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After FTX crashed, the world of crypto seemed to belong to the largest exchange, Binance. Less than a year later, Binance is the one in distress, the Wall Street Journal reported. Under threat of enforcement actions by U.S. agencies, Binance’s empire is quaking. Over the past three months, more than a dozen senior executives have left, and the exchange has laid off at least 1,500 employees this year to cut costs and prepare for a decline in business. And while Binance still looms large in crypto, its dominance is dwindling. Binance now handles about half of all trades where cryptocurrencies are directly bought and sold, down from about 70% at the start of the year, according to data provider Kaiko. What happens to Binance will have immense implications for the crypto industry because the exchange is so big. Industry players and watchers say other exchanges would fill the void if Binance were to collapse. But in the short term, liquidity in the market could evaporate, driving the price of tokens sharply down. The U.S. Justice Department has undergone a yearslong investigation that could result in criminal charges for Binance and Zhao as well as billions of dollars of fines, according to people familiar with the probe. Binance also faces a Securities and Exchange Commission lawsuit that alleges it and Zhao operated illegally in the U.S. and misused customers’ funds. The firm has acknowledged past mistakes but says customer money is safe and it is committed to compliance. Binance launched in China in 2017, though it claims to be based nowhere, with staff scattered around the world. Its global website is accessible by traders almost everywhere, but that number is falling as its presence has been forbidden in many countries. In Europe, more countries are shutting their doors to the exchange.

Ohio victims of child sexual abuse while in the Boy Scouts of America could see more compensation for the crimes committed against them under legislation passed by the state Senate yesterday in a unanimous vote, and expected to be approved in the House, the Associated Press reported. The bill’s passage comes amid the organization’s bankruptcy settlement, first filed in 2020 after tens of thousands of men nationwide brought forth claims they had been sexually abused by their Scout leaders. The organization filed bankruptcy in an attempt to continue operating while still partially compensating victims after an onslaught of lawsuits against them. Nearly 2,000 abuse claims have been filed in Ohio. Currently, the amount victims receive from the organization’s settlement depends on the length of the statute of limitations for civil claims in the state that they live in, as well as the length and severity of their abuse. The legislation voids the state’s current civil statute of limitations in bankruptcy cases, in an effort to ensure Ohio victims of Boy Scouts abuse get more compensation. By voiding Ohio’s existing cutoff of 12 years, the bill would ensure that any victim filing a claim receives all of the money they’re owed through the settlement, rather than a fraction of it.

Thrasio, a startup that raised $3.4 billion to buy up consumer brands sold on Amazon, is exploring restructuring options as it contends with a post-pandemic slump in online spending, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. The e-commerce company has been working with consultants from AlixPartners and lawyers from Kirkland & Ellis to address its financial challenges, they said. Thrasio is focused on raising fresh capital and could examine other possibilities, including a bankruptcy filing, they said. After raising funds from investment firms including Advent International and Silver Lake, Thrasio went on an acquisition spree, gobbling up dozens of companies that sell their wares primarily through Amazon, from sellers of camping gear and kitchen tools to pet deodorizers. But this business model, known as “Amazon aggregation,” has come under pressure as shoppers have curtailed their online purchases since the height of the Covid-19 pandemic. Last year, Thrasio laid off roughly 20% of its workforce, while company founder Carlos Cashman stepped down as chief executive and was succeeded by Greg Greeley, a former Amazon executive. The company’s recent trajectory has tracked other startups that raised money at lofty valuations during the pandemic but have since struggled to weather economic headwinds, changing consumer behaviors and a pullback in technology investing.

Failed crypto lender BlockFi Inc. won bankruptcy court approval on its plan for shutting down its business, a milestone that could result in customers getting back a portion of what they’re owed by the end of the year, Bloomberg News reported. Bankruptcy Judge Michael Kaplan said during a hearing yesterday that he would approve BlockFi’s liquidation plan which was supported by a committee representing customer interests and creditors that voted to support it. Some BlockFi creditors are slated to receive partial repayment in Bitcoin or Ethereum, according to court documents. BlockFi unsecured creditors could get between roughly 35% to 63% of what they’re owed, according to an August court filing. The amount creditors ultimately receive hinges on whether BlockFi succeeds in litigation against FTX and other bankrupt crypto firms. BlockFi has said the outcome of its disputes with Sam Bankman-Fried’s platform and failed crypto hedge fund Three Arrows Capital could swing creditor recoveries by $1 billion. The liquidation plan was approved after BlockFi settled a dispute with the creditors committee over potential legal claims against the company’s senior management. BlockFi largely blamed its failure on FTX, which melted down last year amid allegations of fraud, while the committee alleged management ignored red flags before lending to Bankman-Fried’s platform.

In U.S. prosecutors' telling, Sam Bankman-Fried embezzled money from depositors in his FTX cryptocurrency exchange ever since he launched it in 2019, and the resulting shortfall led directly to its collapse as crypto prices swooned last year, Reuters reported. But in his own version and in explanations put forth by his lawyers, Bankman-Fried thought FTX, like a bank, could make investments with customers' money as long as they were able to withdraw it — and he did not know that actions taken by his closest colleagues had jeopardized the availability of funds. Over the course of six weeks starting on Oct. 3, a federal jury in Manhattan is due to weigh these dueling narratives during Bankman-Fried's criminal trial on fraud charges, before determining whether the 31-year-old former billionaire is guilty on seven counts of fraud and conspiracy. Bankman-Fried, who quit his job as a quantitative trader at Wall Street firm Jane Street to found crypto hedge fund Alameda Research in 2017, has pleaded not guilty.

Scandinavia’s biggest airline SAS AB has received a final round of bids from potential suitors looking to invest in the carrier as part of a rescue plan to shore up its ailing finances, Reuters reported. The Stockholm-based company, which is going through a chapter 11 reorganization in the U.S., needs to raise at least 9.5 billion Swedish kronor ($856 million) in new equity and convert or cut its debt pile of about 20 billion kronor. Chief Executive Officer Anko van der Werff has previously said the amount of equity is not set and could go higher. Shares in SAS fell as much as 13% in Stockholm on Tuesday, giving the company a market value of just $183 million. The airline warned in April that there would be no value in its existing shares at the end of the restructuring. The governments of Denmark and Sweden each own a 21.8% stake in SAS, but only Denmark has said it’s open to adding to its holding. Sweden indicated it will accept a conversion of debt it is owed into equity, but that it will not participate in a new capital raise. Norway’s government said it won’t contribute any new equity.