Tag: Corporate Financial Difficulty

Bed Bath & Beyond’s stock rallies toward longest win streak in 3 months

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Bed Bath & Beyond Inc.’s stock jumped 34.4% in morning trading Wednesday, as shares of the troubled home-goods retailer extended their meme-like bounce to a third straight session.

Shares of the embattled company and sometime meme stock ended Tuesday’s session up 22.5%, which followed a 17.6% surge on Monday. The rally was fueled by social-media speculation, according to retail trading platform Capital.com, which said that the bounce was not likely to last.

A three-day win streak would be the longest such streak since the four-day stretch that ended Jan. 12, 2023.

The rally came after Bed Bath & Beyond’s
BBBY,
+30.90%
stock closed at a record low of 24 cents on Friday following a 22.6% plunge in three days after the company disclosed a sale of more than 100 million shares. The retailer, which is attempting to stave off bankruptcy, said it could sell up to $300 million worth of stock.

Related: Bed Bath & Beyond stock’s meme-like bounce won’t last, analyst says

The company’s stock has fallen 81.6% in 2023, compared with the S&P 500’s
SPX,
-0.03%
gain of 8%.

It has been a tumultuous few months for the retailer, which announced another equity offering earlier this year. That came after a troubled couple of years marked by strategic missteps, cash burn, challenging underlying business trends and the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. Earlier this month, the company issued a sales warning that sent the stock to a then-record low.

Bed Bath & Beyond is also pushing for a reverse stock split. In a recent filing, the company said a special meeting of shareholders would be held May 9 to vote on the proposal. The vote is on whether to effect a reverse stock split “at a ratio in the range of 1-for-10 to 1-for-20, with such ratio to be determined at the discretion of the Board,” according to the filing.

Stocktwits, a social platform for investors and traders, has been seeing plenty of activity related to Bed Bath & Beyond. “Sentiment and message volume on the platform saw an uptick yesterday and today compared to last week,” Tom Bruni, lead writer of the Daily Rip & Markets, Stocktwits’ newsletter, told MarketWatch.

Related: Bed Bath & Beyond’s stock hit record lows amid push for reverse stock split

“It’s important to point out that many retail investors’ positions with meme stocks are so underwater that the narrative is more so self-deprecating than enthusiastic, with tons of comments like ‘only needs to move up 5000% more, and I would break even!’,” he added.

Bruni also noted that companies that file for bankruptcy often end up rallying afterward, citing the recent example of National CineMedia Inc.
NCMI,
+6.89%,
whose stock popped last week after filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.

“A potential reason for this is investors may think that a reorganization may be the company’s best shot at surviving,” he told MarketWatch. “Investors may be betting that Bed Bath & Beyond might eventually have to take this route. However, we won’t know until next month’s reverse stock split vote takes place.”

Additionally, bankruptcy often sparks a short covering rally, according to Bruni, who notes that bearish investors don’t want to risk their profits in an attempt to squeeze the last bit of juice out of the stock. “When a company files for bankruptcy, it’s generally a sign your bearish thesis was correct, and you can take some chips off the table,” he added. “Very few investors will ride a stock to zero, as the risk isn’t worth it in many cases.”

Related: Bed Bath & Beyond has launched a ‘Hail Mary pass’ with latest partnership, says retail expert

“Also, at that point, there are few incentives for people down a lot on their investment to sell for a loss,” Bruni said. “They’d rather hold and see what happens.” Between “bag holders” and shorts covering, there’s more demand than supply for the stock, so prices go up, according to Bruni. “Then, that can feed on itself if that lasts for more than a few hours/days,” he added.

Earlier this month, Bed Bath & Beyond announced a new vendor consignment program with ReStore Capital in an attempt to boost its inventory. Carol Spieckerman, president of retail advisory firm Spieckerman Retail, told MarketWatch that the consignment plan feels like “a Hail Mary pass.”

Spieckerman said Bed Bath & Beyond is continuing “a mighty fight” amid mounting distractions, such as former chief executive Mark Tritton’s recent compensation lawsuit against the company. The lawsuit alleges that in January, Bed Bath & Beyond ceased making payments owed under Tritton’s separation agreement. Under the terms of the agreement, Bed Bath & Beyond was required to pay Tritton $6,765,000 in ratable installments over a 24-month period beginning in July 2022, according to the lawsuit. The payments were made from July 2022 to January 2023, it said.

Bed Bath & Beyond told MarketWatch that the company does not comment on legal matters.

Of eight analysts surveyed by FactSet who cover Bed Bath & Beyond, two have the equivalent of hold ratings and six have the equivalent of sell ratings.

Additional reporting by Tomi Kilgore.

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April 19, 2023
Tupperware’s stock craters after food-storage company warns it may go bust

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Tupperware Brands Corp.’s stock slid 45% Monday to the lowest level in three years, after the maker of food-storage goods issued a going-concern warning late Friday, saying it has hired financial advisers to help navigate its near-term challenges.

The news is just the latest blow to the company
TUP,
-46.90%,
whose products were once a fixture in American homes, made popular in the 1950s by stay-at-home moms who would gather at special parties to introduce the product line to friends and family.

The company’s website opens on an image from the Amazon Prime show “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel,” with the title character hosting her own party and showing friends a pastel-colored vintage line.

That direct-selling model is no longer fashionable in the U.S., although it has traction in markets like Indonesia, where women have limited earnings opportunities but often gather to eat and drink.

From the archive: You won’t believe what Tupperware says is a key challenge

The company has struggled for years to retain its selling force, which has been shrinking thanks to the proliferation of other gig-economy opportunities around the world.

In March, the company told analysts on its fourth-quarter earnings call that the sales force fell 18% last year.

That wasn’t even the worst news from that call, because Tupperware had warned in its earning release that it had identified weakness in internal control over financial reporting and that it expected to restate prior financials.

On Friday, it said that once it finalizes its 10-K annual report, which is now late, that the numbers announced in March would differ significantly from the restated numbers. It expects to file the 10-K with the Securities and Exchange Commission in the next 30 days.

Then there’s the issue of the company’s debt burden, which has led to repeated efforts to squeeze concessions from bank lenders so it can remain compliant with financial covenants.

See now: Tupperware stock craters after company warns its debt burden may force it out of business

Due “to the challenging internal and external business economics, coupled with the increased levels and cost of borrowings under its credit facility, the company currently forecasts that, if it is unable to obtain adequate capital resources or amendments to its credit agreement, it may not have adequate liquidity in the near term,” the company said on Friday.

