Steve Ehrlich, CEO of now-bankrupt crypto broker Voyager Digital, sold more than $30 million in company shares in 2021, according to a CNBC analysis of Canadian Securities Exchange filings.
After listing on the Canadian Securities Exchange under the VYGR ticker in 2019 at $0.62 per share, the company’s stock typically traded around $1. But in 2021, after VYGR moved to the Toronto Stock Exchange, shares skyrocketed to an all-time high of $27.39 in spring 2021, around the time Ehrlich cashed in.
The VYGR shares stopped trading on the TSX on July 5, the same day the firm filed for bankruptcy.
“The prolonged volatility and contagion in the crypto markets over the past few months, and the default of Three Arrows Capital on a loan from the company’s subsidiary, Voyager Digital, LLC, require us to take deliberate and decisive action now,” Ehrlich said in a statement about the bankruptcy.

Voyager Bankruptcy Puts US Pro Women’s Soccer Player Payouts at Risk: Report
Players in the US National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL) are reportedly set to miss out on the promised payouts of a deal with crypto broker Voyager after the firm went bankrupt. The league has told players they could miss out on funds they were promised as part of the sponsorship deal, Sportico reported on Monday. The partnership, announced in December last year, was one of the biggest in NWSL history and was intended to be a multi-year agreement. As part of the tie-up, the league would receive...
It’s not unusual or incriminating for a CEO to sell company shares. In fact, a CNBC report using InsiderScore/Verity analysis of U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filings showed that insider sales totaled $69 billion last year. That’s a 30% increase over 2020 and a 79% increase compared with the 10-year average, according to the report.
In November, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella sold $285 million worth of MSFT shares, according to SEC filings. More recently, Tesla CEO Elon Musk famously sold $8.4 billion worth of TSLA shares in April after announcing his $43 billion bid to acquire Twitter, according to SEC filings.
But unlike Voyager Digital, neither Microsoft nor Tesla has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, with many users unsure whether they’ll ever regain access to their accounts. And it’s worth mentioning that in the crypto community, having diamond hands aka not cashing out is highly respected.
Bankrupt Voyager Digital Calls FTX's Bailout a 'Low-Ball Bid'
Sam Bankman-Fried’s FTX may have been hailed as the savior of the crypto winter, but in the latest twist in its acquisition streak, the company has been accused of low-balling one of its rescue offers. Bankrupt crypto brokerage Voyager Digital has called a rescue deal proposed by FTX “a low-ball bid dressed up as a white knight rescue” in documents filed to bankruptcy court in the Southern District of New York on Sunday night. Voyager said that the joint proposal made by FTX and Bankman-Fried’s...
Since Voyager filed for bankruptcy protection, the company has had a spat with FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried over “a low-ball bid dressed up as a white knight rescue.”
Bankman-Fried had proposed that Alameda Research, the crypto trading firm he founded, would drop its $75 million claim with Voyager and purchase all digital assets “at fair market value” except anything related to insolvent hedge fund Three Arrows Capital.
The firm has also been asked by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation to stop making “false and misleading” claims about customer funds being insured by the U.S. government.