FTX’s Next $900 Million Payout Still Prices Bitcoin Like 2022

FTX will send another $900 million to creditors on July 31, its fifth distribution since bankruptcy repayments began in 2025. The payout pushes cumulative distributions toward nearly $10 billion, an unusually generous recovery for an exchange that started with an $8 billion hole in customer funds. The round covers Convenience and Non-Convenience claim holders who cleared paperwork by the June 16 record date, plus a separate $18 million check for preferred shareholders.

The number reads like vindication. Every dollar in this round, like the four before it, is still priced as though bitcoin never left November 2022, when it traded near $16,871. Bitcoin has since climbed past $65,000, close to four times that level, while the exchange’s claims table has not moved at all.

FTX’s Fifth Round Pays Out at 120% Recovery

The fifth distribution follows the same claims waterfall FTX has used since its first payout, one laid out in the Chapter 11 Plan’s waterfall priorities that pays the smallest, simplest claims first. Convenience Class claims, the largest group by headcount, reach a cumulative recovery of 120% of allowed value with this round. Larger and more complicated claims move up in smaller steps.

• Dotcom customer claims add 9%, reaching 105% cumulative recovery
• U.S. customer claims add 5%, also reaching 105% cumulative recovery
• General unsecured and digital asset loan claims each add 3%, reaching 103% cumulative recovery

Getting paid still takes paperwork. Eligible creditors must clear Know Your Customer checks, file tax forms and register with an approved distribution provider, either BitGo, Kraken or Payoneer, before any money moves. Funds typically arrive within one to three business days of the distribution date.

Preferred Equity Holders get a second check the same day. The $18 million payment brings total distributions from the Preferred Shareholder Remission Fund Trust to $95 million, covering a class of investor rarely repaid at all once an exchange collapses.

What Is an FTX Bitcoin Claim Actually Worth Now?

FTX still converts every crypto claim into cash using prices from November 11, 2022, the day it filed for bankruptcy, when bitcoin traded at $16,871. Bitcoin has since traded above $65,000. A creditor paid the 120% Convenience Class rate on a single bitcoin claim collects about $20,245, roughly a third of what that coin is worth today.

The math traces back to a Delaware bankruptcy court ruling that closed off any other approach. Judge John Dorsey decided digital asset claims would be valued as of the petition date, the day FTX collapsed, rather than the day the estate finally pays out. Objecting creditors argued the rule stripped them of years of appreciation. Dorsey disagreed, and the price table has held ever since.

Bitcoin’s price has been anything but calm this year. It crossed $65,000 on July 15 as traders shrugged off a fresh round of U.S. strikes on Iran, then slipped back toward $63,000 within days once the fighting resumed, part of a stretch swinging between $63,000 and $69,000 this month.

Even at the lower end of that range, bitcoin trades close to four times its November 2022 level, well above the $53,600 realized price floor flagged earlier this year as demand wavered. Even the roughest days of 2026 sit far above the price FTX still uses to cut every check.

Five Distributions, Nearly $10 Billion Later

FTX’s payouts have arrived in five waves since February 2025, building a repayment record most bankruptcies never approach, though this fifth round is smaller than the $2.2 billion delivered in March or the $5 billion delivered in May 2025.

The estate has recovered between $14.7 billion and $16.5 billion in distributable assets, well beyond what anyone expected when the exchange collapsed owing customers more than $8 billion. Sales of Sam Bankman-Fried’s stakes in the AI company Anthropic and brokerage Robinhood, along with liquidated holdings of Solana and Sui tokens, filled much of that gap.

That recovery rate puts FTX well ahead of peers from the same wave of 2022 collapses. Celsius Network, another casualty from that year, has returned roughly 64.9% to creditors so far. Genesis Global Capital chose a different path, paying creditors in bitcoin and ether directly instead of locking in 2022 dollar values, a structure that let creditors keep bitcoin’s later gains. FTX’s plan never offered that option.

