Good day and welcome to WSJ Pro Bankruptcy's Daily Briefing. It's Wednesday, Nov. 22. In today's briefing, Celsius Network, the crypto company that won court approval this month to end its yearlong bankruptcy, said it plans to reduce the scope of its surviving business following discussions with the Securities and Exchange Commission. An involuntary bankruptcy against Mexico’s TV Azteca has been dismissed, sending the multimedia conglomerate and its bondholders to U.S. district court to fight out their disputes.

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Celsius Network, the crypto company that won court approval this month to end its yearlong bankruptcy, said it plans to reduce the scope of its surviving business following discussions with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

The revised restructuring plan will create a new company centered on Celsius’s bitcoin-mining business, the company said in a filing on Monday. Celsius said it made the changes after consulting with the securities regulator and is now waiting on SEC approval before the new company can execute on its plan.

The earlier plan approved in a New York bankruptcy court would have resulted in a new company built around Celsius’s bitcoin-mining business, staking activities and monetizing of illiquid assets.

Reducing the scale of operations means customer fees will be lower than those under the plan originally struck with Fahrenheit, a group of investors led by TechCrunch founder Michael Arrington which in May won the right to manage the new company. Customers would get back more of the liquid cryptocurrency that is held on the platform, the company said.

An involuntary bankruptcy against Mexico’s TV Azteca has been dismissed, with a bankruptcy-court judge saying that the multimedia conglomerate and its bondholders are involved in a dispute that must play out in U.S. district court.

TV Azteca had been sued over missed payments to bondholders in a case in district court, and then earlier this year an involuntary bankruptcy petition was filed by a group of bondholders in bankruptcy court.

Arguing for dismissal of the bankruptcy petition in August, TV Azteca said the sides are in a bona fide dispute, making the involuntary filing improper. It also said the involuntary petition was filed as a tactical maneuver related to a matter pending in another court, and that the U.S. involuntary bankruptcy would hurt the company. To the extent that an in-court reorganization should occur, it should happen in Mexico, TV Azteca said.

A group of lenders at Endo International made a new proposal that would pay up to $465 million to the U.S. government agencies that objected to the bankrupt pharmaceutical company’s restructuring plan to hand control to the creditors.

Endo’s first-lien debtholders said the government agencies would receive $365 million over 10 years, according to a filing on Monday. The unpaid amount will be paid out ahead of other debts in case the restructured company files for bankruptcy again. The alternative would be for the agencies to receive a lump sum of $200 million on the day when the chapter 11 plan becomes effective, the filing showed.

The proposal is an important step to end monthslong mediations between the lenders and the federal agencies and move Endo closer to exit chapter 11 to make distributions to opioid victims. The proposal still needs to be approved by various parties and be signed off by bankruptcy court.

Timber Pharmaceuticals shares were recently down 69% to 45 cents following the company's chapter 11 filing and a delisting notice from NYSE American.

On Friday, shares were up 17% to $1.46 when they were halted because of news pending. Timber said in a securities filing that it didn't have sufficient stockholder votes for its sale to LEO Pharma.

Timber said later Friday that LEO terminated the merger agreement, and also said it filed for bankruptcy with an agreement to sell its assets to LEO. In addition to the stalking horse bid from LEO, Timber is re-engaging with "parties that previously expressed interest in pursuing a transaction" and other parties.

NYSE American said Tuesday that Timber has the right to appeal the delisting determination and noted the company mentioned that common stockholders could experience a complete loss.

Timber, which focuses on treatments for rare and orphan dermatologic diseases, previously warned that there was substantial doubt about its ability to continue as a going concern, and it would likely need to file for bankruptcy if the merger wasn't completed. According to a declaration from Chief Executive John Koconis, the company has "incurred significant operating losses since inception."

Timber adjourned its shareholder meeting twice after it didn't receive enough votes. While most of the votes cast were in favor, many stockholders didn't vote. Koconis said in the declaration that "It was determined, after discussions with our proxy solicitor, that achieving the required 50%+ majority vote would be very challenging given the spread of voters holding a very low amount of shares."

--Josh Beckerman

The chief executive of Binance, the largest global cryptocurrency exchange, stepped down and pleaded guilty to violating criminal U.S. anti-money-laundering requirements, in a deal that might preserve the company’s ability to continue operating, according to court documents.

Changpeng Zhao appeared in Seattle federal court Tuesday and entered his plea, according to unsealed court records. Prosecutors accused Binance, which Zhao owns, of facilitating transactions with sanctioned groups. Binance encouraged U.S. users to obscure their location so the firm could avoid complying with U.S. anti-money-laundering laws, prosecutors said.

Binance will plead guilty and agree to pay fines totaling $4.3 billion, which includes amounts to settle civil allegations made by regulators. Zhao has agreed to pay a criminal fine of $50 million, although that amount might be reduced based on separate civil penalties he has agreed to pay, court records show.

A wrong-way bet on the price of wood pellets has jeopardized America’s biggest exporter of the fuel, even though demand has never been higher among the European and Asia power plants burning wood instead of coal.

Enviva said its gambit to buy pellets from a customer, and resell them for more, backfired when prices fell, and that nine-figure losses could trigger a default with its lenders by year-end.

Enviva’s shares are down about 60% since it warned investors earlier this month that the trade risked its ability to remain a going concern. The stock, a market beater during the pandemic and last year’s European energy crisis, has fallen more than 97% this year and recently traded below $1.

Federal Reserve officials were unwilling to conclude they were done raising interest rates when they decided earlier this month to extend a pause in rate increases.

But minutes of their most recent policy meeting suggested they might be comfortable holding rates steady for at least the rest of the year.

“All participants agreed that the committee was in a position to proceed carefully,” said the minutes of the Oct. 31-Nov. 1 meeting released on Tuesday. “Participants expected that the data arriving in coming months would help clarify the extent to which” a slowdown in inflation was continuing amid higher borrowing costs, the minutes said.

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