FTX began approximately $2.2 billion fourth creditor distribution

FTX Recovery Trust commenced an approximately $2.2 billion fourth distribution to eligible creditors on March 31, 2026, advancing one of the largest cash-recovery processes to follow a cryptocurrency exchange collapse.

The payment date applied to holders of allowed claims in convenience and non-convenience classes who had completed the required steps. FTX said eligible recipients should expect funds through BitGo, Kraken or Payoneer within one to three business days from March 31. Commencement therefore did not mean every creditor had cash available that day, and the announcement did not say that every filed or disputed claim qualified.

What the fourth distribution covered

Under the plan waterfall described by FTX, allowed Class 5A Dotcom Customer Entitlement Claims were assigned an incremental 18% distribution, bringing the stated cumulative distribution for that class to 96%. Allowed Class 5B U.S. Customer Entitlement Claims were assigned another 5%, bringing that class to 100%. Allowed Class 6A General Unsecured Claims and Class 6B Digital Asset Loan Claims were each assigned 15%, also reaching a stated 100% cumulative distribution. Class 7 Convenience Claims were assigned a 120% cumulative distribution.

Those percentages measured distributions against allowed bankruptcy claims under the confirmed plan. They did not mean customers were receiving the same quantity of bitcoin, ether or other assets once shown in their FTX accounts. The mechanism was a cash claims process. FTX also cautioned that the published percentages could differ slightly because of rounding.

Eligibility remained conditional. Claimants needed an allowed claim, identity verification, tax documentation and onboarding with a distribution service provider. For customers using a provider, FTX said they had directed the estate to pay that provider, which then controlled when funds became available in the customer's account. That distinction separates the estate's distribution obligation from the final posting time visible to an individual creditor.

Why March 31 mattered

The fourth round converted more of the recovery estate's asset sales, settlements and released reserves into creditor payments. A financial report filed on February 27 had recorded $8.131 billion of cumulative distributions through December 31, 2025, including $7.964 billion against allowed claim amounts and $168 million of postpetition interest. The same report identified February 14, 2026 as the record date for a distribution expected on or about March 31.

The March 31 process was consequential beyond its size. FTX's collapse had left customers and other creditors inside a court-supervised reconciliation system in which claim allowance, compliance checks, reserve policy and the timing of asset monetization determined access to cash. A multibillion-dollar distribution showed that the estate had moved well beyond confirming a plan and into repeated execution. It did not erase delays for holders of unresolved, unverified or otherwise ineligible claims.

The development also had no demonstrated event-day price effect. The estate did not disclose how recipients would use their cash, and no cited source measured what portion, if any, returned to digital-asset markets. Treating the full distribution as immediate crypto buying power would therefore be speculation.

Later confirmation and limits

A Recovery Trust financial report filed on May 18, 2026 later recorded $10.313 billion of cumulative distributions through March 31, including $10.139 billion of allowed-claim principal and $174 million of postpetition interest. Compared with the December 31 cumulative total, that was an increase of $2.182 billion, broadly consistent with the earlier estimate of approximately $2.2 billion.

That later filing confirms the quarter-end scale, not the precise receipt time for each claimant. Its cumulative totals may also include distribution activity other than the fourth-round payments, so the difference should not be treated as a transaction-level reconciliation. The event-day conclusion remains narrower: the Recovery Trust commenced the scheduled fourth distribution on March 31, with class percentages and eligibility conditions defined by the bankruptcy plan.