FTX distributions: Creditors who miss the January 31 onboarding deadline risk losing the July payout

The FTX distribution to creditors comes with a hard cut-off. Anyone holding an allowed claim against the collapsed crypto exchange who has not yet onboarded with one of the three distribution providers, BitGo, Kraken or Payoneer, risks losing the distribution of July 31, 2026. Under the rules of the FTX Recovery Trust, onboarding has to be completed within six months of that distribution date. On the calendar, the deadline therefore ends on January 31, 2027. Germany is among the countries served by all three providers. Some readers have assumed, after reports about restricted countries, that German creditors are excluded; they are not.

The route to the money leads straight back into the crypto market. The Trust transfers every distribution in US dollars to the chosen provider. With Kraken and BitGo, you can then swap the amount into stablecoins or other crypto assets, withdraw it to your own wallet or move it to your bank account as fiat. If you want to trade again after the FTX loss, it is worth checking first which platform holds an EU licence; our comparison of regulated crypto exchanges with a MiCA licence gives an overview.

This guide explains which distribution depends on the deadline, which steps in the customer portal may still be missing and which may not, why the choice of provider is final, and what works differently for customers of the European subsidiary FTX EU. It draws on the FTX Recovery Trust help pages, last updated in September and October 2026.

FTX distribution: the deadline that expires on January 31, 2027

Since the plan of reorganization was confirmed, the FTX Recovery Trust has managed what is left of the exchange, which collapsed in November 2022 under founder Sam Bankman-Fried. The insolvency case is a Chapter 11 proceeding before the US Bankruptcy Court in Delaware. Chapter 11 is a restructuring and liquidation procedure under US law in which a plan sets out who is paid from the remaining assets, and in what order.

In its Distributions Dashboard FAQs, the Trust states explicitly that a holder of an allowed claim who does not complete onboarding with a distribution provider within six months of the July 31, 2026 distribution date may lose the right to the distributions on that claim. In the section on the forfeiture of unclaimed distributions, the Trust is even clearer: if the preconditions are not met, the related distribution is permanently forfeited.

The Trust does not give a specific calendar date. Six months after July 31, 2026 brings you to January 31, 2027. To be safe, plan for an earlier date, because the provider's review can take days, and identity queries drag it out further.

Record date and distribution date: which payout hangs on the deadline

Two terms decide which installment is affected. The record date is the cut-off on which it is fixed who is entitled to a distribution. The distribution date is the day the money moves. For the latest round, the record date was June 16, 2026 and the distribution date July 31, 2026. According to the trade outlet CryptoSlate, this fifth distribution totalled about $900 million.

Only creditors who held an allowed claim within the meaning of the plan by June 16 were eligible. That required the original holder to have passed identity verification by the record date. Section 7.14 of the plan adds three preconditions: a valid tax form, successful onboarding with a provider and clearance of the sanctions screening. Anyone who had not managed this by the record date received nothing on July 31. The six-month deadline now runs for exactly these creditors.

The deadline is tied to the first distribution on a newly allowed claim. The Trust gives its own example: a claim allowed on August 15, 2025 and scheduled for the distribution of September 30, 2025 had to complete onboarding by March 30, 2026. That deadline has passed. For older claims, the installment of an earlier round may therefore already be forfeited, even though the claim itself still stands.

Distribution service providers: BitGo, Kraken and Payoneer serve Germany

A distribution service provider is a payment provider through which the Trust passes the money on to creditors. At present these are BitGo, Kraken and Payoneer. On the Trust's provider pages, Germany appears in the list of supported countries for all three, each as of October 1, 2026. 44 countries and territories are currently excluded, among them Russia, Belarus, China, Ukraine, Iran and North Korea. Creditors registered there cannot select a provider in the portal, and their distribution is deferred.

Which providers you are shown depends on the country of residence you entered in the portal. The final decision, however, rests with the provider during its own review. If your residence has changed since 2022, for example because you moved to Germany, write to the Trust's KYC team and submit the required documents before you choose a provider.

The three providers differ markedly. Kraken is a crypto exchange where you can withdraw fiat via SEPA, swap the amount into stablecoins or other crypto assets, or send it to your own wallet. Kraken charges fees according to its own schedule; our Kraken review covering fees and withdrawals sums them up. BitGo is a custodian for digital assets and charges retail customers up to 10 basis points for conversion into stablecoins and up to 50 basis points for other crypto assets. Payoneer pays out fiat only, directly to a bank account, and only for distributions above $50; conversion into euros costs up to 3 percent.

FTX customer portal: KYC in step 3, tax form in step 7, provider in step 8

Every step runs through the FTX customer portal. KYC stands for Know Your Customer and refers to identity verification with an ID document and proof of address. This check is step 3 in the portal and has to be completed before anything else. Step 7 is the tax page, where you submit a tax form. Only then can you select the provider in step 8. Step 9 is the Distributions Dashboard, which shows the amount scheduled for each round.

The order matters. The Trust says all creditors must complete identity verification and the tax page before they select a provider and start onboarding there. If you are stuck at step 7, you cannot reach the deadline for step 8 either. A missing tax form is therefore doubly dangerous.

Creditors who have sold their claim or opted into the Bahamas proceedings have no access to step 9. If you cannot see the dashboard, first check whether either of these cases applies to you.

Tax form and sanctions screening: the 90-day rule after the first reminder

The tax form has its own, shorter deadline. After each record date, the Trust sends two email notices to original holders whose form is missing. Anyone who does not submit the form within 90 days of the first notice permanently loses the distribution belonging to that record date.

The Trust gives an example from 2025: if the first notice went out on September 1, 2025 and the second 30 days later, the deadline ran until November 30, 2025. After that, the September 30, 2025 distribution was lost for that creditor. The 90 days therefore start with the first message, not the second.

