Welcome back to The Breakdown with me, NLW.

It's a daily podcast on macro, Bitcoin, and the Big Picture Power Shifts remaking our world.

What's going on, guys? It is Monday, January 22nd, and today we're getting an update in the FTX bankruptcy case.

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bit.ly slash breakdown pod. All right, friends, welcome back to the breakdown. We have been

blissfully free, I have to say, of FTX Anything since the end of the Sam Bankman-Fried trial,

but we did get a meaningful update that we need to go over, an independent examiner will be assigned to the

FTX bankruptcy case after a successful appeal. So, last February, when the process was still in

its early stages, the bankruptcy court rejected the need for an independent examiner. They cited

additional costs and duplication of work already being done by the incoming executive

team to investigate the FTX collapse. At the time, the judge said, I have no doubt that the

appointment of an examiner would not be in the best interest of the creditors. Every dollar spent

in these cases on administrative expenses is $1 less to the creditors. Indeed, the unsecured

creditors committee had opposed the appointment

of an independent examiner, satisfied that an investigation led by new CEO John J. Ray the 3rd

would be sufficiently independent. The decision was viewed by many as strange at the time,

as there is a presumption in favor of appointing an independent examiner in all bankruptcies

larger than $5 million. Well, on Friday, the appellate court reversed

this decision. Judges said this would provide greater transparency to creditors and that an

independent report would allow the bankruptcy court to, quote, consider the greater public

interest in its rulings. The ruling focused on the issuance of FTT tokens and suggested

...