Sunil Kavuri, head of FTX's largest creditor group, has highlighted that the 143% fiat payout promised under the bankruptcy plan presents a misleading picture of actual recovery, as cryptocurrency prices have surged dramatically since the 2022 collapse. In real crypto terms, creditors may recover only 9–46% of their original holdings.
Bitcoin's price stood at $16,871 at the time of the bankruptcy petition, compared to over $110,000 at present, meaning the 143% fiat payout equates to just 22% in real BTC value. For Ethereum, the equivalent recovery is 46%, while Solana creditors face a mere 12% real-terms return. The first distribution round in February covered $1.2 billion for claims under $50,000, followed by a $5 billion second round in May — with Dotcom Customer Entitlement Claims receiving 72%, U.S. Customer Entitlement Claims 54%, and Convenience Claims 120%. General Unsecured and Digital Asset Loan Claims are set to receive 61% distributions via Kraken and BitGo. Kavuri also warned that scammers are targeting creditors with fake airdrops and fraudulent FTX partnership claims.
The bankruptcy process has recovered over $15 billion in assets — including proceeds from the sale of Bankman-Fried's stakes in Anthropic and Robinhood — while founder Sam Bankman-Fried is scheduled to appear before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit on 4 November to appeal his conviction and 25-year sentence.
Sources:
- https://parameter.io/ftx-creditors-promised-143-but-real-recovery-could-be-only-9/
- https://beincrypto.com/ftx-creditors-loss-as-crypto-market-dips/
- https://cryptodnes.bg/en/ftx-creditors-could-recover-only-a-fraction-of-losses-in-real-terms/
- https://www.cryptopolitan.com/ftx-creditors-face-low-crypto-recovery/
