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Lummis Points to Voyager as the Case for Strict Custody Rules@SenLummis is pressing Congress to pass the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act, formally H.R. 3633, with a pointed message for retail crypto holders: the bill exists because of what happened to users of platforms like Voyager. When Celsius filed for bankruptcy in 2022, customers discovered their deposits were effectively unsecured loans to the company. Voyager customers faced a similar outcome. And FTX's collapse revealed that customer funds had been commingled with trading firm Alameda Research in ways that made recovery an exercise in forensic accounting.

Each of those situations exposed the same gap: US bankruptcy law does not treat customer crypto deposits the way it treats securities held in a brokerage account. Traditional brokerage customers benefit from SIPC protections and clear legal frameworks that keep their assets segregated. Crypto customers have been operating without that safety net. The Clarity Act is designed to close it.

What the Bill Actually RequiresThe Clarity Act imposes a detailed set of consumer-protection requirements on digital commodity exchanges, brokers, and dealers. Customer digital assets must be held by a "qualified digital asset custodian," defined as an entity regulated by a federal, state, or foreign authority. Custodians must segregate customer assets from their own holdings and from other customers' holdings, with commingling restricted unless explicitly authorized under clearly defined and disclosed conditions.

Rehypothecation of customer assets is prohibited unless the customer provides explicit approval. Critically, the bill would mandate that digital assets held by a broker or exchange are treated as the customer's property in bankruptcy proceedings, not as part of the firm's general estate to be divided among institutional creditors. That directly addresses the pattern seen in the Voyager and Celsius collapses, where retail users recovered only a fraction of their holdings after senior creditors were paid.

The bill also creates a broader regulatory framework for digital assets, establishes new SEC disclosure rules for certain tokens, and extends anti-money laundering and sanctions rules to crypto exchanges.

The Clarity Act has already passed the House by a bipartisan vote of 294 to 134 and advanced through the Senate Banking Committee in May 2026 with a 15 to 9 vote. The bill is now on the Senate Legislative Calendar, meaning it is ready for further consideration, though Senate leaders have not yet scheduled a final vote. The legislation requires 60 votes to overcome a filibuster, meaning Republicans will need support from several Democrats. Senate Majority Leader John Thune will make the final call on which week to bring it to the floor, with the week of July 20 the most likely target.

Crypto Briefing: Lummis Highlights Clarity Act Consumer Protections | LegalClarity: Clarity Act Key Provisions and Outlook | Crypto Times: Lummis Pushes Clarity Act on GENIUS Act Anniversary

Brett Harrison wants to pump the brakes on the AI-will-replace-traders narrative. The founder and CEO of Architect Financial Technologies laid out a detailed case in a recent Medium post arguing that large language models, the technology behind ChatGPT and its competitors, are fundamentally ill-suited for building the kinds of trading systems that actually make money in high-frequency environments.

Coming from someone who spent 11 years at Jane Street leading algorithmic trading system development, the critique carries more weight than your average LinkedIn hot take about AI.

The core problem: markets aren’t language Harrison’s central argument is elegantly simple. LLMs are built to process and generate language. Financial market data is, by its very nature, not linguistic. It’s stochastic, meaning it involves randomness and probability distributions that behave nothing like the patterns found in human text.

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He’s not dismissing AI entirely, though. Harrison acknowledges that LLMs can be genuinely useful for specific supporting tasks. Code generation, for instance. Feature selection, the process of identifying which variables matter most in a model, is another area where LLMs can add value. Harrison argues that LLMs should never be relied upon for building core quantitative trading models or for real-time operations like continuous market monitoring. High-frequency trading operates on timescales of microseconds to nanoseconds. LLMs, which require meaningful computation time to generate responses, simply cannot operate at those speeds.

Why Harrison’s background matters here He studied computer science at Harvard with a focus on AI, then spent over a decade at Jane Street, one of the most respected quantitative trading firms in the world. After that, he served as president of FTX US before departing in 2022, prior to the exchange’s spectacular collapse under Sam Bankman-Fried.

In early 2023, Harrison launched Architect Financial Technologies with backing from notable crypto-native investors including Coinbase and Circle. The firm raised a $5 million seed round in January 2023, then followed up with a $35 million funding round in December 2025. The company’s ambition is to build trading infrastructure that brings crypto-style market design, things like perpetual futures, into the traditional finance world.