Chief Executive Miguel Fernandez said Tupperware had embarked on a journey to turn around its operations and address its capital and liquidity positions.

The company is looking for additional financing and is discussing its options with potential investors or financing partners. Tupperware is also reviewing its real-estate portfolio with an eye toward potential sales or lease-back transactions, it said.

On its third-quarter earnings call in November, Fernandez acknowledged that some of the company’s problems are of its own making. “The global macro environment continues to be challenging, and we are not executing internally at a level or consistency that we believe we should be,” he told analysts on the call, according to a FactSet transcript.

One key challenge is connecting with younger consumers, who are unlikely to attend Tupperware parties. The company started to sell its goods at 1,900 Target
TGT,
+2.12%
stores in the U.S. at the start of the third quarter as part of a strategy of reducing its reliance on direct selling.

But those sales accounted for just 1% of total sales in the fourth quarter, suggesting the strategy has not gained traction.

One challenge facing Tupperware is price. Amazon
AMZN,
-0.27%
and other retailers such as dollar stores offer far cheaper food-storage containers. In addition, Americans are increasingly shopping online.

Tupperware’s stock has fallen 98% in the last 12 months, while the S&P 500
SPX,
-0.12%
has fallen 9%.

Also from the archives: Think the Avon Lady is American? Think again

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April 10, 2023
U.S. stocks end lower, Dow books back-to-back weekly losses as banking sector stress reemerges
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U.S. stocks ended lower Friday as worries about banking-sector stability reemerged following a bankruptcy filing by SVB Financial Group and the release of data showing banks borrowed $165 billion from the Federal Reserve over the past week.

How stocks traded
- The Dow Jones Industrial Average
  DJIA,
  -1.19%
  fell 384.57 points, or 1.2%, to close at 31,861.98.
- The S&P 500
  SPX,
  -1.10%
  dropped 43.64 points, or 1.1%, to finish at 3,916.64.
- The Nasdaq Composite
  COMP,
  -0.74%
  slid 86.76 points, or 0.7%, to end at 11,630.51, snapping a four-day win streak.
For the week, the Dow fell 0.1%, the S&P 500 gained 1.4% and the Nasdaq climbed 4.4%, according to Dow Jones Market Data. The Dow booked back-to-back weekly losses while the Nasdaq saw its biggest weekly percentage gain since January.
What drove markets

U.S. stocks fell Friday as worries about the banking sector persisted.

“The markets are up and down all this week, and they’re moving typically in big amounts, because there really isn’t any consensus on how the strains in the banking system will play” into the economy, said Paul Christopher, head of global investment strategy at Wells Fargo Investment Institute, in a phone interview Friday. Investors are trying to get a sense for how quickly the economy may be slowing and whether the problems in the banking sector will lead to an “accelerated slowing,” he said.

Concerns about the banking sector’s ability to withstand deposit flight reemerged Friday morning after SVB Financial Group
SIVB,
-60.41%
announced it had filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. SVB is the holding company of Silicon Valley Bank , which was put into FDIC receivership last Friday.

On Thursday, First Republic Bank announced that it would receive $30 billion of uninsured deposits from a group of large U.S. banks. JPMorgan Chase & Co., Citigroup Inc., Bank of America Corp. and Wells Fargo & Co. were among the 11 banks that agreed to provide the deposits.

Meanwhile, Federal Reserve data released Thursday afternoon in New York showed banks borrowed a combined $165 billion from the central bank. Most of the borrowing occurred via the Fed’s discount window. But a small amount was also tapped through the Fed’s new Bank Term Funding Program that allows bonds trading at a discount to be used as collateral, at par value. The fact that borrowing through the discount window has soared to a record high was adding to the market’s concerns about the banking sector, analysts said.

See: Banks have borrowed $165 billion from the Fed in past week after SVB failure

First Republic Bank
FRC,
-32.80%
shares plunged 32.8% Friday, while Credit Suisse Group
CS,
-6.94%,
which earlier this week got a lifeline from the Swiss National Bank, closed 6.9% lower, according to FactSet data.

At least four major banks have put restrictions on trades that involve troubled Swiss lender Credit Suisse Group or its securities, Reuters reported Friday, citing people with direct knowledge of the matter.

“I think there are still a lot of questions right now,” said Mark Luschini, chief investment strategist at Janney, during a phone interview with MarketWatch. “Investors can’t seem to hold their enthusiasm for equities for longer than a 24-hour news cycle.”

It’s not hard to understand why investors are still so anxious about the banking sector given the surge in borrowing from the Fed, said Matt Maley, chief market strategist at Miller Tabak + Co.

“Given that banks borrowed over $150bn at the Fed’s discount window on Wednesday, which compares to $4.4bn the week before, one can understand why investors are worried that the situation might be a bit more dire than the authorities are admitting to right now,” Maley said in emailed commentary.

In economic news, the Conference Board said Friday that the U.S. leading economic index fell 0.3% in February, marking the 11th straight monthly decline. U.S. industrial production was flat in February, data released Friday by the Fed show.

Meanwhile, the University of Michigan’s latest reading on consumer sentiment showed consumers were more downbeat in March than at ay time in the last four months.

While stocks fell Friday, they finished the week mostly higher. The Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped 0.1% for the week, while the S&P 500 booked a 1.4% weekly gain and the technology-heavy Nasdaq Composite saw a weekly rise of 4.4%, according to Dow Jones Market Data.

Companies in focus

FedEx Corp.’s stock
FDX,
+7.97%
jumped 8% after beating analyst estimates in its fiscal third-quarter earnings. The shipping firm also lifted its profit forecast for the full fiscal year.

Shares of PacWest Bancorp
PACW,
-18.95%
and Western Alliance Bancorp
WAL,
-15.14%
tumbled as regional banks continued to face pressure, with PacWest falling almost 19% and Western Alliance dropping 15.1%.

Shares of Microsoft Corp.
MSFT,
+1.17%
rose 1.2% as analysts saw the latest iteration of Chat GPT giving the tech giant an even greater edge. In other megacap tech names, Alphabet Inc.’s Class A
GOOGL,
+1.30%
shares gained 1.3% while semiconductor giant Nvidia Corp.
NVDA,
+0.72%
advanced 0.7%.

—Steve Goldstein contributed to this report.
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March 17, 2023
Diamond Sports Group files for bankruptcy, will continue to broadcast MLB, NBA, NHL games

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Diamond Sports Group, which operates regional sports networks that televise nearly half of all MLB, NBA and NHL games, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection Tuesday.

Diamond is owned by Sinclair Broadcasting Group Inc. SBGI, and operates its networks under the Bally Sports name.

