FTX to fully repay customers with up to $21.5b in recovered assets

NEW YORK - FTX received court approval of its bankruptcy plan on Oct 7, which will allow it to fully repay customers using up to US$16.5 billion (S$21.5 billion) in assets recovered since the once-leading crypto exchange collapsed.

The plan is built on a series of settlements with customers and creditors, US government agencies and liquidators appointed to wind down FTX's operations outside America.

The settlements allow FTX to use its assets to repay customers of its crypto exchange first, before paying potentially competing claims filed by government regulators.

The company aims to repay 98 per cent of its customers - those who held US$50,000 or less on the exchange - within 60 days after the plan's effective date, which has not yet been determined.

FTX has estimated that it will have between US$14.7 billion and US$16.5 billion available to repay creditors, enough to pay customers at least 118 per cent of the value in their accounts as at November 2022, when the company filed for bankruptcy.

It remains in talks with the US Department of Justice (DOJ) over US$1 billion that the government seized during the criminal prosecution of FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried.