FTX Pays Out $2.2B, Pushing Some Creditors Past 100% Recovery

Edgen Crypto·Mar 19 2026, 02:16

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Key Takeaways

The FTX estate is proceeding with its fourth and largest creditor distribution, releasing $2.2 billion and bringing total payouts to approximately $10 billion. While this round allows U.S. customers and general unsecured claimants to reach 100% recovery, the milestone is based on severely depressed crypto prices from November 2022, causing significant dissent among recipients.

$2.2 Billion Payout: The FTX estate will begin distributing $2.2 billion on March 31, marking its fourth round of repayments and a significant liquidity event for creditors.
100% Recovery Milestone: This distribution pushes several key creditor classes, including U.S. customers, to a 100% recovery rate, with one class reaching 120%.
Contested Valuations: Repayments are calculated based on November 2022 crypto prices, such as Bitcoin at $16,871, leading to claims that creditors are not truly being made whole at current market values.

FTX Distributes $2.2B, Pushing U.S. Customers to 100% Recovery

The FTX Recovery Trust has scheduled its fourth round of creditor repayments to begin on March 31, distributing approximately $2.2 billion in U.S. dollars. This latest tranche will bring the total funds returned to creditors and former customers to around $10 billion since the exchange collapsed in November 2022. The funds are being sent through designated providers, including BitGo, Kraken, and Payoneer.

This distribution marks a significant milestone in the bankruptcy process. U.S. customer claims (Class 5B) will receive an additional 5% to reach a full 100% cumulative payout. General unsecured and digital asset loan claims (Classes 6A and 6B) will each get a 15% distribution, also bringing them to 100% recovery. International customers (Class 5A) will see their recovery rise to 96% after an 18% payment, while convenience class claimants will now have received 120% of their claim value. The estate also set a May 29 payment date for its first distribution to preferred equity holders.

Creditors Protest Payouts Based on $16,871 Bitcoin Price

Despite the estate achieving headline recovery rates of 100% or more for certain classes, many creditors argue the figures are misleading. The court-approved reorganization plan values all claims based on cryptocurrency prices at the time of the bankruptcy filing in November 2022, a period of extreme market distress. At that time, Bitcoin (BTC) was trading at approximately $16,871 and Ether (ETH) was at $1,258, a fraction of their subsequent values.

This valuation method means that even with a 100% dollar-value recovery, creditors are not being made whole in terms of their original crypto holdings, missing out on the substantial market appreciation since 2022. The discrepancy has drawn sharp criticism from those who lost assets.

FTX creditors are not whole.

— Sunil Kavuri, FTX creditor advocate.