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In a Manhattan courtroom this month, the cryptocurrency industry faced a reckoning as its onetime star, Sam Bankman-Fried, was convicted of fraud in a trial that put the industry’s excesses on vivid display. But the ever-volatile crypto markets were already moving on. Shortly before Mr. Bankman-Fried’s verdict landed on Nov. 2, the price of Bitcoin surpassed $35,000, its highest level since an industry meltdown in 2022, the New York Times reported. Last week, Ether, the second-most popular digital currency, surged 10 percent to around $2,100, its best performance in months. Some investors rushed to declare the end of the so-called crypto winter of falling prices and financial scandals that have plagued the industry for the last 18 months.

Collapsed cryptocurrency exchange FTX, the biggest casualty of the “crypto winter” last year, just hit the first anniversary of its bankruptcy filing. Crypto lender Celsius Network, which collapsed in the summer of 2022, was cleared to exit bankruptcy last week. Their failures, along with those of crypto industry players like Voyager Digital and BlockFi, have tested a bankruptcy system with little experience with a decentralized and volatile sector with difficult to trace and value assets, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. Many factors have led crypto bankruptcies like FTX’s to drag on as so-called free fall cases, or when companies file for bankruptcy protection without restructuring agreements with creditors in place. “The sheer fact that we are talking about this case a year later is different from what we’ve been seeing in the bankruptcy landscape,” said Timothy Graulich, head of international restructuring at Davis Polk & Wardwell. The law firm represents several large customers in FTX’s bankruptcy. Businesses often seek chapter 11 protection with prepackaged restructuring agreements and hope to reorganize quickly, so “It is really only free fall cases that last this long,” said Graulich.

Kate Johnson is betting nearly $1 million that the investors fleeing her company are wrong, the Wall Street Journal reported. Johnson bought 1 million shares of Lumen LUMN -9.23%decrease; red down pointing triangle Technologies stock last week as it dipped into penny-stock territory, costing the telecommunications company boss $970,000. The former Microsoft and General Electric executive said the purchase made sense as she felt investors overreacted to a complicated third-quarter report and restructuring plan. Johnson, who trained as an electrical engineer and has a Wharton M.B.A., joined the debt-laden telecom last November after four years as Microsoft’s U.S. president. Lumen valued Johnson’s 2022 compensation at $4.8 million after it hired her. The pay package included a $1 million cash signing bonus and stock awards valued at about $3 million. Lumen in 2021 sold some of its network to private-equity firm Apollo Global Management for $7.5 billion. The company has also sold networks in Europe and Latin America to sharpen its domestic focus. The company last week said it plans to restructure its debt so that big bond payments come due later. The plan included a 4% workforce cut. The balance-sheet maneuver, which will drive up interest costs, combined with a decision to spend less on home-broadband construction, got a chilly market reception.

Vice President Kamala Harris plans to announce today a slew of additional measures to curb the risks of artificial intelligence as she prepares to take part in a global summit in Britain where world and tech leaders will discuss the future of the technology, the New York Times reported. On her visit, which will kick off Wednesday with a policy address at the U.S. Embassy in London, Ms. Harris plans to outline guardrails that the American government will seek to put in place to manage the risks of AI as it asserts itself as a global leader in the arena. Taken together, the steps Ms. Harris plans to announce seek to both flesh out a sweeping executive order President Biden signed this week and make its ideals part of broader global standards for a technology that holds great promise and peril. They include a new draft policy from the Office of Management and Budget that would guide how federal agencies use artificial intelligence, which would be overseen by new chief AI officers. She is also set to announce that 30 other nations have joined a “political declaration” created by the United States that seeks to establish a “set of norms for responsible development, deployment and use of militaryAI capabilities,” as well as $200 million in philanthropic funding to help support the administration’s goals.

U.S. President Joe Biden will take wider-ranging action on artificial intelligence (AI) on Monday by seeking to increase safety while protecting consumers, workers, and minority groups from the technology's related risks, Reuters reported. An executive order requires that developers of AI systems that pose risks to U.S. national security, the economy, public health or safety share the results of safety tests with the U.S. government, in line with the Defense Production Act, before they are released to the public. It also directs agencies to set standards for that testing and address related chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear, and cybersecurity risks, according to the White House. The order is the latest step by the administration to set parameters around AI as it makes rapid gains in capability and popularity in an environment of, so far, limited regulation. It prompted a mixed response from the private sector. IBM said in a statement that the order “sends a critical message: that AI used by the United States government will be responsible AI." NetChoice, a national trade association that includes major tech platforms, described the executive order as an "AI Red Tape Wishlist," that will end up "stifling new companies and competitors from entering the marketplace and significantly expanding the power of the federal government over American innovation."

Crypto lender Genesis Global is pursuing a chapter 11 liquidation plan that abandons a previous settlement proposal to restructure the $1.7 billion in loans it extended to its parent company Digital Currency Group, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. Genesis filed court papers Wednesday for a plan to exit from chapter 11 without a resolution of its claims against DCG, the crypto conglomerate founded by finance veteran Barry Silbert. Genesis is now preparing to liquidate its assets without the settlement proposal reached in August that intended to deliver estimated recoveries of between 70% to 90% for Genesis customers, including users of crypto exchange Gemini Trust’s Earn program. The settlement proposal didn’t get the support of key stakeholders, notably Gemini and its founders, the Winklevoss brothers, and the parties had been in continuing negotiations. Ultimately, Genesis was unable to reach an agreement with DCG on final debt terms, Genesis said in filings with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in New York. And last week, New York Attorney General Letitia James filed a lawsuit against Gemini Trust, Genesis and DCG for allegedly defrauding more than 230,000 investors of more than $1 billion. In light of the lawsuit, Genesis and the official committee representing its customers determined that a settlement with DCG isn’t a viable route, Genesis said in the filings.

Wireless spectrum venture Ligado Networks is preparing to file for bankruptcy within weeks after negotiations with the U.S. over a multibillion-dollar claim asserted by the company fell apart, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. Ligado is expected to file for chapter 11 because it can’t pay off or refinance some $4 billion in debt that comes due in November, these people said. Ligado had hoped for a last-minute infusion of capital from the government, which the company has long accused of improperly blocking it from commercializing a valuable block of wireless spectrum. But the company instead sued the government for $39 billion on Thursday after the negotiations failed to produce a settlement. Ligado is now preparing a restructuring that would wipe out much or all of the company’s debt and replace it with tranches of preferred and common equity, people familiar with the company’s plans said. The company set the restructuring in motion earlier this year, aiming to allow for commercial deals involving its satellite service with a leaner balance sheet free of imminent debt obligations.