Luke Vargas

In their closing arguments, prosecutors said that Kwon was driven by greed and arrogance and had lied repeatedly about the utility and safety of his products.

At its peak in the spring of 2022, prosecutors said the total market value of all the cryptocurrencies associated with Kwan's Terraform Labs topped $50 billion, with their failures hurting hundreds of thousands of investors worldwide.

Coming up, animal spirits are back on Wall Street, fueling a surge in massive deals.

Plus, Rivian looks to take on Tesla with self-driving cars.

We've got those stories and more after the break.

The mega deal is back, and so it seems is Wall Street's immense appetite for debt.

Paramount's hostile bid for Warner Brothers Discovery, as well as other recent debt-laden transactions, have all been possible thanks to a spike in lending.

And as Journal credit reporter Matt Wertz writes, that is making some investors nervous.

Matt, before we get too into the weeds here, just talk us through these recent deals we've been seeing, especially those that have not just been cash offers.

And in fact, a number at least seem to have been very dependent actually on loans.

And so, Matt, why is this occurring now?

I mean, going into 2025, we had seen several years in a row of declining M&A mega deals.

All right, Matt, and finally, what is the outlook here?

Is this trend going to continue?

Some indigestion after that feast on the Serengeti, to push your analogy maybe a bit too far.

I've been speaking to Wall Street Journal credit reporter Matt Wertz.

Matt, thanks so much for the update.

Yeah, thank you.

Let's turn to the UK now, where an interest rate cut is increasingly on the cards, after data this morning showed the economy unexpectedly shrank before last month's budget.

A rate cut would be welcome news for property investors, with the UK housing market having stalled this year.