In a statement Tuesday, Diamond said it was finalizing a…

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March 14, 2023
Hedge funds and banks offer to buy deposits trapped at Silicon Valley Bank

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Hedge funds are offering to buy startup deposits at Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) for as little as 60 cents on the dollar, Semafor reported on Saturday, citing people familiar with the matter.

Bids range from 60 to 80 cents on the dollar, the report said adding that the range reflects expectations for how much of the uninsured deposits will be eventually recovered once the bank’s assets are sold or wound down.

Firms like Oaktree which are known for investing in distressed debt are contacting startup businesses after SVB’s
SIVB,
-60.41%
seizure by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp (FDIC), the report said.

Traders from investment bank Jefferies are also contacting startup founders with deposits at the bank, offering to buy their deposit claims at a discount, The Information reported separately.

Jefferies is offering at least 70 cents on the dollar for deposit claims, the report said, citing several people with direct knowledge of the matter.

Oaktree declined to comment on the reports. Jefferies could not be immediately reached for comment.

Silicon Valley Bank was taken over by the U.S. Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation on Friday after depositors, concerned about the lender’s financial health, rushed to withdraw their their deposits. The two-day run on the bank stunned markets, wiping out more than $100 billion in market value for U.S. banks.

See: Silicon Valley Bank branches closed by regulator in biggest bank failure since Washington Mutual

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March 11, 2023

20 banks that are sitting on huge potential securities losses—as was SVB

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Silicon Valley Bank has failed following a run on deposits, after its parent company’s share price crashed a record 60% on Thursday.

Trading of SVB Financial Group’s
SIVB,
-60.41%
stock was halted early Friday, after the shares plunged again in premarket trading. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said SVB was one of a few banks she was “monitoring very carefully.” Reaction poured in from several analysts who discussed the bank’s liquidity risk.

California regulators closed Silicon Valley Bank and handed the wreckage over to the Federal Deposit Insurance Administration later on Friday.

Below is the same list of 10 banks we highlighted on Thursday that showed similar red flags to those shown by SVB Financial through the fourth quarter. This time, we will show how much they reported in unrealized losses on securities — an item that played an important role in SVB’s crisis.

Below that is a screen of U.S. banks with at least $10 billion in total assets, showing those that appeared to have the greatest exposure to unrealized securities losses, as a percentage of total capital, as of Dec. 31.

First, a quick look at SVB

Some media reports have referred to SVB of Santa Clara, Calif., as a small bank, but it had $212 billion in total assets as of Dec. 31, making it the 17th largest bank in the Russell 3000 Index
RUA,
-1.70%
as of Dec. 31. That makes it the largest U.S. bank failure since Washington Mutual in 2008.

One unique aspect of SVB was its decades-long focus on the venture capital industry. The bank’s loan growth had been slowing as interest rates rose. Meanwhile, when announcing its $21 billion dollars in securities sales on Thursday, SVB said it had taken the action not only to lower its interest-rate risk, but because “client cash burn has remained elevated and increased further in February, resulting in lower deposits than forecasted.”

SVB estimated it would book a $1.8 billion loss on the securities sale and said it would raise $2.25 billion in capital through two offerings of new shares and a convertible bond offering. That offering wasn’t completed.

So this appears to be an example of what can go wrong with a bank focused on a particular industry. The combination of a balance sheet heavy with securities and relatively light on loans, in a rising-rate environment in which bond prices have declined and in which depositors specific to that industry are themselves suffering from a decline in cash, led to a liquidity problem.

Unrealized losses on securities

Banks leverage their capital by gathering deposits or borrowing money either to lend the money out or purchase securities. They earn the spread between their average yield on loans and investments and their average cost for funds.

The securities investments are held in two buckets:

Available for sale — these securities (mostly bonds) can be sold at any time, and under accounting rules are required to be marked to market each quarter. This means gains or losses are recorded for the AFS portfolio continually. The accumulated gains are added to, or losses subtracted from, total equity capital.
Held to maturity — these are bonds a bank intends to hold until they are repaid at face value. They are carried at cost and not marked to market each quarter.

In its regulatory Consolidated Financial Statements for Holding Companies—FR Y-9C, filed with the Federal Reserve, SVB Financial, reported a negative $1.911 billion in accumulated other comprehensive income as of Dec. 31. That is line 26.b on Schedule HC of the report, for those keeping score at home. You can look up regulatory reports for any U.S. bank holding company, savings and loan holding company or subsidiary institution at the Federal Financial Institution Examination Council’s National Information Center. Be sure to get the name of the company or institution right — or you may be looking at the wrong entity.

Here’s how accumulated other comprehensive income (AOCI) is defined in the report: “Includes, but is not limited to, net unrealized holding gains (losses) on available-for-sale securities, accumulated net gains (losses) on cash flow hedges, cumulative foreign currency translation adjustments, and accumulated defined benefit pension and other postretirement plan adjustments.”

In other words, it was mostly unrealized losses on SVB’s available-for-sale securities. The bank booked an estimated $1.8 billion loss when selling “substantially all” of these securities on March 8.

The list of 10 banks with unfavorable interest margin trends

On the regulatory call reports, AOCI is added to regulatory capital. Since SVB’s AOCI was negative (because of its unrealized losses on AFS securities) as of Dec. 31, it lowered the company’s total equity capital. So a fair way to gauge the negative AOCI to the bank’s total equity capital would be to divide the negative AOCI by total equity capital less AOCI — effectively adding the unrealized losses back to total equity capital for the calculation.

Getting back to our list of 10 banks that raised similar red margin flags to those of SVB, here’s the same group, in the same order, showing negative AOCI as a percentage of total equity capital as of Dec. 31. We have added SVB to the bottom of the list. The data was provided by FactSet:

Bank	Ticker	City	AOCI ($mil)	Total equity capital ($mil)	AOCI/ TEC – AOCI	Total assets ($mil)
Customers Bancorp Inc.	CUBI, -13.11%	West Reading, Pa.	-$163	$1,403	-10.4%	$20,896
First Republic Bank	FRC, -14.84%	San Francisco	-$331	$17,446	-1.9%	$213,358
Sandy Spring Bancorp Inc.	SASR, -2.91%	Olney, Md.	-$132	$1,484	-8.2%	$13,833
New York Community Bancorp Inc.	NYCB, -5.99%	Hicksville, N.Y.	-$620	$8,824	-6.6%	$90,616
First Foundation Inc.	FFWM, -9.11%	Dallas	-$12	$1,134	-1.0%	$13,014
Ally Financial Inc.	ALLY, -5.70%	Detroit	-$4,059	$12,859	-24.0%	$191,826
Dime Community Bancshares Inc.	DCOM, -2.81%	Hauppauge, N.Y.	-$94	$1,170	-7.5%	$13,228
Pacific Premier Bancorp Inc.	PPBI, -1.95%	Irvine, Calif.	-$265	$2,798	-8.7%	$21,729
Prosperity Bancshare Inc.	PB, -4.46%	Houston	-$3	$6,699	-0.1%	$37,751
Columbia Financial, Inc.	CLBK, -1.78%	Fair Lawn, N.J.	-$179	$1,054	-14.5%	$10,408
SVB Financial Group	SIVB, -60.41%	Santa Clara, Calif.	-$1,911	$16,295	-10.5%	$211,793
Source: FactSet

Click on the tickers for more about each bank.

