%1

BlockFi Inc. won bankruptcy court approval to set up an auction for the crypto lender’s digital coin mining business, Reuters reported. The company wants to get bids in as quickly as possible to take advantage of current market conditions, BlockFi lawyer Francis Petrie said during a video court hearing Monday morning. The company has already gotten some initial bids for various assets and expects more, Petrie told U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Michael Kaplan. “We’ve received substantial interest in the market for bidding purposes and current volatility in the cryptocurrency market, which means we need to act quickly,” Petrie said. BlockFi is selling computer equipment used for mining digital coins at a time when the crypto mining business is on the upswing. Last week, another bankrupt crypto platform, Celsius Network, said it’s aiming to sell tens of thousands of mining machines. Bids for the mining assets are due Feb. 20 and an auction will be held about one week later, Petrie said. The company will return to court in March for approval of any proposed deal that comes out of the auction.

A senior Commodity Futures Trading Commission official says the agency needs the power to approve or reject an unregulated company’s acquisition of a derivatives exchange, Bloomberg News reported. The planned sale of crypto derivatives exchange LedgerX, a solvent piece of Sam Bankman-Fried’s collapsed FTX empire, has raised concerns about the CFTC’s authority over these acquisitions. LedgerX and other parts of the business are being auctioned off as part of the FTX bankruptcy proceedings. CFTC Commissioner Kristin Johnson, a Democrat, is calling for Congress to give the regulator the power to nix or give the nod on such purchases. Otherwise, it’s left largely in the dark about companies that could easily enter U.S. markets through buyouts, she said. “It’s imperative that we as a regulator are in dialogue and open communication with them,” Johnson said in an interview Friday on “Bloomberg Markets: The Close.” “As of now, we have no approval authority with respect to any element or the acquisition of LedgerX.” Initial bids for LedgerX were due Jan. 25, with a final auction scheduled for March 7. Bidders haven’t been publicly disclosed.

Bankrupt crypto lender Genesis Global Capital LLC expects a deal with major creditors to come together within days to provide a framework for a possible sale of the lending business or a restart of operations, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. Lawyers for the bankrupt crypto lender said in a court hearing that Genesis has been in round-the-clock negotiations with its parent company and largest borrower, Digital Currency Group Inc., as well as creditors and other stakeholders, but couldn’t seal a restructuring settlement before filing chapter 11 last week. “We are quite close,” said Sean O’Neal, a lawyer for Genesis, at Monday’s hearing in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in New York. Absent a resolution “within the next few days,” Genesis will return to bankruptcy court to seek the appointment of a mediator, Mr. O’Neal said. A resolution with institutions that put their clients’ money with Genesis is important to jump-start other parts of its chapter 11 exit framework, including the marketing of its assets for sale and a possible capital raise, he said. Genesis Global Holdco and its subsidiaries Genesis Global Capital LLC and Genesis Asia Pacific Pte. Ltd. filed for chapter 11 largely because of their entanglements with failed crypto exchange FTX and hedge fund Three Arrows Capital. Genesis took deposits from institutional customers and lent those assets out, often to hedge funds for speculation on crypto markets. The company’s chapter 11 filing doesn’t cover its derivatives, spot trading, custody and brokerage arms, which continue business as usual.

Camp Trexler drapes across 755 sylvan acres in the Poconos where, for a century, Boy Scouts have enjoyed swimming, making campfires, and hiking. But the forested land, complete with lake, is expected to soon go up for sale with zoning that could transform it into a housing development amid the rural hamlet of Jonas in Polk Township, Monroe County, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. The camp’s owner, the Minsi Trails Council of the Boy Scouts, is one of 250 local councils across the United States under pressure to pay toward a $2.5 billion national sex-abuse settlement that led to the organization’s bankruptcy. Some scout groups are cash-poor but land-rich, prompting them to put thousands of acres for sale. The sales have set off a mad scramble as the scouts try to sell to the highest bidder, while conservationists rally to preserve what they can. The best scenario, conservationists say, is to have the lands bought by states and folded into public lands. It’s no trivial matter: Scouting organizations own about 17,000 mostly forested acres in Pennsylvania alone. The Boy Scouts of America filed chapter 11 protection in February 2020 after states began allowing sex-abuse victims to sue over claims stretching back decades. More than 82,000 abuse claims have been filed against the scouts. The organization says 85% or more of those claims are from before 1990, predating modern child protection policies. Most of them date to the 1970s. Victims who became creditors in the bankruptcy reorganization stand to gain parts of a $2.46 billion settlement trust for victims. The national scouts organization and its 250 local councils are on the hook for $820 million. A federal district judge still needs to give final approval to the plan, which also calls for contributions by insurance companies.

The Roman Catholic Diocese of Norwich filed a reorganization plan on Tuesday to settle the Diocese’s chapter 11 reorganization case. One element of the plan is to sell the land where Saint Bernard School is located, Fox61.com reported. Part of the bankruptcy process, which has been going on for more than 18 months, is to create a fund to compensate survivors of abuse. Officials with the diocese said, "Under the proposed Plan, the Diocese and other entities will establish a Trust with funding in the amount of approximately $29 million. This Trust will provide financial restitution for survivors of sexual abuse who filed claims in the Diocese bankruptcy case." The diocese said over 140 claims of abuse were received before the deadline. Officials at Saint Bernard School said they learned the diocese is proposing to sell the entire parcel of land in Uncasville on which the school sits. It is expected that any proposed sale tentatively will include the option for the school to lease back the land, with favorable terms, for some period of time.

Performance Powersports Group Inc., a wholesale supplier of dirt bikes, all-terrain vehicles and golf carts, has filed for bankruptcy, with a lender and investor planning to serve as lead bidder while the private-equity-backed company seeks better offers, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. The Tempe, Ariz.-based vehicle dealer, backed by investment firm Kinderhook Industries LLC, said it has been hurt by supply-chain disruptions, higher freight costs and a reduction in customer demand. The company sells its vehicles to customers including Tractor Supply Co., Lowe’s Cos. and Walmart Inc., according to a filing on Monday in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Wilmington, Del. Performance Powersports, which sells products under brands that include Coleman, also said it has been in an inventory dispute with a key vendor, Chongqing Huansong Industries (Group) Co. Ltd. A delay in vehicle delivery by the China-based vendor caused 2021 holiday sales to suffer, Performance Powersports said. Chongqing Huansong is listed as the largest unsecured creditor, with a $58 million claim. Performance Powersports has debt of more than $120 million, according to its court filing.