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FTX, the bankrupt cryptocurrency exchange, used a token it invented to fund its takeover of trading platform Blockfolio, according to financial statements obtained by Bloomberg News. FTX paid roughly $84 million in 2020 to take a majority stake in Blockfolio, in what was then among the largest crypto acquisitions. About 94% was paid in FTT tokens, a cryptocurrency that FTX created, according to documents reviewed by Bloomberg. Details of the Blockfolio acquisition, which haven’t been previously reported, offer a glimpse of former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried’s appetite for whimsical financial engineering, and an early hunger to amass customers through large-scale deals. Bankman-Fried doubled down on that ethos this year, going on a buyout binge for firms including Voyager and BlockFi, although those deals were thwarted when FTX imploded in November. At the time the Blockfolio deal was announced, news outlets reported FTX financed it with a mix of cash, crypto and equity, without further details. The arrangement heralded big things for FTX, which Bankman-Fried founded only a year before. The agreement gave it a 52% equity stake in Blockfolio and valued the company at almost $160 million — with the option to buy the rest within two years, the financial statements show.

Cinema chain AMC Entertainment Holdings said on Wednesday it was no longer in talks to acquire some theaters owned by now bankrupt Cineworld Group following initial discussions with some lenders, Reuters reported. AMC said the earlier talks were focused on the acquisition of certain theater assets of Cineworld in the United States and Europe, which would be financed partly through issuance of its preferred stock and debt financing provided by the lenders. AMC in August announced its preferred share APE as a special dividend for shareholders and a means to raise capital in the future. The company listed these shares in New York under the ticker 'APE'. Shares of AMC rose nearly 2% in trading before the bell, while its preferred shares were up more than 3%. Cineworld shares fell 5%. During the discussions, AMC said that Cineworld did not provide any confidential or non-public information, analyses, compilations, forecasts, among other documents to the lenders.

Ligado Networks LLC is nearing a new financing round to keep the satellite communications venture afloat and avert a near-term bankruptcy filing as it tries to monetize its wireless spectrum holdings, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. The Reston, Va., company is closing in on an agreement with top creditors to raise roughly $70 million in fresh capital to meet payments due to suppliers and its satellite-industry partner Inmarsat Global Ltd., the people said. Terms are still being negotiated and a final deal isn’t guaranteed, they said. The new financing is intended to cool tensions with Inmarsat and give Ligado more time to pursue its business and avert a near-term chapter 11 filing. Ligado last month warned investors it was running low on cash and needed an infusion to keep operating into 2023. If the new loan closes, it would likely avert a near-term chapter 11 filing for Ligado, which warned investors last month it was running low on cash and needed an infusion to keep operating into 2023. Ligado has spent most of the past decade seeking regulators’ approval to provide wireless communications services on the ground as well as from orbit. Its bonds and loans are considered some of the riskiest U.S. debt on the market because of uncertainty that it can overcome opposition from the Pentagon and other federal agencies that have raised concerns about interference with Global Positioning System devices and other satellite services used by the military.

Core Scientific Inc., one of the biggest publicly traded cryptocurrency mining companies in the United States, said on Wednesday it filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, the latest in a string of failures to hit the sector, Reuters reported. Trillions in value has been wiped out from the crypto sector this year on rising interest rates and exacerbating worries of an economic downturn. Austin, Texas-based Core Scientific said that it would not liquidate and would continue to operate normally, as it expects to enter into a restructuring support agreement with its creditors, who represent over 50% of the holders of its convertible notes. The company's shares, which have lost roughly 98% of their value so far in 2022, fell another 14% in premarket trading. In a statement on Wednesday, Core Scientific said its creditors have also agreed to provide up to $56 million in debtor-in-possession financing. One of the largest creditors of Core Scientific, B. Riley Financial Inc., had offered $72 million last week to avoid the bitcoin miner's bankruptcy. In its bankruptcy petition, Core Scientific said it has $1 billion to $10 billion in assets and liabilities, and creditors between 1,000 and 5,000.

Bankrupt crypto lender Celsius Network LLC has received multiple bids for its retail platform and mining businesses, according to a company presentation delivered in court yesterday, Bloomberg News reported. Terms of the bids weren’t disclosed. They included offers for the retail platform, the mining business and a combination of the two, a lawyer for Celsius told U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Martin Glenn in the hearing Tuesday. The potential buyer pool includes 30 parties. Celsius advisers haven’t yet decided whether they’ll sell the crypto lender as whole, in pieces or if they’ll pursue a different restructuring plan. They intend to work with potential buyers in the coming weeks to improve existing bids and announce in mid-January whether a sale will occur, company lawyer Chris Koenig said in the hearing. Celsius, which went bankrupt in July, held crypto worth $2.6 billion as of Nov. 25, according to the presentation. There remains about a $1.2 billion gap between the value of its assets — including non-crypto — and its total debts. Celsius mining operations have generated positive operating cash flow every month this year, Interim Chief Executive Officer Chris Ferraro said in the hearing. The company continues building out the mining business, he said.