Read Tomi Kilgore’s detailed guide to the wealth of information available for free on the MarketWatch quote page.

Ally Financial Inc.
ALLY,
-5.70%
— the third largest bank on the list by Dec. 31 total assets — stands out as having the largest percentage of negative accumulated comprehensive income relative to total equity capital as of Dec. 31.

To be sure, these numbers don’t mean that a bank is in trouble, or that it will be forced to sell securities for big losses. But SVB had both a troubling pattern for its interest margins and what appeared to be a relatively high percentage of securities losses relative to capital as of Dec. 31.

Banks with the highest percentage of negative AOCI to capital

There are 108 banks in the Russell 3000 Index
RUA,
-1.70%
that had total assets of at least $10.0 billion as of Dec. 31. FactSet provided AOCI and total equity capital data for 105 of them. Here are the 20 which had the highest ratios of negative AOCI to total equity capital less AOCI (as explained above) as of Dec. 31:

Bank	Ticker	City	AOCI ($mil)	Total equity capital ($mil)	AOCI/ (TEC – AOCI)	Total assets ($mil)
Comerica Inc.	CMA, -5.01%	Dallas	-$3,742	$5,181	-41.9%	$85,406
Zions Bancorporation N.A.	ZION, -2.44%	Salt Lake City	-$3,112	$4,893	-38.9%	$89,545
Popular Inc.	BPOP, -1.56%	San Juan, Puerto Rico	-$2,525	$4,093	-38.2%	$67,638
KeyCorp	KEY, -2.55%	Cleveland	-$6,295	$13,454	-31.9%	$189,813
Community Bank System Inc.	CBU, -0.22%	DeWitt, N.Y.	-$686	$1,555	-30.6%	$15,911
Commerce Bancshares Inc.	CBSH, -1.61%	Kansas City, Mo.	-$1,087	$2,482	-30.5%	$31,876
Cullen/Frost Bankers Inc.	CFR, -1.08%	San Antonio	-$1,348	$3,137	-30.1%	$52,892
First Financial Bankshares Inc.	FFIN, -0.90%	Abilene, Texas	-$535	$1,266	-29.7%	$12,974
Eastern Bankshares Inc.	EBC, -3.16%	Boston	-$923	$2,472	-27.2%	$22,686
Heartland Financial USA Inc.	HTLF, -1.26%	Denver	-$620	$1,735	-26.3%	$20,244
First Bancorp	FBNC, -0.31%	Southern Pines, N.C.	-$342	$1,032	-24.9%	$10,644
Silvergate Capital Corp. Class A	SI, -11.27%	La Jolla, Calif.	-$199	$603	-24.8%	$11,356
Bank of Hawaii Corp	BOH, -6.15%	Honolulu	-$435	$1,317	-24.8%	$23,607
Synovus Financial Corp.	SNV, -2.91%	Columbus, Ga.	-$1,442	$4,476	-24.4%	$59,911
Ally Financial Inc	ALLY, -5.70%	Detroit	-$4,059	$12,859	-24.0%	$191,826
WSFS Financial Corp.	WSFS, -2.78%	Wilmington, Del.	-$676	$2,202	-23.5%	$19,915
Fifth Third Bancorp	FITB, -4.17%	Cincinnati	-$5,110	$17,327	-22.8%	$207,452
First Hawaiian Inc.	FHB, -3.48%	Honolulu	-$639	$2,269	-22.0%	$24,666
UMB Financial Corp.	UMBF, -3.35%	Kansas City, Mo.	-$703	$2,667	-20.9%	$38,854
Signature Bank	SBNY, -22.87%	New York	-$1,997	$8,013	-20.0%	$110,635

Again, this is not to suggest that any particular bank on this list based on Dec. 31 data is facing the type of perfect storm that has hurt SVB Financial. A bank sitting on large paper losses on its AFS securities may not need to sell them. In fact Comerica Inc.
CMA,
-5.01%,
which tops the list, also improved its interest margin the most over the past four quarters, as shown here.

But it is interesting to note that Silvergate Capital Corp.
SI,
-11.27%,
which focused on serving clients in the virtual currency industry, made the list. It is shuttering its bank subsidiary voluntarily.

Another bank on the list facing concern among depositors is Signature Bank
SBNY,
-22.87%
of New York, which has a diverse business model, but has also faced a backlash related to the services it provides to the virtual currency industry. The bank’s shares fell 12% on Thursday and were down another 24% in afternoon trading on Friday.

Signature Bank said in a statement that it was in a “strong, well-diversified financial position.”

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March 10, 2023

Bed Bath & Beyond to Shut Down Canadian Stores in Bankruptcy

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Bed Bath & Beyond Inc.’s Canadian division will shut down its stores under court protection after the company received an unusual lifeline earlier this week to save its U.S. operations from bankruptcy.

The troubled retailer filed its Canadian division for protection under the Companies’ Creditors Arrangement Act, Canada’s rough equivalent of chapter 11 bankruptcy. Bed Bath & Beyond has “reluctantly concluded” that even with the lifeline of its recent equity raise, there isn’t enough capital available both to restructure its U.S. business and bring the Canadian business to profitability, the company said in filings with an Ontario court.

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February 10, 2023
Bed Bath & Beyond’s Equity Plan, and Why Investors Were Interested

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Bed Bath & Beyond

‘s move to raise equity has depressed its stock and lifted its bonds as investors try to understand the terms of a dilutive and very complex offering.

The troubled retailer, which had said it faced the prospect of bankruptcy if it can’t raise $1.025 billion in the equity offering, said late Tuesday that it completed the deal. That brought in initial gross proceeds of approximately $225 million, while management expects to receive an additional $800 million in future installments, if certain conditions are met.

