Voyager Digital
Voyager Digital was a Bitcoin company in the Lending category, founded in 2018 by Steve Ehrlich.
The Idea
A digital asset brokerage offering custodial trading and lending products (up to 9-12% APY on Bitcoin deposits). Positioned as the 'Robinhood for crypto' with a focus on retail users.
Early Traction
Voyager was the consumer face of digital asset financial services, a commission-free trading app whose high-yield accounts drew a flood of retail users during the 2020-2021 bull market, from around 120,000 in early 2020 to 3.5 million by early 2022. A splashy five-year sponsorship of Mark Cuban's Dallas Mavericks, complete with free-Bitcoin giveaways, made it a household name, and its market cap peaked above $3.7B in early 2021.
Peak Stats
Grew to roughly 3.5 million retail users, with a market capitalization that peaked above $3.7B in early 2021.
Status Today
Filed for bankruptcy in July 2022. FTX US won the auction for Voyager's assets in September 2022, but that deal collapsed when FTX itself went bankrupt in November 2022. Binance.US then agreed to acquire the assets in December 2022 but terminated the deal in April 2023, citing the regulatory climate. Voyager ultimately wound down and returned assets directly to customers.
Why It Matters
Voyager's collapse exposed the danger at the core of high-yield retail lending: it took depositors' coins, promised them steady interest, then lent those funds out unsecured to large counterparties like Three Arrows Capital. When 3AC defaulted there was no collateral to seize, so it was ordinary retail depositors, not professional lenders, who absorbed the loss.