Creditors marked the September 30 payout many had awaited as the moment unsecured lenders first cleared 85% recovery.

The Senate Tells Bankman-Fried to Stay Put

FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried’s campaign for early freedom hit a wall in Washington. The Senate passed S. Res. 772 by unanimous consent on July 15, a resolution stating the convicted founder should “under no circumstances” receive a presidential pardon or commutation.

The measure carries no legal force and cannot bind President Donald Trump, who holds sole constitutional authority over pardons. It still put all 100 senators on record against clemency for Bankman-Fried, a level of agreement rare in a divided chamber.

Bankman-Fried stole billions from hardworking Americans. He’s a criminal who deserves to stay locked up.

Sen. Ruben Gallego, the Arizona Democrat who co-sponsored the resolution with Wyoming Republican Cynthia Lummis, made the case in a statement. Lummis, one of Congress’s most vocal advocates for crypto regulation, said Bankman-Fried “had his day in court” and argued he was chasing clemency he “hasn’t earned.”

Trump has shown no reluctance to use his pardon power elsewhere in crypto. He has already cleared Binance founder Changpeng Zhao, Silk Road creator Ross Ulbricht and BitMEX co-founders Arthur Hayes, Ben Delo and Samuel Reed. He said in January he had no plans to extend the same treatment to Bankman-Fried.

Bankman-Fried filed his formal pardon request from prison on June 8, seeking to restore rights such as voting and jury service without erasing his conviction. He lost his appeal of that conviction the same month and remains ineligible for release until around 2044, when he would be 52. He has long argued FTX was never insolvent and could have resolved its liquidity problems without a bankruptcy filing, a claim that has not persuaded any court so far.

FTX’s Court Calendar Still Has Two Dates Left

FTX’s bankruptcy case is not finished. An Omnibus Hearing is scheduled for July 23 in Delaware, with another set for August 16. Court filings, including the Plan itself, sit in the public docket for FTX’s Chapter 11 case, updated as new motions move through.

The Recovery Trust has said only that it will announce the sixth round’s record and payment dates in due course. For creditors, that means one more wait, and another check priced to a bitcoin market that stopped moving for them in 2022.

Frequently Asked Questions

What happens if a creditor misses the June 16 record date?

Creditors who complete their paperwork after the cutoff are not left out permanently. FTX rolls late claimants into a future distribution once the Recovery Trust sets new record and payment dates, which the exchange has said will come in due course, the same pattern used after each of the first four rounds.

Why are some FTX recovery rates already above 100%?

The extra comes largely from 9% annual interest layered onto Convenience Class claims since 2022, plus the estate recovering far more in assets than the roughly $8 billion that vanished when FTX collapsed. Add interest and surplus recoveries to a claim frozen at 2022 prices, and the total can clear 100% even though the underlying valuation never moved.

Can Sam Bankman-Fried still get a pardon after the Senate vote?

Yes, at least in theory. The Senate’s resolution is nonbinding and cannot limit the president’s constitutional pardon power. Trump would still have to act on his own, and he has said since January he has no plans to do so, even after pardoning other crypto figures.

Is the July 31 payment the last FTX distribution?

No end date has been set. FTX has said only that it will announce the next record and payment dates in due course, and two more Omnibus Hearings are already scheduled, on July 23 and August 16, to work through remaining claims and further payments to Preferred Equity Holders.

What is FTX’s Preferred Shareholder Remission Fund Trust?

It is a separate pool set aside for holders of FTX preferred equity, a class of investor rarely repaid at all after a crypto exchange collapses. The July 31 payment is that fund’s second distribution, lifting total payments to Preferred Equity Holders to $95 million, with institutional holders paid through BitGo and individual holders through Kraken.

Disclaimer: This article is for general information only, not financial or legal advice, and reflects FTX distribution figures and recovery percentages as reported at publication, which may change as the Chapter 11 case continues.