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February 7, 2023
Bed Bath & Beyond misses more than $28 million in interest payments on bonds: report

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Beleaguered retailer Bed Bath & Beyond Inc. has missed interest payments on its bonds, the Wall Street Journal reported late Wednesday, as the possibility of bankruptcy looms over the company.

Bed Bath & Beyond
BBBY,

confirmed to the Journal that it missed more than $28 million in payments for three tranches of notes totaling about $1.2 billion that were due Wednesday.

On Friday, the company said it was in default on loans that had been called in, and early last month warned that it may need to declare bankruptcy as it had “substantial doubt” about its “ability to continue as a going concern.”

The Journal has previously reported that Bed Bath & Beyond is expected to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection soon, and has been making preparations for weeks.

On Monday, the company said it was closing more than 140 additional stores.

Bed Bath & Beyond stock slid about 2% in after-hours trading Wednesday after the Journal’s report was published. Its shares have tumbled 13% over the past five trading days and are down 83% over the past 12 months.

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February 2, 2023
J&J Can’t Use Bankruptcy to Resolve Talc-Injury Lawsuits, Appeals Court Rules

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A federal appeals court rejected Johnson & Johnson ‘s plan to use a legal strategy to push about 38,000 talc lawsuits into bankruptcy court, hampering the controversial tactic the company and a handful of other profitable businesses have used to move mass personal-injury cases to chapter 11.

The Third U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Monday dismissed the chapter 11 case of J&J subsidiary LTL Management LLC, which the consumer-health-goods giant created in 2021 to move to bankruptcy court the mass lawsuits alleging its talc-based baby powder products caused cancer.

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January 30, 2023
Bed Bath & Beyond gets Nasdaq delisting warning, stock tumbles 7%

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Bed Bath & Beyond Inc. has received a warning that it is not in compliance for continued Nasdaq listing because the company has not yet filed its Form 10-Q quarterly report with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

In an SEC filing Thursday, the troubled home-goods retailer said it had received the Nasdaq notice on Jan. 12. The notice has no immediate effect on the listing or trading of Bed Bath & Beyond’s
BBBY,
-4.09%
common stock on the Nasdaq
COMP,
+0.86%,
the filing said. “The Notice states that the Company has 60 calendar days from the date of the Notice, or March 13, 2023, to submit a plan to regain compliance with the Listing Rule,” Bed Bath & Beyond said in the filing.

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January 20, 2023
Crypto lender Genesis latest to file for bankruptcy as crypto contagion continues to spread

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Embattled crypto lender Genesis announced that it had filed for bankruptcy late Thursday, the latest firm to be taken amid a widespread rout among crypto companies driven by plunging prices and charges of fraud at major players like FTX.

Genesis, which froze customer withdrawals in November following the collapse of FTX, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in federal court in Manhattan for its lending units, saying it was the best way for it to achieve “an optimal outcome for Genesis clients.”

“While we have made significant progress refining our business plans to remedy liquidity issues caused by the recent extraordinary challenges in our industry, including the default of Three Arrows Capital and the bankruptcy of FTX, an in-court restructuring presents the most effective avenue through which to preserve assets and create the best possible outcome for all Genesis stakeholders,” said Derar Islim, Genesis’ interim chief executive, in a statement on the company’s website.

According to its bankruptcy filing, Genesis’ lending unit said it had both assets and liabilities in the range of $1 billion to $10 billion and had over 100,000 creditors. The firm said it had about $150 million in cash on hand to support its operations during restructuring.

Among those creditors is Gemini, the crypto exchange founded by twin brothers Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss in 2014, that had $900 million of its customers’ money tied up with Genesis.

Genesis was the main partner of Gemini’s “earn” program, in which its retail investors received payments for allowing their crypto assets to be loaned out to others.

Cameron Winklevoss welcomed Genesis’ bankruptcy filing, saying it would provide Gemini a better venue for getting its clients’ money back.

“We will use every tool available to us in the bankruptcy court to maximize recovery for Earn users and any other parties within the bankruptcy court’s jurisdiction,” he wrote in a post on Twitter.

Both Genesis and Gemini were charged by the Securities and Exchange Commission last week with illegally selling securities to investors through the Earn program.

Genesis and its parent company, Digital Currency Group, had said they were seeking outside investment to help bolster the books and pay customers back in the months before filing for bankruptcy.

As part of its restructuring, Genesis said it would seek to possibly sell the company and also continue to look for additional investment.

Shares of bitcoin
BTCUSD,
+0.12%
were little changed at just above $20,000. There have been some concerns that the announcement of another crypto bankruptcy could unravel a recent recovery for the No. 1 cryptocurrency, up 25% so far in 2023. That puts it back above levels seen before FTX imploded last November.

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January 19, 2023
Crypto lender BlockFi is suing Sam Bankman-Fried over his shares in Robinhood: report

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Just hours after filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in New Jersey on Monday, cryptocurrency lender BlockFi filed a lawsuit against a holding company by FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried over his shares in trading platform Robinhood, the Financial Times reported.

The suit was filed against Bankman-Fried’s vehicle Emergent Fidelity Technologies, of whom BlockFi is seeking to recover unpaid collateral.

The filing – also lodged in New Jersey – says BlockFi entered into a pledge agreement with Emergent on Nov. 9 stating that an unnamed borrower was obliged to pledge “certain shares of common stock” and has breached the agreement by failing to comply with its payment obligations.

The Financial Times reports the collateral in question is Bankman-Fried’s 7.6% stake in Robinhood which he bought earlier this year.

“Emergent has defaulted on its obligations under the pledge agreement and failed to satisfy its obligations thereunder despite written notice of default and acceleration,” the lawsuit filing says.

The lawsuit also named London-based brokerage ED&F Man Capital Markets for refusing to “transfer the collateral” to BlockFi.

“This is a highly complex matter,” a spokesperson for ED&F Man Capital Markets told MarketWatch in an emailed statement.

“We cannot comment on matters that are subject to legal proceedings but will of course comply with any direction given by the judge,” they added.

On Monday, BlockFi, who was once valued at $3 billion, filed for bankruptcy protection after becoming the latest company to be pushed over the edge from the collapse of crypto exchange FTX.

See also: BlockFi’s big creditors include an indenture trustee firm, FTX and the SEC

The lawsuit is the latest headache for Bankman-Fried, who is already the subject of a number of investigations in the U.S. and the Bahamas – where FTX was based. The downfall of FTX has triggered a chain reaction of crypto-casualties including crypto financial-services firm Genesis.

