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The BlockFi logo on a smartphone arranged in the Brooklyn borough of New York, on Thursday, Nov. 17, 2022.

Gabby Jones | Bloomberg | Getty Images

There was supposedly one man who could save crypto — Sam Bankman-Fried. The former FTX CEO bailed out and took over crypto firms as cryptocurrency markets withered with Terra’s spring crash. In October, FTX won the bidding war for bankrupt crypto firm Voyager Digital in a highly advantageous deal.

With the collapse of FTX, the firms which Bankman-Fried saved now find themselves in an uncertain state. Voyager put itself back up for auction last week. On Monday, BlockFi filed for bankruptcy in New Jersey, after weeks of speculation that the FTX collapse had fatally crippled it.

The FTX “death spiral,” as BlockFi advisor Mark Renzi put it, has now spread to another crypto entity. BlockFi’s bankruptcy had been anticipated for some time, but in a detailed 41-page filing, Renzi walks creditors, investors and the court through his perspective at the helm of BlockFi.

According to Renzi, exposure to two successive hedge fund failures, the FTX rescue and broader market uncertainty all conspired to force BlockFi into bankruptcy.

Renzi is keen to underscore that from his point of view, BlockFi doesn’t “face the myriad issues apparently facing FTX.” Renzi pointed to a $30 million settlement with the SEC and the company’s corporate governance and risk management protocols, writing that BlockFi is “well-positioned to move forward despite the fact that 2022 has been a uniquely terrible year for the cryptocurrency industry.”

The “issues” that Renzi refer to may include FTX’s well-publicized lack of financial, risk, anti-money laundering, or audit systems. In a court filing, newly appointed FTX CEO John Ray III said he’d never seen “such a complete failure of corporate controls” as at FTX.

Indeed, Renzi is keen to underscore BlockFi’s differences from FTX, and contends that FTX’s intervention in summer 2022 ultimately worsened outcomes for BlockFi. Renzi is a managing director at Berkeley Research Group, which BlockFi has enlisted as a financial advisor for its Chapter 11 proceedings.

Both BRG and Kirkland & Ellis, BlockFi’s legal advisor, have experience in crypto bankruptcies. Kirkland and BRG both represented Voyager during its failed auction to FTX. Both firms have already collected millions in fees from BlockFi in preparation work for the bankruptcy, according to court filings.

Similarly to filings in Voyager’s and Celsius Network’s bankruptcies, Renzi points to broader turbulence in the cryptocurrency markets, accelerated by the collapse of crypto hedge fund Three Arrows Capital, as the driving force behind BlockFi’s liquidity crisis. 

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BlockFi, like Celsius and Voyager, offered exceptionally high interest rates on customer crypto accounts. All three firms were able to do so thanks to cryptolending — loaning customer cryptocurrencies to trading firms in exchange for high interest and collateral. Three Arrows, or 3AC was “one of BlockFi’s largest borrower clients,” Renzi said in a court filing, and the hedge fund’s bankruptcy forced BlockFi to seek outside financing.

A new round failed for BlockFi. Traditional third-party investors were scared off by “unfavorable” market conditions, Renzi said in a filing, forcing them to turn to FTX just to make good on customer withdrawals. Unlike Voyager or Celsius, BlockFi had not halted customer withdrawals at that point.

FTX assembled and delivered a package of loans up to $400 million. In return, FTX reserved the right to acquire BlockFi as soon as July 2023, the court filing said.

While FTX’s rescue package did initially buoy BlockFi, dealings with FTX’s Alameda Research further undercut BlockFi’s stability. As Alameda unwound and FTX moved closer to bankruptcy, BlockFi attempted to execute margin calls and loan recalls on its Alameda exposure.

Ultimately, though, Alameda defaulted on “approximately $680 million” of collateralized loans from BlockFi, “the recovery on which is unknown,” the court filing said.

BlockFi was forced to do what it had resisted doing during the Voyager and Celsius meltdowns. On Nov. 11, the day FTX filed for bankruptcy, BlockFi paused customer withdrawals. Investors, like at FTX, Voyager and Celsius, are now left in limbo, with no access to their funds.

