FTX Trust Drops $900M on Creditors Like It's a Slow Crypto Airdrop 💸

The FTX Recovery Trust has begun its fifth distribution of funds, sending $900 million to users affected by the exchange's 2022 collapse, according to a Friday X post by former FTX user Sunil Kavuri. Kavuri said he received a notice last week informing him that FTX had sent the funds to Kraken, which released them on Friday as scheduled. The distribution also involves crypto exchange BitGo and payments platform Payoneer as part of the plan.

This marks the fifth repayment round since FTX filed for bankruptcy in 2022. Following the latest distribution, the trust is estimated to have paid out approximately $11 billion to users who lost access to their funds during the exchange's collapse. FTX was among the largest exchanges to fail that year amid a broader market downturn, with executives later facing criminal charges over the misuse of customer assets.

Former CEO Sam "SBF" Bankman-Fried and Ryan Salame, co-CEO of FTX's Bahamian affiliate, remained in federal prison as of July, according to reporting. Former Alameda Research CEO Caroline Ellison was released in January after serving more than a year. The legal fallout continues beyond the criminal cases, with the trust also pursuing related claims.

Last week, Chief Bankruptcy Judge Karen B. Owens ruled that the FTX trust could not pursue damages against crypto exchange Binance and its former CEO Changpeng Zhao. However, Owens did not dismiss the trust's claim seeking to claw back $1.76 billion from Binance tied to its repurchase of its FTX stake, which the trust alleged was connected to "Bankman-Fried's pervasive and now well-known malfeasance."