FTX collapse to be focus of Senate hearing Thursday — here’s what to watch for

BlockFi and representatives of Bankman-Fried did not immediately respond to MarketWatch’s request for comment.

See also: Bitcoin prices under pressure as cracks spread across crypto industry

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November 29, 2022
The PC boom has gone bust, and we are about to see the results ahead of Black Friday

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The pandemic-fueled personal-computer boom has ended, so how will that affect demand and pricing for PCs and the retailers that sell them this holiday season?

A sense of the fallout will be provided in the week ahead with results due from PC makers Dell Technologies Inc.
DELL,
+0.67%
and HP Inc.
HPQ,
+0.17%,
along with videoconferencing platform Zoom Video Communications Inc.
ZM,
-1.15%
and electronics chain Best Buy Co Inc.
BBY,
+2.88%

All of those companies will report amid signs of deep holiday discounting for products such as clothing and electronics, after many customers — stuck at home in 2020 and 2021 — loaded up on laptops and other goods and turned Zoom into a digital conference room. But this year, decades-high inflation, and a return to prepandemic spending on travel and hanging out in person, have forced retailers and electronics makers to adjust to a world where more people are spending on essentials.

PC shipments have fallen at rates not seen since at least the 1990s. Adobe
ADBE,
-2.06%
has said online holiday discounts for electronics have been as steep as 17%. For computers, they’ve run for as much as 10% less. TVs are also being sold for cheaper. Holiday-season forecasts have generally called for sales increases, helped by price increases and enduring demand despite those price increases.

In-depth: The pandemic PC boom is over, but its legacy will live on

However, results from Target
TGT,
+0.54%
on Wednesday missed big on third-quarter earnings, and the big-box retailer said it was bracing for a possible decline in fourth-quarter same-store sales, citing “softening sales and profit trends that emerged late in the third quarter and persisted into November.” Results from Walmart
WMT,
+1.51%
were almost the opposite, however, detailing earnings that beat by a wide margin and a raised full-year outlook.

Among smaller retailers, discounter Ross Stores Inc.
ROST,
+9.86%
hiked its full-year profit forecast, citing sales momentum but easier year-over-year comparisons up ahead. But Williams-Sonoma Inc.
WSM,
-6.15%
noted “macro uncertainty” and “increasingly inconsistent” demand.

This week in earnings

The companies report during a shortened, quieter week — thanks to Thanksgiving — and after concerns about a recession have hung over much of the year. With 94% of S&P 500
SPX,
+0.48%
companies having already reported third-quarter results, only a dozen are set to release earnings in the week ahead.

But among those 94%, there are signs that preoccupations with a downturn might be easing, after the economy grew during the third quarter and reversed after two quarters of declines.

FactSet senior analyst John Butters, in a report on Thursday, said 179 companies have mentioned the term “recession,” during earnings calls in the third quarter. That’s still above the average over 10 years, but it’s below the 242 companies that mentioned a recession in the second quarter.

Previously: Executives seem pretty convinced a recession is coming

Elsewhere on Monday, J.M. Smucker Co.
SJM,
+1.11%
— best known for Folgers and Jif — reports results, following concerns about higher food prices and how much higher they might go. Life-sciences electronics maker Agilent Tecnologies Inc.
A,
+1.21%
report results on Monday as well. Fast-food chain Jack in the Box Inc.
JACK,

reports Tuesday. Tractor and construction-vehicle Deere & Co.
DE,
+0.31%
reports Wednesday, following production and supply-chain snarls but steady demand.

The calls to put on your calendar

Clothing demand, discount demand: Urban Outfitters Inc.
URBN,
+2.44%
reports Monday, while Burlington Stores Inc.
BURL,
+4.63%,
Nordstrom Inc.
JWN,
+1.71%
and dollar-store chain Dollar Tree Inc.
DLTR,
-0.21%
report on Tuesday.

The discounting wave across clothing retailers, an effort to clear inventories, might attract more consumers, but it’s worried Wall Street analysts focused on margins and the bottom line. Still, some analysts have said that more younger shoppers feel like their wardrobes are getting stale, and they say Nordstrom, whose customers tend to have more money, is best geared for “an upcoming wardrobe refresh.”

Off-price clothing and home-goods retailer Burlington, meanwhile, will report after rival discounters Ross and TJX received a lift from investors this week.

See also: The holiday-shopping season has a different problem this year than last — and it could lead to some deals

Ross’ chief executive, Barbara Rentler, noted that rising prices had hurt its lower-income consumers. But Jefferies analysts said that Burlington and other discounters, which often buy up goods that other retailers don’t want, stood to benefit from the inventory purge.

Dollar Tree, meanwhile, reports as more shoppers seek cheaper grocery options, but as food prices rise nonetheless. But Bank of America analysts, in a note last month, said traffic data implied a “slowdown” heading into the results.

The numbers to watch

Demand trends for PCs, electronics: Dell and HP report in the wake of deeper job cuts across the tech industry, while Zoom tries to tack on more features — such as calendar and email functions — to appeal to small business and adapt to a hybrid-work world.

The PC boom’s demise hit home at Dell during its prior quarter, reported in August, after personal-computer sales at the company came in below estimates. Executives, at that time, said PC demand had fallen and that “customers are taking a more cautious view of their needs given the uncertainty.”

Opinion: Tech earnings are about to dive, and there’s no life preserver in sight

Some analysts, however, signaled that some degree of investor pessimism was already baked into the stock prices.

“We recognize the deteriorating industry fundamentals in relation to PCs as well as incremental slowdown in IT Infrastructure. That said, we believe the magnitude of the cuts last quarter set up Dell to be less exposed to another round of material earnings revisions,” JPMorgan analysts said in a note. And even as HP feels similar pain, analysts there said share buybacks could be “a bright spot.”

Results from HP and Dell could also have implications for Best Buy, which sells laptops, TVs, phones and other electronic devices.

“Recall that initial expectations for the year were that BBY would face pressure as it lapped stimulus-fueled spending and broad-based demand for technology products and services,” Wedbush analysts said in a note on Friday.

“However, the macro has been more volatile than expected with consumers facing significant inflationary pressures and lower-income households are making decisions to trade down in some categories such as televisions.”

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November 20, 2022
They Lived Together, Worked Together and Lost Billions Together: Inside Sam Bankman-Fried’s Doomed FTX Empire

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NASSAU, Bahamas—Sam Bankman-Fried’s $32 billion crypto-trading empire collapsed in an incandescent bankruptcy last week, prompting irate customers, crypto acolytes and Silicon Valley bigwigs to ask how something that seemed so promising could have imploded so fast.

