Binance.US has announced that it was selected by bankrupt cryptocurrency lender Voyager Digital as the “highest and best bid” for its assets as part of its Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings.

Global payments giant Visa has signaled stronger, sustained interest in crypto through a paper outlining how the firm could collaborate with the Ethereum network on automatic payments. The paper details how Ethereum users could schedule auto-payments sent from self-custodial wallets.

Grayscale Investments has said it’s exploring options to return a portion of capital of its Grayscale Bitcoin (GBTC) trust product if the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) refuses to approve its spot bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF).

Top stories in the Crypto Roundup today:

• Binance.US to Acquire Bankrupt Voyager Digital’s Assets for $1 Billion
• Visa Releases Paper on Ethereum Automatic Payments Plan
• Grayscale to Return Capital to Investors if SEC Rejects Bitcoin ETF
• Chart of the Week: Total Value Locked in 2022

Binance.US to Acquire Bankrupt Voyager Digital’s Assets for $1 Billion

Binance.US has announced that it was selected by bankrupt cryptocurrency lender Voyager Digital as the “highest and best bid” for its assets as part of its Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings.

In a blog post, the cryptocurrency exchange said the agreement “sets a clear path forward for Voyager customers’ funds to be unlocked as soon as possible, and returned to them in the form of the cryptocurrencies previously held in their Voyager accounts."

The agreement is valued at $1.022 billion, valuing Voyager’s existing portfolio at $1.002 billion with an additional $20 million of “incremental value.” Voyager will now seek approval in bankruptcy court to enter into an asset purchase agreement with Binance.US.

Once the deal is finalized, Voyager’s customers will be able to access future disbursements of their crypto holdings through Binance.US.

Visa Releases Paper on Ethereum Automatic Payments Plan

Global payments giant Visa has signaled stronger, sustained interest in crypto through a paper outlining how the firm could collaborate with the Ethereum network on automatic payments. The paper details how Ethereum users could schedule auto-payments sent from self-custodial wallets.

It’s currently not yet possible for Ethereum users to schedule automatic payments, but the feature could be enabled through a popular Ethereum proposal called “Account Abstraction,” which would allow Ethereum user accounts to function like smart contracts and feature pre-scheduled execution functions.

Visa’s solution would involve a new type of self-custodial wallet called a “delegable account,” which would allow users to set up programmable payment instructions to push funds automatically to another account at recurring intervals.

The payments giant has already successfully tested its delegable accounts on a private chain using StarkNet, a layer-2 scaling solution that supports Account Abstraction.

The paper is a further sign that Visa is planning on being an active player in the cryptocurrency space. Catherine Gu, Visa’s Head of CBDC and Protocols, was quoted saying the company wants to “actively contribute to technical developments happening in the crypto ecosystem.”

Grayscale to Return Capital to Investors if SEC Rejects Bitcoin ETF

Grayscale Investments has said it’s exploring options to return a portion of the capital of its Grayscale Bitcoin (GBTC) trust product if the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) refuses to approve its spot bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF).

One option being considered is to offer tender for up to 20% of outstanding GBTC shares, which are currently trading at a 49% discount to net asset value (NAV).

Grayscale's efforts to convert its bitcoin trust into an ETF have been rejected by the SEC, which cited a lack of regulatory oversight in a recent statement. In June, Grayscale filed a lawsuit against the SEC after the U.S. regulator rejected the company's ETF application. Grayscale stated that it "vehemently disagreed" with the SEC's decision.

Chart of the Week: Total Value Locked in 2022

The total value locked (TVL) among the top 5 protocols in the decentralized finance (DeFi) space has decreased by 70.1% from the beginning of the year, going from $75.3 billion to $22.5 billion.

This trend is consistent with other protocols in the top 50, which have seen their TVL drop by 67.6% during the same period.MakerDAO, Lido, Curve, AAVE and Uniswap, have remained among the top 10 protocols throughout the year, sustaining high dominance in the space, with a market share ranging between 46% and 57% so far this year.

State of the Crypto by Top Tier Exchange Volume

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