FTX Commences More Than $5 Billion Second Creditor Distribution

On May 30, 2025, FTX Trading Ltd. and the FTX Recovery Trust said they had commenced more than $5 billion in second-round cash distributions under the failed exchange’s Chapter 11 plan. The payment wave reached both convenience and non-convenience classes that held allowed claims and had completed the required identity, tax and provider-onboarding steps.

That made May 30 a practical milestone in one of the digital-asset industry’s largest insolvencies. The event was not a relaunch of FTX, a return of customers’ original tokens or a blanket settlement of every claim. It was a court-plan distribution of cash through BitGo and Kraken, with eligible creditors told to expect access within one to three business days.

What the distribution covered

FTX’s May 30 notice specified different distribution percentages under the plan’s priority waterfall. Allowed Class 5A Dotcom Customer Entitlement Claims were receiving 72%; Class 5B U.S. Customer Entitlement Claims, 54%; Classes 6A General Unsecured Claims and 6B Digital Asset Loan Claims, 61% each; and Class 7 Convenience Claims, 120%.

Those percentages should not be read as a uniform return on the cryptocurrency each customer once held. They applied to allowed bankruptcy claims under the confirmed plan. A percentage above 100% reflected the plan’s treatment of claim value and post-petition interest; it did not mean that a customer recovered 120% of the later market value of missing bitcoin, ether or another token.

The May 30 announcement also imposed an important timing limitation. FTX said the distributions had commenced, while BitGo or Kraken would make funds available to eligible creditors within one to three business days. “More than $5 billion” therefore described the distribution round, not a verified total already withdrawn by creditors during May 30.

Why it mattered beyond the claims portal

The second distribution extended payments beyond the smaller convenience claims addressed in the initial February 18, 2025 round. In its first-quarter court-filed financial report, the Recovery Trust recorded $1.068 billion of distributions from the plan’s January 3 effective date through March 31. The same report listed $7.591 billion of allowed administrative and Classes 5, 6 and 7 claims as of March 31, excluding satisfied claims, disputed claims and several other categories.

Moving a planned sum above $5 billion into distribution channels demonstrated that the estate had converted recoveries and litigation-era asset work into creditor liquidity. It also shifted the bankruptcy’s relevance for crypto markets from anticipated recovery to actual cash availability. The market implication remained uncertain, however. Cash paid to former customers could be saved, spent, used to pay taxes or legal expenses, or returned to digital assets. Neither the trust’s notice nor the contemporaneous reporting established how recipients would deploy it, so the payment cannot be treated as evidence of a specific crypto-market inflow.

What remained unresolved on May 30

Eligibility was narrower than the headline amount. A claimant needed an allowed claim and completed pre-distribution requirements, including know-your-customer verification, tax forms and onboarding with BitGo or Kraken. The Recovery Trust said later record and payment dates would be announced, while FTX Digital Markets would separately communicate with customers whose claims were administered through the Bahamas process.

The financial report also showed why the second round did not close the case. As of March 31, $198 million was classified as unclaimed distributions because eligible holders at the January 3 record date had not completed pre-distribution requirements. Disputed claims were still being reconciled, and trust asset valuations carried stated limitations: more than 500 digital-asset positions were valued at March 31 spot prices, with certain concentrated or non-traded holdings assigned zero and a fuller valuation still pending.

For the May 30 record, the defensible conclusion is specific: FTX commenced a court-authorized cash distribution round above $5 billion. The final recovery for every claimant, the timing of later payments and the market destination of the cash were not yet established.