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From corporate giants to mom-and-pop stores, bankruptcies are piling up across the United States this year.
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Large business bankruptcies have reached their highest level in 15 years.
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“Bankruptcies seem to be everywhere,” said one veteran bankruptcy attorney.
Bankruptcies are not just increasing: they are suddenly everywhere.
From multibillion-dollar giants to mom-and-pop stores to everyday people, bankruptcies are piling up across the United States this year, and large business bankruptcies have already reached their highest level in 15 years.
The rise in bankruptcies highlights the growing financial pressures facing consumers and businesses as costs rise amid a tougher borrowing environment.
“Rising costs, tighter credit conditions, and ongoing geopolitical volatility continue to put pressure on households and businesses already facing financial stress,” Amy Quackenboss, executive director of the American Bankruptcy Institute, said earlier this month.
Unlike past crises, this wave of bankruptcies appears to be affecting almost every corner of the economy. It is spreading across a variety of sectors in what one veteran bankruptcy lawyer described as a strikingly “unusual” pattern.
Typically, corporate bankruptcies tend to be “industry sticky,” meaning they cluster within the same sectors, Robert Stark, a partner at law firm Brown Rudnick and chair of its bankruptcy and corporate restructuring practice group, recently told Business Insider.
In 2022, for example, he said the “great crypto winter” occurred, culminating in a series of bankruptcies of cryptocurrency companies, including Sam Bankman-Fried’s FTX.
“That was a complicated event: a lot of people in the industry filed for bankruptcy at the same time,” Stark said. “What we have now, which is what I find interesting, is that I don’t see as much rigidity as I’m used to seeing.”
“Bankruptcies seem to be everywhere,” added Stark, who represents creditor groups in the 2025 bankruptcies of auto parts company First Brands and fintech startup Linqto, as well as the capital committee in the Chapter 11 case of genetic testing company 23andMe.
Stark said he can’t point to a clear cause for the “vast number of industries” that are now bankrupt, but called it “unusual” in his 30 years of experience and “surprising.”
Major corporate bankruptcies this year included hospitality company Sonder, Spirit Airlines, Del Monte Foods, retailer Claire’s and CVS Health subsidiary Omnicare. Each, in court documents, listed more than $1 billion in liabilities, placing them among the largest bankruptcies of 2025.