Voyager Digital Holding cryptocurrency brokerage has indicated that they are going public through a 60 million reverse merger on the Canadian TSX Venture Exchange. Voyager was founded by Uber and E*Trade and the new york based brokerage has acquired UC Resources Ltd which is a mineral exploration shell company that stopped operating in 2015.
Merger to give currency for expansion
Following the announcement about the merger, the new company will be known as Voyager Digital Ltd and will be trading publicly as from February 11, 2019, on the TSX Venture Exchange.
Voyager CEO and co-founder Stephen Ehrlich indicated that the issuing of publicly traded shares will give the company value that they can leverage to grow their business. He added that the company is currently seeking crypto assess that fit with their mission and culture. Ehrlich said that having cash and a public currency will make voyager more efficient as well as open up more opportunities for the company.
The company unveiled their plan to enable the crypto trading for retail investors and they raised close to $7 million from a series of rounds before the last round of $60 million which is the cost that the Voyager paid for the shell company.
Ehrlich indicated that the acquisition will help them build trust with their clients and investors as they will have to make financial disclosures as well as be answerable to the securities exchange regulators.
Transforming crypto investment
Voyager will follow other crypto firms that have gone public such as Galaxy Digital Holdings that did so in 2018. The idea of going public will enable institutional and retail investors to trade on crypto in various exchanges through a single mobile account.
Voyager will not charge commissions but instead they will make a spread in the event they execute orders that are better than quoted during submission thus resulting in improvement of prices for the clients and enhancing revenue for the company.
The platform is currently in beta testing and a public launch will happen this month. However, the company is giving $15 worth of Bitcoin to users who will sign up early.