The emerging picture suggests FTX wasn’t simply felled by a rival, or undone by a bad trade or the relentless fall this year in the value of cryptocurrencies. Instead, it had long been a chaotic mess. From its earliest days, the firm was an unruly agglomeration of corporate entities, customer assets and Mr. Bankman-Fried himself, according to court papers, company balance sheets shown to bankers and interviews with employees and investors. No one could say exactly what belonged to whom. Prosecutors are now investigating its collapse.

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November 18, 2022
Supposed $477 million FTX ‘hack’ was actually a Bahamian government asset seizure

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Remember that hack of nearly half a billion dollars in cryptocurrency from bankrupt FTX last weekend? Turns out it was actually a government asset seizure.

The Securities Commission of the Bahamas has now acknowledged that it was behind the removal of $477 million in crypto assets from the bankrupt exchange on Nov. 12.

“The Securities Commission of the Bahamas, in the exercise of its powers as regulator acting under the authority of an order made by the Supreme Court of the Bahamas, took the action of directing the transfer of all the digital assets of FTX Digital Markets Ltd. to a digital wallet controlled by the commission, for safekeeping,” the agency said in a statement.

The transfer occurred the day after FTX had filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in Delaware and immediately sparked concerns of a major hack. The company announced that day that “unauthorized access to certain assets has occurred” and that they were coordinating with law enforcement on the matter.”

On Thursday, the U.S.-based bankruptcy administrators led by John Ray, III, who have taken control of FTX, said in court filings that they had “credible evidence” that officials in the Bahamas had directed FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried to access FTX’s systems after the Chapter 11 filing, “for the purpose of obtaining digital assets of the debtors.”

The seizure of assets came amid an emerging fight for control over the direction of the bankruptcy proceeding, with officials in the Bahamas filing a separate Chapter 15 bankruptcy petition in federal court in New York on Nov. 15.

That filing was on behalf of FTX Digital Markets Ltd., a subsidiary that managed significant aspects of the company’s operations from its headquarters in the Caribbean island nation.

A Chapter 15 filing is used typically in cases involving companies with debtors in multiple countries.

In its statement, the Bahamian Securities Commission said it believed FTX Digital Markets was not part of the Delaware bankruptcy proceeding.

The administrators of the Delaware bankruptcy have asked the judge in their case to combine the cases, saying that it was duplicative and confusing to keep them separate. The judge scheduled a hearing on the matter for Monday.

The administrators of the Delaware case have accused Bankman-Fried of attempting to undermine their efforts to sort out the mess he left behind by pushing the second bankruptcy case brought by Bahamian officials.

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November 18, 2022
‘This situation is unprecedented’: 10 crazy things detailed in FTX’s bankruptcy filing

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On Thursday, John Ray, III, the new CEO of FTX, dropped a long-awaited declaration in U.S. bankruptcy court, giving a sober assessment of the collapse of Sam Bankman-Fried’s crypto empire. The bankruptcy-court filing followed a whirlwind of events, including the publication of explosive texts Bankman-Fried sent to a Vox reporter earlier this week.

Ray set the tone for what he has found since FTX filed for bankruptcy protection last week, citing his 40 years of experience in the legal and restructuring business, including a role as chief restructuring officer and CEO of Enron, one of the biggest corporate collapses ever.

“Never in my career have I seen such a complete failure of corporate controls and such a complete absence of trustworthy financial information as occurred here,” Ray wrote. “This situation is unprecedented.”

Here are 10 revelations that Ray made in federal bankruptcy court on Thursday about Bankman-Fried and the FTX debacle he created.

1. Most of FTX’s digital assets have not been secured

As of Thursday, Ray made clear that while he now controls the various FTX trading and exchange platforms and Bankman-Fried’s crypto hedge fund Alameda Research, he’d “located and secured only a fraction of the digital assets” he hoped to recover. In fact, Ray said only some $740 million of cryptocurrency had been secured in new cold wallets. Ray cited at least $372 million of unauthorized transfers that had taken place on the day FTX and Alameda filed for bankruptcy last week, and the “dilutive ‘minting’ of approximately $300 million in FTT tokens by an unauthorized source” in the days after the filing. FTT tokens were created by FTX to facilitate trading on its exchange and made up a big chunk of Alameda’s assets.

2. Nobody knows who the biggest customer creditors are of FTX.

FTX.com and FTX.US had customers around the world who used its cryptocurrency exchanges and platforms. But Ray said he was unable to create a list of FTX’s top 50 creditors that included customers.

3. Alameda Research loaned $4.1 billion out to entities, including Bankman-Fried and his closest partners.

There have been reports that FTX lent out billions of dollars in customer funds to Bankman-Fried’s hedge fund, Alameda Research. But on Thursday, Ray revealed that Alameda had made $4.1 billion of related-party loans that remained outstanding at the end of September. This included a $1 billion loan Alameda made to Bankman-Fried himself, a $543 million loan made to FTX cofounder Nishad Singh, and $55 million borrowed by FTX co-CEO Ryan Salame.

4. FTX corporate funds were used to buy personal homes

Bankman-Fried lived in a luxury resort in the Bahamas, where FTX was also based. There, bankruptcy filings say, corporate funds of FTX “were used to purchase homes and other personal items for employees and advisors.” Ray said in his filing that there is no documentation for the transactions and loans associated with these real estate purchases, which were recorded in the personal name of employees and advisors.

5. Personalized emojis to approve disbursements

To demonstrate the lack of disbursement and appropriate business controls at FTX, Ray pointed out that FTX employees “submitted payment requests through an on-line ‘chat’ platform where a disparate group of supervisors approved disbursements by responding with personalized emojis.”

6. Alameda Research was one of the world’s biggest hedge funds

According to the bankruptcy filing, Alameda’s balance sheet showed $13.46 billion in total assets as of the end of September. That’s roughly equivalent to the assets managed by famous billionaire hedge fund traders like Bill Ackman, Paul Tudor Jones and Jeffrey Talpins.

7. Audit opinions from the metaverse

Bankman-Fried secured audit opinions for the international FTX trading platform part of his business from Prager Metis, a firm that Ray had never heard of before. Ray said he went to the firm’s website to learn more about it and discovered that Prager Metis described itself as the“first-ever CPA firm to officially open its Metaverse headquarters in the metaverse platform Decentraland.”

8. Alameda had a secret exemption on FTX.com

Ray’s filing on Thursday indicated that Bankman-Fried’s Alameda hedge fund might have had a trading edge on the FTX.com trading platform. According to the filing, Alameda had a “secret exemption” from “certain aspects of FTX.com’s auto-liquidation protocol.”

