FTX collapsed in November 2022 and has been paying its customers back ever since. The FTX Recovery Trust has made five distributions since early 2025, totalling close to $10 billion, the most recent on 31 July 2026. Founder Sam Bankman-Fried is serving a 25-year prison sentence.
How Much Money Creditors Have Actually Received
Most FTX customer classes have now been repaid more than the full value of their claims. The figures come from the FTX Recovery Trust’s own distribution notices.
After the fifth distribution on 31 July 2026, Dotcom customer entitlement claims and US customer entitlement claims stood at 105% cumulative recovery. General unsecured claims and digital asset loan claims reached 103%. The convenience class, which covers the smallest claims, reached 120%.
That fifth round released roughly $900 million. The fourth, on 31 March 2026, was far larger at about $2.2 billion. A separate $18 million went to eligible preferred equity holders on 31 July 2026, taking payments from that fund to $95 million.
Eligibility ran on a record date: only claims verified and registered by 16 June 2026 were paid in the July round.
Why 105% Back Still Feels Like a Loss
Creditors are repaid in dollars, valued at what their assets were worth on the day FTX entered bankruptcy in November 2022. Crypto prices then were near their lows.
Under the approved methodology, a customer who held one bitcoin on the exchange is repaid roughly $16,871 for it, plus the percentage uplift. Someone repaid at 105% receives 105% of that November 2022 number, not 105% of what the coin is worth today.
Creditors objected to the petition-date valuation during the bankruptcy, and the court approved it anyway. It is the reason a recovery rate above 100% and a widespread sense of loss can both be true at once.
What Brought FTX Down in November 2022
FTX was the third-largest cryptocurrency exchange by trading volume when it failed. It filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on 11 November 2022, alongside its affiliated trading firm Alameda Research and more than 100 related entities.
The collapse followed the crypto equivalent of a bank run. Customer money had been routed to Alameda, and the exchange could not meet withdrawals. At sentencing, the court found customers were left about $8 billion short.
John J. Ray III, the restructuring specialist who had handled Enron, replaced Bankman-Fried and ran the estate through the bankruptcy.
Where Sam Bankman-Fried Is Now
Bankman-Fried is in federal prison and has exhausted his direct appeal. A jury convicted him on seven counts of fraud and conspiracy in November 2023, and he was sentenced on 28 March 2024 to 25 years.
On 12 June 2026, a unanimous three-judge panel of the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit upheld both the conviction and the sentence. The panel described the trial evidence against him as “conservatively stated, robust” and rejected his argument that FTX had been solvent all along and merely suffered a liquidity squeeze.
In September 2026 his lawyers petitioned the US Supreme Court, challenging the conviction and the roughly $11 billion forfeiture order, which they argue is an excessive fine under the Eighth Amendment. As of 14 September 2026 the Supreme Court has not said whether it will take the case, and his sentence stands.
His path has run in the opposite direction to that of Terraform Labs founder Do Kwon, whose own collapse case reached sentencing in 2026.
Does FTX Still Exist?
FTX no longer operates as a cryptocurrency exchange and has not since 2022. What carries the name today is the FTX Recovery Trust, the post-bankruptcy vehicle whose job is to gather assets and pay claims.
As of 14 September 2026, no sixth distribution had been announced. The five completed rounds have pushed total payouts to creditors towards $10 billion.
Frequently Asked Questions
Did FTX Customers Get Their Money Back?
Yes, in cash rather than in crypto. Across five rounds of payments, the main customer classes have been repaid 105% of their claim value, with the smallest claims repaid 120%.
Is Sam Bankman-Fried Still in Prison?
Yes. The Second Circuit upheld his 25-year sentence in June 2026, and his Supreme Court petition does not pause it.
When Is the Next FTX Payout?
None has been scheduled publicly. The trust had not announced a sixth distribution date as of 14 September 2026.
Can I Still Buy or Sell on FTX?
No. The exchange stopped operating during the November 2022 collapse, and the surviving entity exists only to wind down the estate.
