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Richard J. Lee is a partner in the New York office of Crowell & Moring. He focuses on derivatives, finance, and distressed debt and claims trading. Richard is a CFA® charter holder. He has extensive experience advising investors and lenders in a wide range of alternative credit investments and structured financing transactions.

The first week of July has brought with it a flurry of activity in the digital asset markets – but not the type of activity that investors in the space likely hoped for.

On June 27th, Three Arrows Capital, Ltd. (“3AC”) commenced a liquidation proceeding in the British Virgin Islands, followed on July

Celsius Networks (“Celsius”) became the latest cryptocurrency platform to raise market temperatures by halting all withdrawals, swaps and transfers from and between its customers’ accounts on June 12, 2022. Celsius touted a next wave of “unbanking,” operating a lending platform allowing the holders of digital assets the opportunity to earn a significantly high returns on those assets.  Due, in part, to the lack of regulation, Celsius, and other firms like it, retain wide discretion to use of their customers’ assets and, among other things lend those assets to other platforms at higher rates, enter into complex swap and option transactions that bet on price movements, enter into repo or other lending arrangement to increase yield, or invest in other cryptocurrency projects, all without regulatory constraint. Indeed, it was this broad discretion that led, in part, to the downfall of a similarly situated platform, Cred, Inc., and its ultimate bankruptcy discussed here on Crypto Digest.Continue Reading Celsius Networks’ Warnings Highlight Crypto Bankruptcy Risks

Given the recent media coverage and growing concerns among investors over the risks associated with a bankruptcy filing of a cryptocurrency exchange, it feels timely to highlight some issues that arose in the Chapter 11 cases of Cred Inc. and certain of its affiliates (collectively, “Cred”) also discussed on Crypto Digest.Continue Reading Lessons from Recent Cryptocurrency Bankruptcy Case: Cred, Inc.

Considerations of “environmental, social and governance” (or ESG) criteria with respect to a company’s management and operations continue to take on greater importance in lenders’ and investors’ credit and investment decisions.  How a borrower or a target company measures up to these ever-developing ESG standards will impact its cost of capital and value to potential investors and acquirors. While it remains difficult to predict how the perception of a company’s ESG performance (or even its rating) may impact its capital-raising efforts or its likelihood of success or failure, a number of trends seem inevitable.
Continue Reading Trends in ESG for Members of the Restructuring Community