FTX Begins Fifth Repayment Round: $900 Million to Creditors
The FTX Recovery Trust has now paid out roughly $10 billion to creditors and users since the exchange collapsed into bankruptcy in November 2022. A collapse that left users locked out of their funds for years. The trust's next distribution round begins July 31, and it marks another step in one of the largest creditor repayment efforts in crypto history.
For anyone still tracking claims from the FTX estate, or watching how these repayments might affect broader market liquidity, here's what's changing.
$900 Million Distribution Starts July 31
According to Cointelegraph, the FTX Recovery Trust confirmed the next debt repayment to creditors will begin on July 31. In a Friday announcement, the trust and the exchange said they'll distribute approximately $900 million among claimants in "convenience and non-convenience classes." Eligible creditors can expect funds in their BitGo, Kraken, or Payoneer accounts within one to three business days of the July 31 start date.
This marks the fifth distribution round under FTX's repayment plan. Under the plan's terms, claims under $50,000 are repaid at 120% of their value, while other creditors receive between 103% and 105% of their claim amount.
Total Repayments Approach $10 Billion
Following a $2.2 billion payment in March, the FTX Recovery Trust has now distributed roughly $10 billion total since the exchange's November 2022 collapse, a bankruptcy that unfolded during a broader crypto market downturn that pushed several other exchanges into Chapter 11 proceedings as well.
Meanwhile, former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried and Ryan Salame, former co-CEO of FTX's Bahamas division, remain in federal prison for their roles in misusing customer funds.
In a related development, law firm Fenwick & West, which advised FTX before its collapse agreed in May to pay $54 million to settle a class-action lawsuit from FTX users. A group of 20 FTX users had sued the firm for $525 million in damages just days before that settlement was reached.
Could Bankman-Fried Still Be Pardoned?
Bankman-Fried, who pleaded not guilty to criminal charges tied to the misuse of FTX customer funds, was convicted and sentenced to 25 years in prison in 2024. His appeal of both the conviction and sentence was rejected last month.
Even before that appellate ruling became public, Bankman-Fried had reportedly sought a pardon from Donald Trump, though Trump said in a January interview he had no plans to grant one. Despite that, the U.S. Senate this week unanimously passed a resolution opposing a pardon for the former FTX CEO.
The resolution can't legally block Trump from issuing a pardon, but it signals bipartisan opposition to the idea. Several lawmakers have also criticized Trump over his earlier pardon of former Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao, a decision that's kept pardon speculation around crypto executives in the news.
What This Means for the Market
Large repayment rounds like this one occasionally raise questions about sell-pressure, since some creditors may convert distributed funds into cash or reallocate into other assets. That said, the FTX repayment plan has been running in structured phases for over a year now, and prior distribution rounds haven't shown a clear, sustained impact on broader market prices, worth keeping in mind rather than assuming this round will move markets meaningfully on its own.
