FTX Repayment Plan Controversy: Customers to Get 100% Back, But Miss Out on Crypto Boom 💸

The bankrupt crypto exchange FTX has received court approval for its reorganization plan, which promises to fully repay customers' claims—plus interest—a significant step in one of the most complex financial collapses in history. The company, led by CEO John J. Ray III, projects it has recovered between $14.7 billion and $16.5 billion to distribute, enough to cover all creditor claims of approximately $11.2 billion and provide supplemental interest. The plan anticipates that about 98% of creditors, primarily those with claims of $50,000 or less, will receive around 118% of their claim amount.

The Core of the Dispute: Valuation Date

Despite the full recovery announcement, a significant controversy persists: the method of valuation. The repayment is calculated based on the price of cryptocurrencies, such as Bitcoin and Ethereum, at the time FTX filed for bankruptcy in November 2022. This valuation date is a crucial point of contention for many customers.

Since the collapse, the crypto market has experienced a massive rebound, with Bitcoin's price soaring from about $16,000 in late 2022 to well over $60,000. Creditors argue that by using the 2022 low price, they are being unfairly denied the benefit of the assets' appreciation, effectively missing out on a multi-billion dollar gain they would have realized if their funds hadn't been misappropriated.

FTX's Rationale and Legal Hurdles

FTX's current management, tasked with cleaning up the wreckage left by founder Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF), explained that a higher valuation is not legally feasible. Because SBF had misused and lost the vast majority of customer-deposited crypto assets, the company did not hold onto the tokens to benefit from their price increase. "It was not possible to simply return the crypto assets customers had deposited, because customers' assets were gone, misappropriated by Bankman-Fried," FTX stated. The legal framework of Chapter 11 bankruptcy requires claims to be valued at the time of the bankruptcy filing, a principle the court upheld, making the full repayment in dollar terms a legal victory despite the creditors' disappointment.