US Bankruptcy Judge Michael Wiles has voiced criticism over the US Securities and Exchange Commission’s crackdown on Binance.US’s attempted buyout of Voyager Digital.
At a court hearing on Thursday, the US regulator ruled it would not sanction Binance.US’s $1.02 billion USD Voyager Digital deal as the latter’s native token may constitute as an unregistered security.
He told the SEC in a statement: “You come here and tell me […] that I should stop everybody in their tracks because you might have an issue. It’s kind of a weird objection.”
Wiles said in a statement at the time that he was “absolutely shocked” at the objection, citing inadequate guidance from the SEC.
He added: “I get the feeling that this objection has been made as a kind of cover, so you can say later that we’ll see we raised these issues. You haven’t really, you have done nothing … I need to know specifics.”
Conversely, SEC prosecutor William Uptegrove said creditors did not receive sufficient regulatory risk warnings. Despite stating this, he failed to specify his position on Voyager Digital’s token (VGX) security status.
Voyager counsellors told courts that the Binance.us-Voyager defal could recover 73 percent of total funds to creditors.
According to court filings, roughly 97 percent of customers have backed the deal. Despite this, the SEC and Federal Trade Commission (FTC) launched a probe against Voyager, citing market malfeasance.
The news comes as Binance faces additional investigations over alleged tie to Russian darkweb Bizlato, and its native token, Binance USD (BUSD), minted by Paxos.
SEC regulators have blocked further minting of the digital asset, citing unregulated securities, without providing further clarification.
