Creditors of the collapsed cryptocurrency exchange FTX are slated to receive another substantial payment, with $1.6 billion scheduled for distribution at the end of this month. The FTX Recovery Trust announced on Friday that this third major payout will take place on September 30, 2025, marking another significant step toward making victims whole.
Four distinct groups of creditors will receive funds, with distributions ranging between 78% and 120% of the value of their holdings at the time of FTX’s stunning collapse in November 2022. The funds will be disbursed through trusted platforms, including crypto exchanges Bitgo and Kraken and payments provider Payoneer.
This latest distribution continues the successful recovery plan managed by the FTX estate. It follows a massive $5 billion payout that was distributed to another four creditor groups on May 30, 2025, highlighting the effectiveness of the team tasked with clawing back assets.
The Collapse: A Recap of One of Crypto’s Biggest Frauds
The repayments are the result of an extensive effort to untangle one of the most significant financial frauds in recent history. FTX, once a titan of the crypto industry, imploded in November 2022 after it was revealed that its CEO, Sam Bankman-Fried, had criminally mismanaged the exchange.
Investigations found that Bankman-Fried and his top associates secretly funneled billions of dollars in customer funds to FTX’s sibling hedge fund, Alameda Research, to cover its own risky and unprofitable bets. When market conditions soured, the scheme unraveled, causing the exchange to declare bankruptcy and wiping out billions in customer assets.
The scale of the mismanagement was so severe that John J. Ray III, the experienced lawyer appointed to oversee the bankruptcy, stated that the FTX collapse was worse than the infamous bankruptcy of energy giant Enron in the early 2000s.
Justice Served: The Aftermath for SBF and His Inner Circle
Following the collapse, Sam Bankman-Fried was arrested and put on trial. U.S. Attorney Damian Williams famously described the scheme as „one of the biggest financial frauds in American history.“
During the trial, key members of Bankman-Fried’s inner circle, including FTX co-founder Gary Wang, former Alameda CEO Caroline Ellison, and former FTX head of engineering Nishad Singh, testified against him. They admitted to committing financial crimes at his direction, providing prosecutors with the evidence needed for a conviction.
Bankman-Fried is now serving a 25-year prison sentence in a Southern California facility for fraud and other related crimes.
A New Chapter for FTX Creditors
The consistent and substantial payouts from the FTX Recovery Trust represent a remarkable turnaround from a situation that once seemed hopeless. For the thousands of customers who saw their investments vanish overnight, these distributions are a welcome step toward financial recovery and a final chapter in one of the crypto industry’s most turbulent sagas.