Correction: FTX filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on Nov. 11. An earlier version misstated the date.

Authorities eyeing bringing Sam Bankman-Fried to the U.S. for questioning: Report

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How TikTok’s rise sparked a short-form video race

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How TikTok’s rise sparked a short-form video race

TikTok’s grip on the short-form video market is tightening, and the world’s biggest tech platforms are racing to catch up.

Since launching globally in 2016, ByteDance-owned TikTok has amassed over 1.12 billion monthly active users worldwide, according to Backlinko. American users spend an average of 108 minutes per day on the app, according to Apptoptia.

TikTok’s success has reshaped the social media landscape, forcing competitors like Meta and Google to pivot their strategies around short-form video. But so far, experts say that none have matched TikTok’s algorithmic precision.

“It is the center of the internet for young people,” said Jasmine Enberg, vice president and principal analyst at Emarketer. “It’s where they go for entertainment, news, trends, even shopping. TikTok sets the tone for everyone else.”

Platforms like Meta‘s Instagram Reels and Google’s YouTube Shorts have expanded aggressively, launching new features, creator tools and even considering separate apps just to compete. Microsoft-owned LinkedIn, traditionally a professional networking site, is the latest to experiment with TikTok-style feeds. But with TikTok continuing to evolve, adding features like e-commerce integrations and longer videos, the question remains whether rivals can keep up.

“I’m scrolling every single day. I doom scroll all the time,” said TikTok content creator Alyssa McKay.

But there may a dark side to this growth.

As short-form content consumption soars, experts warn about shrinking attention spans and rising mental-health concerns, particularly among younger users. Researchers like Dr. Yann Poncin, associate professor at the Child Study Center at Yale University, point to disrupted sleep patterns and increased anxiety levels tied to endless scrolling habits.

“Infinite scrolling and short-form video are designed to capture your attention in short bursts,” Dr. Poncin said. “In the past, entertainment was about taking you on a journey through a show or story. Now, it’s about locking you in for just a few seconds, just enough to feed you the next thing the algorithm knows you’ll like.”

Despite sky-high engagement, monetizing short videos remains an uphill battle. Unlike long-form YouTube content, where ads can be inserted throughout, short clips offer limited space for advertisers. Creators, too, are feeling the squeeze.

“It’s never been easier to go viral,” said Enberg. “But it’s never been harder to turn that virality into a sustainable business.”

Last year, TikTok generated an estimated $23.6 billion in ad revenues, according to Oberlo, but even with this growth, many creators still make just a few dollars per million views. YouTube Shorts pays roughly four cents per 1,000 views, which is less than its long-form counterpart. Meanwhile, Instagram has leaned into brand partnerships and emerging tools like “Trial Reels,” which allow creators to experiment with content by initially sharing videos only with non-followers, giving them a low-risk way to test new formats or ideas before deciding whether to share with their full audience. But Meta told CNBC that monetizing Reels remains a work in progress.

While lawmakers scrutinize TikTok’s Chinese ownership and explore potential bans, competitors see a window of opportunity. Meta and YouTube are poised to capture up to 50% of reallocated ad dollars if TikTok faces restrictions in the U.S., according to eMarketer.

Watch the video to understand how TikTok’s rise sparked a short form video race.

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Elon Musk’s xAI Holdings in talks to raise $20 billion, Bloomberg News reports

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Elon Musk's xAI Holdings in talks to raise  billion, Bloomberg News reports

The X logo appears on a phone, and the xAI logo is displayed on a laptop in Krakow, Poland, on April 1, 2025. (Photo by Klaudia Radecka/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

Nurphoto | Nurphoto | Getty Images

Elon Musk‘s xAI Holdings is in discussions with investors to raise about $20 billion, Bloomberg News reported Friday, citing people familiar with the matter.

The funding would value the company at over $120 billion, according to the report.

