Voyager crypto broker set to open to Europe after LGO merger

Crypto broker Voyager has teamed up with LGO, a European digital asset exchange focused on institutions. 

"LGO and Voyager will merge their services and offering under the Voyager brand, to offer a premium experience to retail cryptocurrency investors, in the US and in Europe," LGO CEO Hugo Renaudin told Cointelegraph.

"European clients will be able to access the Voyager app using the LGO regulatory setup in Europe, and both LGO and VGX tokens will be merged into a new token."

As a crypto broker, Voyager facilitates trades for customers through its platform. Using a single exchange, such as Coinbase, means customers only have access to the liquidity and volume of that platform. Brokers, on the other hand, quickly route trades to a number of different exchanges for customers.

Formerly only allowing U.S. customers, Voyager now looks to expand its coverage to Europe's retail citizens following the merger. European customers will have the same access to the Voyager platform as U.S. clients, Renaudin said, "pending regulatory approval from the French and European regulators." 

U.S. customers will also benefit from the merger. "As users of a global app, they will benefit from the services of a bigger player, with more reach and better services (better prices, more assets, better rates)," the CEO explained.

"Also, token holders globally (in the U.S., Europe and elsewhere) will benefit from the new token, which will have more utility and features for the Voyager app user."

LGO stands as a sizable institutions-focused crypto exchange. The company helped start ADAN, a group of entities furthering Europe's blockchain and crypto industry. But as part of the merger, LGO will discontinue its dedicated institutional exchange on October 31, 2020 and transfer its assets to Voyager by the end of 2020.

"LGO will operate under the Voyager brand, so we will mostly focus on retail," Renaudin explained. "That being said, Voyager recently announced the launch of their institutional offer and we'll help grow this part of the business as well."

Voyager and LGO each have their own native crypto assets: VGX and LGO. As part of the merger, Voyager will phase out these tokens and replace them with a single fresh asset expected to hit the market before 2021. Owners of the current assets can trade in their holdings and receive the new one when it comes out. This revamped asset comes with a number of benefits, including community governance for DeFi, and staking capabilities.