Crypto Broker Voyager Is Buying Token Issuer and Wallet Ethos.io for $4 Million

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Voyager, a crypto brokerage platform that launched and went public this month, has agreed to buy wallet startup Ethos.io for about $4 million.

Announced Thursday, the deal would give Voyager a range of products developed by Singapore-based Ethos, including the Ethos Universal Wallet and the blockchain platform Ethos Bedrock, plus "Certain blockchain technology and IP.".

Further, Voyager said it will pick up an allocation of Ethos tokens, which the target company, formerly known as Bitquence, issued through an initial coin offering in July 2017, raising $1.6 million, according to CoinDesk's ICO Tracker database.

The deal will cost Voyager 7 million common shares, the company said, which are now quoted at $0.80 in Canadian dollars, which works out to a total value of $5.6 million CAD, or roughly $4 million in USD. While the deal is expected to close at the end of March, the price won't all be paid upfront.

The conditions of the deal stipulate that 3.3 million shares will be delivered to Ethos at the start, 1 million will be held in escrow and released monthly over two years, and the remaining 2.6 million will be held in escrow for 24 months "Against any future indemnity claims."

As part of the deal, Shingo Lavine, founder and CEO of Ethos, will become Voyager's chief innovation officer and join the company's board, and Ethos' former owners will have the right to nominate one director for appointment to the Voyager board at each annual general meeting, once they have amassed at least 3.5 million shares.

The two startups partnered last October to add a self-custody option for Voyager's users, as well as allowing Ethos users to convert, store and trade cryptocurrencies via Voyager.

Among other future use cases for Ethos tokens, users may be able to pledge it as collateral for margin trading accounts and even earn interest on their token holdings, Voyager said.

Another benefit of the deal, according to Ehrlich, is that now Voyager owns and can fully utilize the fintech platform for crypto companies developed by Ethos, Ethos Bedrock, to build a future crypto-payment system.

Over the next few years, he said, Voyager aims to become a big player at crypto trading, custody, payment and security, and the acquisition of Ethos will help to do it faster.

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