The Bitcoin mining firm Core Scientific announced on Jan. 16 that it has obtained court approval to proceed with its reorganization plan.

Core Scientific noted that this reorganization plan will allow it to emerge from Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings in the coming days.

Adam Sullivan, Core Scientific’s CEO, said:

“Today’s plan confirmation is a defining moment in our reorganization; we’re poised to emerge by the end of this month as an even stronger company, with a highly motivated team that is aligned for success.”

Sullivan noted that demand for Bitcoin and “high-value compute” is rising and said that the company aims to create value for shareholders amidst that demand.

The press release added that the plan will see shareholders receive shares of Core Scientific’s new common stock and warrants, which constitute about 60% of the company’s new equity. The release also stated that Core Scientific’s existing debt is expected to be paid in full with the execution of the plan, marking a reduction of $1 billion from its debt balance before the reorganization plan.

Bloomberg suggested in a separate report that the plan will eliminate $400 million in debt from Core Scientific’s balance sheet. Bloomberg also indicated that the firm’s precise re-listing date on Nasdaq is Jan. 24, 2024.

Core Scientific was in bankruptcy for one year

Core Scientific filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in December 2022 but continued to operate throughout the bankruptcy process.

Notably, the company secured a multi-million dollar loan from BlackRock and other creditors shortly after its bankruptcy filing in order to continue its activities.

More recently, Core Scientific reached an expansion deal with Bitmain in September 2023. That agreement that saw Bitmain invest $54 million in Core Scientific and provide the company with 27,000 Bitcoin mining devices.

Core Scientific stock (CORZQ) is currently worth $1.18, down 14.49% today. The stock’s price is considerably higher than it was throughout most of 2023, but is considerably lower than its all-time high of $14.32 on Nov. 19, 2021.

Crypto exchange FTX has been burning through approximately $53,000 every hour over the three months ending Oct. 31 — just on bankruptcy lawyers and advisers, the latest round of compensation filings show. 

Court filings from Dec. 5 to Dec. 16 have shown that the bankruptcy lawyers have charged an accumulated total of at least $118.1 million between Aug. 1 and Oct. 31. Over the 92 days, this equates to $1.3 million per day or $53,300 per hour.  

The largest bill came from the management consulting firm Alvarez and Marshall, which charged $35.8 million for its services for the three months.

Coming in second place was global law firm Sullivan and Cromwell, which charged $31.8 million for its services. The hourly rate for Sullivan’s and Cromwell’s services averaged $1,230 per hour.

Global consulting firm AlixPartners charged $13.3 million in the period for professional services relating to forensic investigations. Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan charged $10.4 million in the same period, while several other billings from smaller advisory firms added up to over $26.8 million.

Figures shared by a pseudonymous FTX creditor in a Dec. 17 post to X (formerly Twitter) suggest the total legal fees that have been fully paid since the FTX bankruptcy case began is approximately $350 million.

BTW @lopp this estimates $1.45B of remaining professional fees for a total of $1.8B. The Estate is currently charging $0.5B per year and bankruptcies are not short endeavors.

To date, here are the fees that have been petitioned in just under 1 year (~$350mm has been paid): pic.twitter.com/5p6at5ZbWy

— Mr. Purple ️ (@MrPurple_DJ) December 17, 2023

Related: FTX debtors assess value of crypto claims based on petition date market prices

Meanwhile, an earlier report filed on Dec. 5 by the court-appointed fee examiner, Katherine Stadler, identified “significant areas of concern” with the billings submitted by the larger advisory firms, including Sullivan and Cromwell, Alvarez and Marshall, and others between May 1 and June 31.

“The Fee Examiner identified apparently top-heavy staffing, apparently excessive meeting attendance, fees related to non-working travel time, and various technical and procedural deficiencies with respect to some time entries (including vague and lumped entries),” wrote the report regarding the billings submitted by Alvarez and Marshall.

Magazine: Terrorism and the Israel-Gaza war have been weaponized to destroy crypto