FTX is preparing to send another roughly $900 million to eligible creditors on July 31, 2026. The headline recovery number is 120 percent, but you need to read that against 2022 claim values, not today's crypto prices.
Most people who get pulled into a bankruptcy expect pain. FTX customers are getting something stranger: a recovery that looks generous until you compare it with the crypto market they were locked out of for nearly four years. According to FTX's July 17 press release on PR Newswire, the FTX Recovery Trust will start its fifth distribution on July 31, 2026, paying about $900 million to eligible creditors who cleared the June 16 record date. Convenience Class claims will reach a cumulative recovery of 120 percent.
The larger customer classes are crossing full recovery too. Allowed Class 5A Dotcom Customer Entitlement Claims will receive another 9 percent, bringing that class to 105 percent cumulative. Allowed Class 5B U.S. Customer Entitlement Claims get an additional 5 percent and also land at 105 percent. General unsecured claims and digital asset loan claims each get another 3 percent, reaching 103 percent. That is a rare sentence in bankruptcy: every major creditor class named in the release is now above the petition-date dollar value of its claim.
What the 120 Percent Actually Means
Here's the thing. The 120 percent figure doesn't mean FTX is handing back your original coins plus a bonus. It means the estate is paying against the dollar value of claims as of November 11, 2022, the day Sam Bankman-Fried's exchange filed for Chapter 11. If you had one Bitcoin on FTX that day, your claim was tied to a price around $17,000. A 120 percent recovery gets you roughly $20,000. Bitcoin now trades several times above that. So yes, creditors are being made whole under the plan. Many still lost the upside.
That distinction is why the recovery is both impressive and irritating. John J. Ray III's restructuring team found value in a place that looked ruined in late 2022, clawing back assets, selling stakes, and pushing through lawsuits that most customers never wanted to learn about. But customers didn't choose to become bankruptcy creditors. They thought they held crypto on an exchange. The legal system has priced that loss in dollars, on one specific day, and that number now defines the payout.
To collect on July 31, creditors had to get through the process by the June 16, 2026 record date. FTX says that means the claim must be allowed, KYC verification must be complete, tax forms must be submitted, sanctions screening must be passed, and the creditor must have onboarded with BitGo, Kraken, or Payoneer. Miss one of those steps and the money doesn't arrive in this round. For people who did finish the paperwork, FTX says funds should arrive from the chosen distribution provider within one to three business days after July 31.
The Fraud Hasn't Gone Quiet
This fifth distribution follows earlier FTX payouts that began in 2025, including the roughly $2.2 billion fourth distribution announced for March 31, 2026. The July round adds another large payment without closing the file. FTX said subsequent record and payment dates will be announced later, and its May update said the trust had moved to reduce the disputed claims reserve by about $600 million, from $2.4 billion to $1.8 billion, subject to court approval. That reserve is where the next fight sits.
Preferred equity holders are getting paid as well, which is not the same thing as the customer distribution. FTX said a second payment of about $18 million will go out to eligible preferred equity holders on July 31, bringing total payments from the Preferred Shareholder Remission Fund Trust to $95 million. Institutions use different lanes in this bankruptcy. Customers should not confuse one recovery path for another.
None of this cleans up what happened. Senator Ruben Gallego's office said on July 16 that the U.S. Senate unanimously backed a resolution opposing any presidential pardon or commutation for Bankman-Fried, who was convicted in 2023 and sentenced to 25 years in prison. That timing matters. The estate can write checks and lawmakers can still call the underlying fraud what it was.
Crypto has seen uglier endings. Celsius creditors were still dealing with later distributions in 2026, according to its Stretto distribution site, and Mt. Gox creditors waited a decade before repayments moved in earnest. FTX is different because the recovery is large, fast by bankruptcy standards, and still unsatisfying for anyone who measures the loss in coins rather than court-approved dollars.
So if you're an FTX creditor, the July 31 payment is real money. Don't treat the 120 percent headline as emotional closure. The open question now is how much remains after disputed claims are resolved, and FTX's own notice gives the only honest answer for timing: later dates will be announced in due course.
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