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Celsius custody account holders can receive 72.5% of the cryptocurrency in their custody accounts after Bankruptcy Judge Martin Glenn approved a settlement in the defunct crypto lender's bankruptcy case, TheBlock.co reported. Judge Glenn gave the green light to a settlement between the Celsius debtors, the unsecured creditors committee and an ad hoc group of custodial account holders during a hearing on Tuesday in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York. Individual custody account holders must opt into the settlement. In turn, the Celsius debtors will agree to settle all causes of action against custody account holders with respect to their custody assets, according to the terms of the deal. "Because custody holders have the right to opt in, nobody is being forced to accept this settlement. I think that’s quite important here,” Judge Glenn said.

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation on Monday decided to break up Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) and hold two separate auctions for its traditional deposits unit and its private bank after failing to find a buyer for the failed lender last week, Reuters reported. It will seek bids for Silicon Valley Private Bank until March 22 and for the bridge bank until March 24. The private bank, which is housed within SVB's retail operations, caters to high net-worth individuals. Bank and non-bank financial firms will be allowed to bid on the asset portfolios, the regulator said. First Citizens BancShares Inc, one of the biggest buyers of failed U.S. lenders, has submitted a bid for all of Silicon Valley Bank, one source with knowledge of the matter said. If the FDIC decides to receive bids for parts of SVB, First Citizens also expects to bid. Bloomberg reported earlier on their interest on SVB.

The collapse of Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank has created a new worry for many small businesses: what to do with their cash, the Wall Street Journal reported. Some owners of small and midsize businesses are moving funds to other institutions, splitting them between multiple banks, moving cash into money-market funds or buying Treasurys. Others are more closely reviewing the finances of their banks, while some entrepreneurs are even thinking about the potential risks for key partners and customers. Responding to the recent banking-industry turmoil is particularly challenging for small businesses, which typically don’t have large finance teams or sophisticated cash-management strategies. Small-business owners with conservative habits often keep lots of cash on hand as a cushion. Loan restrictions can make it tough to split that cash among multiple institutions. “I think we need to analyze banks just like they analyze us,” said Brent Frederick, owner of Minneapolis-based Jester Concepts, which has five restaurants including Butcher & the Boar and a concession operation that includes food trucks, a food trailer and stadium locations. “What is the bank’s core value? What do their balance sheets look like?”

Managers of FTX are suing a company affiliate based in the Bahamas, seeking a bankruptcy court ruling to end a dispute with liquidators there over who should control and distribute assets of the failed cryptocurrency exchange, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. The managers said in their complaint they are suing because of “serial threats” by the liquidators of affiliate FTX Digital Markets Ltd. to try to move FTX’s bankruptcy proceedings to the Bahamas to pursue the company’s cash, crypto and other assets there. FTX filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in November at odds with the Bahamian liquidators of FTX Digital Markets over control of the company’s business and an unknown amount of digital currency. The liquidators and FTX had cooled tensions in January, agreeing to share information and secure and distribute assets belonging to company entities in the Bahamas and abroad. But in their lawsuit filed Sunday in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Wilmington, Del., FTX’s U.S. managers said the liquidators “continue to cast confusion” over of the company’s property.

Infowars conspiracy broadcaster Alex Jones, who faces more than $1.4 billion in legal damages for defaming the families of the Sandy Hook shooting victims, has devised a new way to taunt them: wriggling out of paying them the money they are owed, the New York Times reported. Jones, who has an estimated net worth as high as $270 million, declared both business and personal bankruptcy last year as the families won historic verdicts in two lawsuits over his lies about the 2012 shooting that killed 20 first graders and six educators at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut. A New York Times review of financial documents and court records filed over the past year found that Jones has transferred millions of dollars in property, cash and business deals to family and friends, including to a new company run by his former personal trainer, all potentially out of reach of creditors. He has also spent heavily on luxuries, including $80,000 on a private jet, bodyguards and a rented villa while he was in Connecticut to testify at a trial last fall.

SVB Financial Group said today that it filed chapter 11 protection to seek buyers for its assets, days after its former unit Silicon Valley Bank was taken over by U.S. regulators, Reuters reported. The move to commence bankruptcy proceedings comes as emergency measures to shore up confidence have so far failed to dispel worries about a financial contagion. Californian regulators shuttered Silicon Valley Bank last Friday, making it the largest collapse since Washington Mutual went bust during the financial crisis of 2008. The tech lender was forced to sell a portfolio of treasuries and mortgage-backed securities to Goldman Sachs at a $1.8 billion loss after a rise in yields eroded value. To plug that hole, it attempted to raise $2.25 billion in common equity and preferred convertible stock but spooked clients pulled deposits from the bank that led to $42 billion of outflows in a day. Earlier this week, the defunct lender said it was planning to explore strategic alternatives for its businesses including the holding company, SVB Capital and SVB Securities. SVB Securities and SVB Capital's funds and general partner entities are not included in the chapter 11 filing, the company said on Friday, adding it planned to proceed with the process to evaluate alternatives for the businesses, as well its other assets and investments.

Bankruptcy Judge Michael Wiles declined to delay the $1.3 billion sale of crypto lender Voyager Digital to Binance.US, saying that Voyager customers should not be forced to wait out a challenge by the Department of Justice that is unlikely to succeed, Reuters reported. Judge Wiles ruled on Wednesday that the department had mischaracterized the scope of legal protections he had granted to Voyager employees for actions to carry out the sale and rebalance its crypto portfolio. Judge Wiles, who is overseeing Voyager's chapter 11 process, approved its bankruptcy plan last week. The government can "can step in at any time" if it believes illegal transactions are happening, but has not presented any evidence that Voyager's crypto transactions are illegal, Judge Wiles said. The U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York and the Office of the U.S. Trustee, the Justice Department's bankruptcy watchdog, both filed appeals last week. They argued that the protections could rubber stamp crypto transactions that might be illegal under U.S. securities laws.