Musk was looking to assign “proper value” to xAI, sources told CNBC’s David Faber earlier this month. The remarks were made during a call with xAI investors, sources familiar with the matter told Faber. The Tesla CEO at that time didn’t explicitly mention any upcoming funding round, but the sources suggested xAI was preparing for a substantial capital raise in the near future.

The funding amount could be more than $20 billion as the exact figure had not been decided, the Bloomberg report added.

Artificial intelligence startup xAI didn’t immediately respond to a CNBC request for comment outside of U.S. business hours.

Faber Report: Elon Musk held call with current xAI investors, sources say

The AI firm last month acquired X in an all-stock deal that valued xAI at $80 billion and the social media platform at $33 billion.

“xAI and X’s futures are intertwined. Today, we officially take the step to combine the data, models, compute, distribution and talent,” Musk said on X, announcing the deal. “This combination will unlock immense potential by blending xAI’s advanced AI capability and expertise with X’s massive reach.”

Read the full Bloomberg story here.

— CNBC’s Samantha Subin contributed to this report.

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Alphabet jumps 3% as search, advertising units show resilient growth

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Alphabet jumps 3% as search, advertising units show resilient growth

Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai during the Google I/O developers conference in Mountain View, California, on May 10, 2023.

David Paul Morris | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Alphabet‘s stock gained 3% Friday after signaling strong growth in its search and advertising businesses amid a competitive artificial intelligence environment and uncertain macro backdrop.

GOOGL‘s pace of GenAI product roll-out is accelerating with multiple encouraging signals,” wrote Morgan Stanley‘s Brian Nowak. “Macro uncertainty still exists but we remain [overweight] given GOOGL’s still strong relative position and improving pace of GenAI enabled product roll-out.”

The search giant posted earnings of $2.81 per share on $90.23 billion in revenues. That topped the $89.12 billion in sales and $2.01 in EPS expected by LSEG analysts. Revenues grew 12% year-over-year and ahead of the 10% anticipated by Wall Street.

Net income rose 46% to $34.54 billion, or $2.81 per share. That’s up from $23.66 billion, or $1.89 per share, in the year-ago period. Alphabet said the figure included $8 billion in unrealized gains on its nonmarketable equity securities connected to its investment in a private company.

Adjusted earnings, excluding that gain, were $2.27 per share, according to LSEG, and topped analyst expectations.

Read more CNBC tech news

Alphabet shares have pulled back about 16% this year as it battles volatility spurred by mounting trade war fears and worries that President Donald Trump‘s tariffs could crush the global economy. That would make it more difficult for Alphabet to potentially acquire infrastructure for data centers powering AI models as it faces off against competitors such as OpenAI and Anthropic to develop largely language models.

During Thursday’s call with investors, Alphabet suggested that it’s too soon to tally the total impact of tariffs. However, Google’s business chief Philipp Schindler said that ending the de minimis trade exemption in May, which created a loophole benefitting many Chinese e-commerce retailers, could create a “slight headwind” for the company’s ads business, specifically in the Asia-Pacific region. The loophole allows shipments under $800 to come into the U.S. duty-free.

Despite this backdrop, Alphabet showed steady growth in its advertising and search business, reporting $66.89 billion in revenues for its advertising unit. That reflected 8.5% growth from the year-ago period. The company reported $8.93 billion in advertising revenue for its YouTube business, shy of an $8.97 billion estimate from StreetAccount.

Alphabet’s “Search and other” unit rose 9.8% to $50.7 billion, up from $46.16 billion last year. The company said that its AI Overviews tool used in its Google search results page has accumulated 1.5 billion monthly users from a billion in October.

Bank of America analyst Justin Post said that Wall Street is underestimating the upside potential and “monetization ramp” from this tool and cloud demand fueled by AI.

“The strong 1Q search performance, along with constructive comments on Gemini [large language model] performance and [AI Overviews] adoption could help alleviate some investor concerns on AI competition,” Post wrote in a note.

WATCH: Gemini delivering well for Google, says Check Capital’s Chris Ballard

Gemini delivering well for Google, says Check Capital's Chris Ballard

CNBC’s Jennifer Elias contributed to this report.

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