Last updated March 31, 2026
The crypto empire that imploded in 2022 and took billions in customer assets with it.
Dateline
United States
Editorial note
Compiled by After the Headline from public reporting, court filings, official records, and the sources cited below.
Current status
Sam Bankman-Fried was sentenced to 25 years in prison in March 2024. The bankruptcy recovery later moved from an approved plan into actual distributions, with the FTX Recovery Trust announcing another roughly $2.2 billion distribution beginning March 31, 2026.
Sam Bankman-Fried was sentenced to 25 years in prison in March 2024. The bankruptcy recovery later moved from an approved plan into actual distributions, with the FTX Recovery Trust announcing another roughly $2.2 billion distribution beginning March 31, 2026.
A lot of people know Bankman-Fried went to prison, but they don't know the bankruptcy recovery ended up being unusually strong for customers or that creditor distributions are now underway.
Deep dive
The details most readers never saw once the original coverage cycle moved on.
FTX looked like the kind of collapse where customers would be wiped out forever. That is why the bankruptcy aftermath surprised so many people. Bankman-Fried was sentenced in March 2024 to 25 years in prison for stealing billions from customers. But at the same time, the bankruptcy estate kept recovering huge sums.
By October 2024, a federal judge approved a wind-down plan that aimed to repay customers in full using up to $16.5 billion in recovered assets. The next stage was not just approval on paper. In 2026, the FTX Recovery Trust announced additional distributions, including approximately $2.2 billion scheduled to begin March 31 for eligible claim holders.
That does not erase the damage, especially because many customers are being repaid based on asset values from the time of the bankruptcy rather than later crypto-market rebounds. But it does make FTX one of the rare mega-frauds where the bankruptcy side turned out much better than people first assumed.
Timeline
The sequence of major developments, ordered from newest to oldest.
Update
Update
More to read
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