FTX, Issuer of FTT, Begins $900M Fifth Creditor Payout on July 31

FTT News

FTX, the collapsed exchange behind the FTT token, will begin its fifth creditor distribution of roughly $900 million on July 31, according to the estate’s official announcement. The FTX Recovery Trust confirmed that eligible claimants in the plan’s convenience and non-convenience classes can receive funds through their BitGo, Kraken or Payoneer accounts within one to three business days. The payout marks the latest step in an unusually complete recovery for holders tied to a failed altcoin exchange, most of whom stand to recoup more than the face value of their 2022 claims. Ongoing coverage of the estate continues on our FTX hub.

The distribution splits creditors into tiers under the court-approved bankruptcy plan. International customers receive an additional 9%, lifting their recovery to 105% of the allowed claim, while US customers get an extra 5% to reach the same 105% level. Remaining creditor groups are set at 103%. The smallest accounts benefit most: convenience claims under $50,000 that were not previously paid receive a full 120% reimbursement. That structure rewards retail holders frozen out when the exchange halted withdrawals, and it stands in sharp contrast to the fractional recoveries typical of a crypto bear market insolvency.

Recovering more than 100% is rare in bankruptcy, where collapsed exchanges usually return only a fraction of deposits. In FTX’s case, the trust repaid the full claim and then layered interest on top. That interest accrues at 9% per year, calculated from the exchange’s November 2022 failure under founder Sam Bankman-Fried. The catch is that all claims are valued at 2022 prices, when crypto sat far below current levels. Creditors who accepted cash instead of holding their original assets effectively missed the rebound, a reminder that even a near-full repayment does not restore an all-time-high position lost during a forced wind-down.

The July 31 tranche is the fifth payout since distributions began in 2025. Four earlier rounds have already returned about $10 billion, including a $2.2 billion distribution completed in March. Cumulatively, the estate has moved roughly $10 billion back to claimants since the November 2022 Chapter 11 filing. The steady cadence has made FTX one of the most closely watched restructurings in the industry, with each notice tracked by creditor activists such as Sunil Kavuri, who has said he lost about $2.1 million in the collapse. The scale dwarfs recoveries seen across most exchange failures of the last cycle.

The wind-down has been led by restructuring veteran John Ray III, whose team recovered more than $14 billion in assets from the wreckage. Part of that haul came from selling holdings early, including the estate’s stake in artificial-intelligence firm Anthropic for roughly $1.3 billion, a position that would command a far higher price today. That timing decision, like the 2022-price valuation of claims, illustrates the trade-offs of a liquidation prioritizing certainty over upside. Unlike tokens tied to a decentralized automated market maker, FTT’s value depended on a single centralized venue, so the recoveries flow to fiat-denominated creditors rather than to the token itself.

The criminal fallout remains unresolved even as money returns to users. Bankman-Fried, sentenced to 25 years in 2024, saw his appeal denied last month after a federal court upheld the conviction, and Ryan Salame, the former co-CEO of FTX’s Bahamian affiliate, also remains in federal prison. Prospects for a presidential pardon have dimmed: the US Senate unanimously adopted a resolution opposing clemency, a symbolic but bipartisan rebuke. On the civil side, law firm Fenwick & West agreed in May to pay $54 million to settle a class action from former users, days after a group of 20 users had sought $525 million from the firm.

COINOTAG’s proprietary 42-indicator composite scoring engine rates the $0.2017 support at 79/100 — its strongest reading — anchored by the confluence of the S2 pivot, the Donchian lower band and a Fibonacci retracement floor. Overhead, the engine scores the $0.2231 resistance at 68/100, driven by the EMA 20, an ATR upper band and the R3 pivot. With FTT changing hands near $0.2073, an RSI of 33.13 and a bearish MACD confirm the prevailing downtrend, while perpetual funding sits flat at 0.0000% and open interest reads $0 — signs of a dormant derivatives market. A broader Fear & Greed print of 27 keeps sentiment defensive; a daily close below $0.2017 would invalidate any recovery thesis, while reclaiming $0.2231 is the first bullish trigger.