Donald Trump was handed a lifeline today when a panel of judges in New York ruled that he no longer had to post a nearly half-billion-dollar bond in order to appeal his civil fraud case. The judges gave Trump 10 days to secure a much smaller $175 million bond.

The ruling was a victory for the former president, who had been just hours away from a deadline after which he could have begun losing control of his bank accounts and even some of his marquee properties. Instead, his payment of the smaller bond will prevent the New York attorney general from seizing his assets while his appeal is heard, which could take months.

Two people with knowledge of Trump’s finances said that he should be able to post a $175 million bond, but it would drain much of his cash. He would have to pay a bond company about $200 million as collateral. It may help that Trump’s social media company will begin publicly trading tomorrow, effectively boosting his net worth by billions.

The former president was not as fortunate at a hearing regarding his Manhattan criminal trial on charges that he falsified business records to hide a potential sex scandal. A judge denied his lawyers’ attempts to continue delaying the proceedings, and officially scheduled the trial to begin on April 15.

The decision showed the limits of Trump’s battle-tested strategy of delay. The former president has for many months been facing four separate criminal cases, and only the New York one has a solid trial date.