2023's SPAC Disaster: 21 Bankruptcies, $46 Billion in Investor Losses

SPAC Mania’s Ugly End Yields $46 Billion of Investor Losses

Wall Street’s affair with blank-check firms, the finance fad that pushed companies onto the stock market during the Covid-19 pandemic, ended this year with a string of big bankruptcies and even bigger losses for shareholders.

At least 21 firms that went public by merging with special purpose acquisition companies, or SPACs, went bankrupt this year, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Measured from their peak market capitalizations, the insolvencies bookend the loss of more than $46 billion of total equity value.

Barry Silbert Resigns as Grayscale Chairman, to Be Replaced by Mark Shifke

Grayscale Investments, whose application to turn its Bitcoin Trust (GBTC) into a U.S. spot exchange-traded fund (ETF) is being considered by the Securities and Exchange Commission, said Barry Silbert resigned as chairman and will be replaced by Mark Shifke.

Shikfe, DCG’s chief financial officer, will replace Silbert as of Jan. 1, Grayscale said in an SEC filing without giving a reason for the changes. Mark Murphy, DCG’s president, also resigned from the board.

Crypto Collapses Leave Bankruptcy Judges Making Sense of Rubble

Bankruptcy judges who oversaw the failure of cryptocurrency exchanges this year trumped regulators, outpaced prosecutors, and answered core questions about the legalities of digital currency.

The judges’ decisions could define the crypto industry for years to come, despite leaving thousands of customers without control of assets they thought they owned. The use of bankruptcy to help resurrect the crypto industry comes at a time when Chapter 11 is being used to address a wide range of societal ills, from the opioid crisis to asbestos exposure.