since filed for bankruptcy), all with the veneer of a thesis-based hedge fund. 3AC represents the worst of crypto investing and is another reason crypto investors are shaken.”

Like the industry’s other lenders, Voyager allows users to trade and earn a yield on crypto assets up to 12%.

While a definitive timeframe on when the restrictions would be lifted was not given, Voyager said Saturday it was “working quickly” to restore services and would provide an update “as soon as it becomes available.”

Voyager stock has collapsed by almost 60% since it first announced its exposure to 3AC’s demise, from around CAD$0.58 ($0.45) to CAD$0.30 ($0.23). Its native token VGX has shed a similar amount.

This article was updated at 7:46 am ET to include the Voyager stock price chart.


Start your day with top crypto insights from David Canellis and Katherine Ross. Subscribe to the Empire newsletter.

Explore the growing intersection between crypto, macroeconomics, policy and finance with Ben Strack, Casey Wagner and Felix Jauvin. Subscribe to the Forward Guidance newsletter.

Get alpha directly in your inbox with the 0xResearch newsletter — market highlights, charts, degen trade ideas, governance updates, and more.

The Lightspeed newsletter is all things Solana, in your inbox, every day. Subscribe to daily Solana news from Jack Kubinec and Jeff Albus.

Tags

Upcoming Events

Javits Center North | 445 11th Ave

Tues - Thurs, March 18 - 20, 2025

Blockworks’ Digital Asset Summit (DAS) will feature conversations between the builders, allocators, and legislators who will shape the trajectory of the digital asset ecosystem in the US and abroad.

Brooklyn, NY

TUES - THURS, JUNE 24 - 26, 2025

Permissionless IV serves as the definitive gathering for crypto’s technical founders, developers, and builders to come together and create the future.If you’re ready to shape the future of crypto, Permissionless IV is where it happens.

recent research

LTIPPanalysis.png

Research

This report is a retroactive analysis of Arbitrum's Long Term Incentives Pilot Program (LTIPP). We collect relevant data at a protocol level and review bi-weekly updates to analyze recipients, their strategies, and the impact of the incentives on high level growth metrics. In particular, we want to highlight outperformers and underperformers, and glean any best practices or lessons learned for protocols distributing ARB incentives in the future. The overarching goal is to synthesize lessons learned that the DAO can reference as it begins thinking about future incentives programs–namely, the working group for incentives that is being actively discussed–especially as Timeboost introduces new conditions for trading and economic activity.

article-image

Let’s raise a toast to another year of SOLid progress

article-image

ParaFi’s Ben Forman and Kevin Yedid-Botton break down their biggest predictions for the Empire podcast

article-image

OFAC sanctioned Tornado Cash in 2022, claiming the mixer had been used to launder more than $7 billion in crypto

article-image

The Fed’s preferred inflation gauge showed that prices increased 0.2% from September and 2.3% annually

article-image

While acknowledging potential headwinds for risk assets, Galaxy’s Alex Thorn notes there are also plenty of catalysts

article-image

BuilderNet is a new block building network designed to return more MEV and gas fees to users