New management at the collapsed crypto exchange FTX said it would try to recoup donations made by Sam Bankman-Fried and other executives, which include tens of millions of dollars in contributions to U.S. politicians and affiliated groups, the Wall Street Journal reported. The Securities and Exchange Commission said in a lawsuit last week that customer assets were used to make investments, real-estate purchases and large political donations. Mr. Bankman-Fried was charged last week by federal prosecutors with secretly diverting customer funds from the exchange to an affiliated trading arm. He is currently being detained in the Bahamas, where he and FTX were based. In a statement, the new management of FTX said it has been approached by a number of recipients of contributions and other payments that wanted to return the funds. The company, now led by Chief Executive Officer John J. Ray III, said other recipients should also contact it about returning the payments.

FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried inched closer to being transferred into U.S. custody to face criminal charges related to the cryptocurrency exchange’s collapse, after a chaotic court hearing in the Bahamas yesterday in which his local lawyer appeared at odds with his U.S. legal team, the Wall Street Journal reported. Bankman-Fried has agreed to be extradited and plans were being fleshed out by his legal team after the day’s court proceedings. Bankman-Fried’s lawyers hope to have a new hearing on the matter as early as today.

Crypto firm Voyager Digital Ltd said on Monday it will sell its assets to Binance.US in a deal valued at about $1 billion following a review, Reuters reported. Palo Alto, California-based Binance.US, which operates as an independent legal entity and has a licensing agreement with Binance.com, will make a $10 million deposit and reimburse Voyager for certain expenses up to $15 million. Nearly $2 trillion in value has been wiped out from the crypto sector this year on rising interest rates and exacerbating worries of an economic downturn. The slump has eliminated key industry players such as Three Arrows Capital and Celsius Network. However, the bigger blow came after larger crypto exchange FTX filed for bankruptcy protection last month. Its swift fall has also sparked tough regulatory scrutiny of how major exchanges hold user funds. In September, Voyager Digital said FTX won an auction for its assets, in a bid valued at about $1.42 billion after Voyager filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in July.

Revlon Inc., a meme-stock favorite after it filed for bankruptcy in June, said it will likely wipe out shareholders in its chapter 11 restructuring, but that didn’t stop the beauty supplier’s stock from rallying on MondayWSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. Revlon, controlled since 1985 by billionaire financier Ronald Perelman, will be taken over mostly by lenders, and its shareholders aren’t expected to receive any distribution, according to a proposed restructuring agreement filed on Monday in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in New York. Shareholders are generally wiped out in bankruptcy cases, except for the rare instances where there is value left over after debt claims are repaid. Revlon saw a surge of market interest after filing bankruptcy in June, closing at prices approaching $9 in August and staying above $4 through much of October despite its financial strains. Individual investors bet on Revlon hoping for a repeat of the Hertz Global Holdings Inc. bankruptcy case. The car-rental company was delisted from the New York Stock Exchange after filing for chapter 11 in 2020, yet the stock was in the money when Hertz left bankruptcy, providing shareholders with more than $1 billion in value. In October, Revlon shares lost more than half their value after the NYSE made its delisting of the company official. Now trading over the counter, the shares closed Friday at 35 cents each. They rallied to as high as $1.37 on Monday and closed at 57 cents, up 63%. Under Revlon’s restructuring deal, top lenders will pick the new board of directors for the reorganized company, which plans to emerge as a private company, court papers show.

Cases can move forward against Alex Jones regarding the nearly $1.5 billion he’s ordered to pay families of Sandy Hook victims over his conspiracy theories about the 2012 school massacre, a federal bankruptcy judge ruled Monday, but the families can’t yet pursue collection efforts against the Infowars host, the Associated Press reported. Bankruptcy Judge Christopher Lopez approved an order that attorneys for Jones, his media company and the Sandy Hook families had all agreed to. The order lifts a stay that automatically halted the cases when Jones filed for bankruptcy. Free Speech Systems, Jones’ media company, is also seeking bankruptcy protection. Judge Lopez approved the order, which prevents the families from pursuing collection efforts, during an hour and a half long hearing that Jones attended remotely. Jones filed for chapter 11 personal bankruptcy protection earlier this month in Texas, citing $1 billion to $10 billion in liabilities and $1 million to $10 million in assets. For years, Jones described the 2012 Sandy Hook massacre as a hoax. A Connecticut jury in October awarded victims’ families $965 million in compensatory damages, and a judge later tacked on another $473 million in punitive damages. Earlier in the year, a Texas jury awarded the parents of a child killed in the shooting $49 million in damages. Read more.

Conspiracy theorist Alex Jones on Monday asked a judge to allow him to take a $1.3 million annual salary from the bankrupt parent company of his Infowars' website, Reuters reported. Jones and his company, Free Speech Systems LLC, both went bankrupt in recent months as they owe families of the 2012 Sandy Hook mass shooting a total of $1.5 billion in damages for falsely claiming the massacre was a hoax. Jones has said he cannot pay those judgments, which came after back-to-back defamation trials in Texas and Connecticut. Jones drew a $1.3 million salary from Free Speech Systems before its bankruptcy, and his attorney asked Bankruptcy Judge Christopher Lopez to restore his salary to that level at a hearing yesterday. Jones has been paid a reduced biweekly salary of $20,000 since his company filed for bankruptcy on July 29, just over a third of what he had been paid before, according to his court filing. Read more.