Binance’s Zhao flags possible $1 billion for distressed assets

livemint.com:

Binance Holdings Ltd. is aiming for a roughly $1 billion fund for the potential purchase of distressed assets in the digital-asset sector and will make another bid for bankrupt lender Voyager Digital, its Chief Executive Officer Changpeng Zhao said.

“If that’s not enough we can allocate more," Zhao, also known as CZ, said in an interview Thursday with Bloomberg Television’s Haslinda Amin. 

Zhao has been a key figure in a period of tumult for crypto. His tweets highlighting concerns about the health of Sam Bankman-Fried’s rival FTX exchange and trading house Alameda Research precipitated their collapse. 

Since then his exchange has been cementing its position as the world’s largest crypto trading platform following FTX’s chaotic slide into bankruptcy. Zhao announced plans last week for an industry recovery fund to help strong projects facing a liquidity squeeze. The goal is to curb the contagion from FTX’s wipeout, he said, attempting to take on the garb of crypto’s rescuer-in-chief.

In the Thursday interview, Zhao said a blog post about the fund is coming soon and that Binance spoke to a number of industry players about it.

“We are going with a loose approach where different industry players will contribute as they wish," he said.

This year’s deep crypto rout has lopped about $80 billion off Zhao’s personal fortune but at $15 billion it still far exceeds anyone else in crypto, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. 

Zhao said Binance US is planning to revive its bid for the assets of Voyager Digital, a deal which came back into focus after the lender’s original buyer FTX filed itself for bankruptcy. Binance will be competing with crypto exchange CrossTower Inc, and other companies. 

Binance is also in talks with