Judge Michael Wiles approved the sale of Voyager Digital’s assets to Binance.US just one day earlier.

Late Thursday evening, the DOJ appealed the decision of a New York bankruptcy judge to allow Binance.US to acquire the assets of bankrupt crypto lender Voyager Digital.

The appeal was filed by the U.S. Trustee’s Office, an arm of the Department of Justice that oversees bankruptcies. Judge Michael Wiles approved the deal after a contentious, four-day marathon hearing.

The proposed deal has been strongly opposed by regulators, including the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and a number of state regulators. By operating an unregistered securities exchange in the U.S., Binance.US may be violating federal securities laws, as the SEC objected to the purchase of Voyager last month.

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Late Thursday evening, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) filed an appeal challenging the decision of a New York bankruptcy judge to approve Binance.US’s billion-dollar plan to acquire bankrupt crypto lender Voyager Digital’s assets.

U.S. Trustee’s Office filed an appeal just one day after Judge Michael Wiles approved the deal after a contentious, four-day marathon hearing.

The proposed deal has been firmly opposed by regulators, including the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and various state regulators. In its objection to Binance.US’s purchase of Voyager last month, the SEC argued that Binance.US may be violating federal securities laws by operating an unregistered exchange.

According to Judge Wiles, the Bankruptcy Code “doesn’t contemplate an endless period of time,” despite the SEC’s concerns.

In the midst of all of this uncertainty, creditors are waiting and cannot access properties in which they’ve invested, in some cases, their life savings, so we have to take action,” Wiles said. “We have to act.”

Voyager’s customers would see an estimated 73% recovery under the plan proposed by Binance.US, which was assembled after FTX, Voyager’s previous top bidder, filed for bankruptcy in November.

Despite U.S. SEC objections to Binance.US deal, Voyager Bankruptcy Judge expresses skepticism

Alternatively, if Voyager decides against selling itself to Binance.US – or if regulators block the sale – the bankrupt lender could liquidate itself, which would result in much smaller returns for creditors.