9. Customer liabilities are not reflected in FTX financial statements

Ray expects that the FTX.US exchange and trading platform, which serviced American customers, will have “significant liabilities arising from crypto assets deposited by customers through the FTX US platform.” He believes the FTX exchange that was used by FTX clients outside the U.S. could also have significant client liabilities. But none of these liabilities are reflected in the financial statements that were prepared while Bankman-Fried ran FTX, Ray said.

10. Ray has no confidence in any FTX balance sheet

Time and again in the filing, Ray offers the same disclaimer after detailing FTX-related financial statements. He notes that many of the balance sheets at FTX and Alameda are unaudited, and that because they were produced while Bankman-Fried ran and controlled the company, “I do not have confidence in it.”

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November 17, 2022
FTX bankruptcy is ‘somebody running a company that’s just dumb-as-f___ing greedy,’ says Mark Cuban

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Billionaire Dallas Maverick’s owner Mark Cuban recently offered his perspective on the implosion of crypto platform FTX late this week.

“‘That’s somebody running a company that’s just dumb-as-fucking greedy.’”

— Mark Cuban

Cuban, speaking on Friday at a conference in Washington, D.C. hosted by Sports Business Journal, shared the view that avarice was at the root of the downfall of one-time crypto darling Sam Bankman-Fried, whose firm FTX Group just filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy.

“So what does Sam Bankman [Fried] do, he’s just–‘gimme more, gimme more, gimme more.’ So I’m gonna borrow money, loan it to an affiliated company and hope and pretend to myself that the FTT tokens that are in there on my balance sheet are gonna to sustain their value.”

Check out: Mark Cuban says buying metaverse real estate is ‘the dumbest shit ever

FTX’s collapse marks a stunning turnabout for a company, which was once valued at $26 billion, and whose founder, Bankman-Fried was viewed by many in the crypto industry as a venerable actor in the Wild West of digital exchanges.

On Thursday, the 30-year-old entrepreneur tweeted: “I f—ked up, and should have done better,” referencing the collapse of his exchange.

Embattled FTX, short billions of dollars, sought bankruptcy protection after the exchange experienced the crypto equivalent of a bank run. FTX, an affiliated hedge fund Alameda Research, and dozens of other related companies also filed a bankruptcy petition in Delaware on Friday morning. Boasting a nearly $16 billion fortune recently, Sam Bankman Fried’s net worth had all but evaporated in the wake of the FTX implosion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

The price of FTX’s native token FTT went down about 88.8% over the past seven days to around $2.74, according to CoinMarketCap data.

The U.S. Justice Department and the Securities and Exchange Commission are looking into the crypto exchange to determine whether any criminal activity or securities offenses were committed.

Regulators and are examining whether FTX used customer deposits to fund bets at Alameda Research, a no-no in traditional markets, according to reports.

Cuban, who is one of the stars of the investing show “Shark Tank” and owns the NBA’s Dallas Mavericks, is a big investor in crypto and blockchain-related platforms. According to a CNBC report, he has said that 80% of his investments that aren’t on Shark Tank are crypto-centric.

See: Tom Brady, Steph Curry and Kevin O’Leary set to lose big from FTX bankruptcy filing

For his part, Cuban is part of a class-action lawsuit accused of misleading investors into signing up for accounts with crypto platform Voyager Digital, which filed for bankruptcy in July. The suit alleges that Cuban touted his support for Voyager and referred to it “as close to risk-free as you’re gonna get in the crypto universe.”

Cuban mentioned Voyager in his Friday interview. Representatives for the billionaire investor didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

The Mavericks owner took to Twitter on Saturday to say that the crypto implosions “have been banking blowups. Lending to the wrong entity, misvaluations of collateral, arrogant arbs, followed by depositor runs.”

Cuban’s net worth is $4.6 billion, according to Forbes.

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November 12, 2022
FTX’s Sam Bankman-Fried: ‘I was shocked to see things unravel the way they did’

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Sam Bankman-Fried, co-founder at crypto exchange FTX, tweeted Friday that he was “shocked to see things unravel the way they did,” after he quit as chief executive and the company and its related entities filed for bankruptcy.

See: Sam Bankman-Fried resigns as CEO of FTX as cryptocurrency exchange files for Chapter 11 U.S. bankruptcy

The bankruptcy “doesn’t necessarily have to mean the end for the companies or their ability to provide value and funds to their customers chiefly, and can be consistent with other routes,” Bankman-Fried tweeted Friday.

Bankman-Fried has seen his net worth plunge to almost zero from $16 billion in less than a week, according to Bloomberg Billionaires index.

FTX was once the third largest cryptocurrency exchange by trading volume. Bitcoin
BTCUSD,
+0.10%
fell 3.4% Friday to around $16,838, hovering at around a two-year low, according to the CoinDesk data.

A representative at FTX didn’t respond to a request seeking comment.

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November 11, 2022
Bitcoin falls to 2-year low, other cryptos down after market reacts to FTX bankruptcy news

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FTX, the crypto exchange, filed for voluntary Chapter 11 bankruptcy in a Delaware court on Friday, and chief executive Sam Bankman-Fried has resigned.

Following the news, here is how prices are doing for major cryptocurrencies, according to CoinDesk data.

Bitcoin BTCUSD, -4.92% The price for Bitcoin was around $19,350 before the announcement of the potential FTX/Binance deal on Tuesday. The price jumped to $20,590 in less than an hour after the announcement. But dropped to a 2-year low of $17,484. Currently, the Bitcoin price is $16,907.19, a change of -5.04% over the past 24 hours.

Ethereum ETHE, -9.66% Currently, the Ethereum price is $1,252.60, a change of -6.60% over the last 24 hours. The price of Ethereum was around $1,438 before the announcement, and peaked at $1,562 under an hour after. Later on Nov 8, the price dropped to $1,289.

FTT: Today the price of FTT, which is the FTX token, is $2.74, down 20.37% in the last 24 hours, according to CoinMarketCap data. At the beginning of the week, on Nov 7, the price was around $22.06.

Solana: Currently, the price is $17.34, a change of 2.91% over the past 24 hours. The price of Solana before the announcement was around $27.69, and peaked at $31.29 shortly after the announcement.

Binance Coin: The Binance Coin price is $285.74, a change of -7.02% over the past 24 hours. The Binance Coin price was around $322 before the announcement that Binance might acquire FTX on Nov 8.

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November 11, 2022