More than two years after the collapse of FTX, the exchange platform has reached a new milestone. Since this Friday, May 30, 2025, no less than $5 billion has been paid out to eligible creditors, as part of the second major wave of repayments. Will this massive injection of liquidity be enough to revive the crypto market’s momentum?
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FTX finally pays out $5 billion to investors
After months of waiting, the main creditors of FTX are finally seeing the light at the end of the tunnel with this new phase of repayments, following the first installment in February 2025. This second distribution is specifically targeted at creditors with claims in excess of $50,000, including financial institutions, corporations and large individual investors.
Eligible creditors can expect to receive their funds within 1-3 business days, mainly via the following platforms Kraken and BitGo.
The FTX Recovery Trust claims that over 90% of claims have already been validated and integrated into the distribution process.
Recovery rates vary significantly by creditor class. Class 5″ creditors, mainly counterparties Alameda Research lenders and trading providers, will receive between 54% and 72% of their validated claims, while small unsecured creditors should recover around 61%. Some claims benefit from a repayment rate of 120%, exceeding the original value of the deposits.
FTX has succeeded in raising $11.4 billion in cash, a sum which will finally be used to offset the colossal losses incurred by its creditors. This colossal sum is the result of relentless asset recovery work carried out by the restructuring team led by John J. Ray III who took over the reins of the bankrupt exchange.
Mixed repercussions divide the crypto community
The potential impact of these refunds on the crypto ecosystem deeply divides analysts. According to some experts, 50% of the liquidity from these payments could land on the market fuelling hopes of a new bull cycle. This optimistic outlook is based on a simple logic: the creditors of FTX were mostly active crypto investors, likely to reinvest their redemptions massively.
Yet this euphoria clashes with a bitter reality that is fuelling controversy. Creditors will receive their money in cash, based on the value of their assets at the time of the bankruptcy filing in November 2022, when Bitcoin was trading at around $16,000. By being reimbursed at the dollar price of their wallet, and not in cryptocurrency, customers of Sam Bankman-Fried have to sit on a significant potential profit. Paradoxically, this legitimate frustration could whet the markets’ appetite for catching up.
Market signals already seem to anticipate this cash injection. Analysts from Coinbase suggest in a recent report that this wave of redemptions could help support the crypto market. This latest distribution comes against a more favorable macroeconomic backdrop for risky assets, unlike the first wave in February 2025, which failed to trigger a widespread rally.
The stakes go beyond mere financial speculation. These redemptions could bring significant liquidity to the crypto market, with a positive impact on investor confidence. This restoration of confidence, after the trauma of November 2022, could prove more decisive than financial flows alone for the future of the ecosystem.
However, this pivotal period also calls for profound reflection on the security of digital assets. FTX’s former customers, like the entire crypto community, have learned the hard way about the risks inherent in centralized platforms. The lesson is clear: to avoid repeating the mistakes of the past, self-custody, notably via a hardware wallet like the one from our partner D’CENT are the only real protection.
As a journalist at Coinpri, I’ve been captivated by the world of bitcoin and blockchain since 2020. The decentralized aspect of Bitcoin particularly piqued my interest. Since then, I’ve been working constantly to spread my knowledge, hoping one day to see a world where everyone fully enjoys their financial freedom.