Check your inbox, including the spam folder, for messages from the Trust since the summer. The email address stored in the portal is the only one the Trust writes to. The sanctions screening itself is not a separate step for you; it runs in the background, but it can trigger queries that you have to answer.

No way back after choosing a provider: email address, fees and minimum amounts

The choice of provider is final. After onboarding you cannot switch, and you cannot split a distribution across several providers. Only if a provider is unable to onboard you or pay you out will the Trust's support step in. Before deciding, it therefore pays to think about what you plan to do with the money.

The email address is a common stumbling block. The address you register with at the provider must match the address in the FTX customer portal. If you already have an account with Kraken or BitGo, you link it via the page the portal redirects you to; a new account is not needed there. Payoneer works the other way round: there you need an address that is not yet linked to any Payoneer account.

Before you are passed on to the provider, you have to accept a declaration in the portal. In it, you confirm that you will not use the distributed amounts for transactions prohibited under the law that applies to you, including the purchase or exchange of crypto assets where this is restricted.

For creditors in Germany, three typical routes emerge. If you want the money in euros in your current account and expect a distribution above $50, Payoneer is the most direct route, but conversion costs up to 3 percent. If you want to get back into crypto, Kraken is the likelier choice, with the swap done there. Companies that want to hold larger sums in custody can go through BitGo; its institutional offering waives custody fees for the first six months. Either way, coins you hold for longer are better kept in your own wallet than on an exchange, a lesson the FTX collapse drove home painfully.

Disputed claims and restricted countries: when the portal offers no payout

Not every claim is ready for payout yet. A disputed claim is one the Trust has not yet allowed. The reasons it gives are a proof of claim that has not yet been reconciled, a country of residence that is still under review or currently not eligible, and partial payments from the Australian FTX proceedings that first have to be offset. Such claims can be allowed later and then take part in a distribution.

For the deadline, this is an important distinction. The six-month deadline of January 31, 2027 applies to allowed claims that could have taken part in the July 31, 2026 distribution. If your claim is only allowed later, a separate deadline starts for it with the first distribution after that. The dashboard in step 9 shows what applies to you.

For context on the amounts: under the plan, customer claims are fixed in US dollars, valued as of the bankruptcy filing in November 2022. Smaller claims fall into the so-called convenience classes, separate creditor classes with simplified handling. For these, the Trust also pays interest from the petition date up to the first distribution, at a rate set in the plan. Our report on the $5 billion repayment to FTX creditors in May 2025 describes how the first repayments went in 2025.

FTX EU or FTX.com: why customers of the Cyprus subsidiary take a different route

Many German customers did not trade on FTX.com but with the European subsidiary FTX EU Ltd, based in Cyprus. They have two separate claims. According to the Trust, euro and other fiat balances at FTX EU are paid out exclusively by FTX EU itself, under Cypriot law and following the sale of the subsidiary to a buyer. The Trust expressly accepts no responsibility for this repayment. The subsidiary was taken over by the exchange Backpack.

Crypto assets that were in transit as FTX EU withdrawals on November 11, 2022 are a different matter. Creditors who filed a claim for them in the US proceedings can be paid from the Trust. In the portal, you select FTX.com as the platform for this. Such claims are then subject to the same steps and the same deadline as all other allowed claims.

According to the Trust, the change in the balance shown in step 4 of the portal for former FTX EU customers is intentional: since the sale, step 4 no longer contains FTX EU claims, and the amount there matches the claim in step 9.

FTX distribution and tax: what remains open with the German tax office

How a payout from the insolvency of a crypto exchange is taxed has not been conclusively settled in Germany. If you get the same coins back, there is a strong case that the holding period from the year of purchase continues. FTX, however, pays a recovery rate in US dollars. For that case the legal position is open, and the records of your purchase, your holdings in November 2022 and the size of your claim decide what you can prove to the tax office. We have set out the details in our guide to crypto tax after an exchange insolvency.

In practice, download the overviews from steps 4 and 9 of the portal, keep the Trust's notices and record on which day which amount arrived at the provider. If you later exchange the dollar amount into euros or crypto, that creates a further transaction with its own date and price. A crypto tax tool with a portfolio tracker keeps such sequences properly documented. For an assessment of your individual case, a tax adviser is the right point of contact.

Claim sales: forfeited installments reduce the value of an FTX claim

Over recent years, many creditors have sold their claims to specialist buyers. For this market, the deadline carries its own weight. The Trust explicitly advises buyers to check with the original holders whether earlier distributions have already been forfeited. A forfeited installment does not come back, even if the claim changes hands afterwards.

For you as a seller, this means a buyer will ask whether the tax form and provider selection were completed in time. Once you have sold, you no longer see step 9; further distributions go to the buyer.

FTX distribution: January 31, 2027 decides the fate of the July installment

If you hold an allowed FTX claim and received nothing on July 31, 2026, you have until the end of January 2027 to complete the missing steps. After that, the July installment may be lost for good. Three steps get you there:

1. Check the portal: Log in to the FTX customer portal and see whether identity verification and the tax form are marked as complete. If the form is missing, submit it right away. A tax tool for crypto assets helps with the later return to the tax office.
2. Choose a provider: Decide deliberately between BitGo, Kraken and Payoneer and make sure the email address is identical. If you want to trade again afterwards, first compare the crypto exchanges licensed in the EU.
3. Secure the money: Once the provider credits the amount, withdraw it, in euros to your account or to your own wallet. Our hardware wallet comparison shows which devices suit safe storage.

(As of November 2, 2026. This article is not investment advice. Prices and fee structures change; check the terms with the provider before you buy.)