Rather than pursuing fully autonomous AI trading, the firm is focused on building robust infrastructure, including a regulated perpetual futures exchange, that blends human expertise with technological innovation.

What this means for investors and the broader market For investors evaluating AI-focused trading platforms, Harrison’s argument serves as a useful filter. Companies claiming that LLMs alone can generate alpha, the excess returns above a benchmark, deserve extra scrutiny. The technology has genuine applications in finance, but those applications are narrower and more specialized than the marketing materials suggest.

The funding trajectory of Architect itself tells a parallel story. The jump from a $5 million seed to a $35 million round suggests growing investor confidence not in AI-does-everything approaches, but in infrastructure plays that thoughtfully combine traditional finance expertise with crypto-native innovation. Perpetual futures, a staple of crypto exchanges, represent a massive derivatives market that traditional finance has barely begun to tap.

Disclosure: This article was edited by Editorial Team. For more information on how we create and review content, see our Editorial Policy.

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FTX, the notorious bankrupt crypto exchange of Sam Bankman-Fried, is readying for another creditor repayment. In this respect, FTX is going to start its 5th creditor repayment round on the 31st of July. As per CryptosRus, the crypto exchange has allocated a staggering $900M for disbursement. The development is a part of the ongoing endeavors of the platform to compensate qualified creditors after it collapsed back in 2022.

FTX TO DISTRIBUTE ANOTHER $900 MILLION TO CREDITORS

FTX will begin its fifth round of creditor repayments on July 31, distributing approximately $900 million to eligible claimants through BitGo, Kraken, and Payoneer. Funds are expected to arrive within 1–3 business days.

Since… pic.twitter.com/WIjcVOqKdy

— CryptosRus (@CryptosR_Us) July 19, 2026 FTX Repayment Procedure Advances with $900M in 5th Round after Cumulative $10B Reimbursement The exclusive creditor repayment of FTX comes after many earlier distributions that have returned a cumulative $10B to its creditors. This time, it will disburse $900M among the creditors starting from July 31. Eligible claimants will get funds via BitGo, Payoneer, and Kraken, in line with their chosen method. The payments are anticipated to reach receivers within 1 to 3 business days following the beginning of processing.

Under the court-authorized restructuring plan of the FTX estate, it has consistently processed its claims to resolve a notable insolvency case in the crypto market. Additionally, the upcoming disbursement underscores another critical landmark in FTX’s long-running process for bankruptcy recovery. Among the leading beneficiaries of the platform have been holders of relatively lesser “convenience” claims.

Creditors Recover Nearly 120% Recoveries Amid Notable Repayment Progress The respective creditors have reportedly gained recoveries of almost 120% of the allowed claims thereof. This reflects both the applicable interest and the principal value as part of the repayment model. As a result, the outcome has surpassed the expectations of several impacted consumers who initially thought about huge losses following the dramatic failure of the platform.

According to CryptosRus, at the moment, almost 162,000 of the total 460,000 creditor claims have been reimbursed. Bigger consumers have also witnessed significant recoveries. Several of the creditors have obtained nearly 103%-105% of the allowed claim amounts.

Additionally, the 5th round signifies considerable progress that the FTX bankruptcy estate has achieved over the past months. Overall, the consistent repayments underscore the progress of the bankruptcy proceedings while swiftly moving toward the conclusion of a widely observed restructuring case in the crypto sector.

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The bankruptcy estate of FTX will be making its fifth distribution by making available nine hundred million dollars for eligible creditors. The total amount distributed will therefore reach almost ten billion dollars since the initial stage of the liquidation process began in 2025. The remains of the defunct crypto exchange FTX will be initiating yet another massive distribution of funds this month. The bankruptcy estate will start the distribution of approximately $900 million to eligible global creditors from July 31, 2026. This very important step comes at the end of a highly organized process of liquidation, which has seen huge sums of money distributed. The estate has been distributing almost ten billion dollars to affected individuals since the official launch of distributions in 2025.

The users who have been verified should be able to receive their money safely via any of the approved distribution partners within three business days. The distribution partners who have been selected to execute the current operation include reputable industry players such as BitGo, Kraken, and a digital payment service provider known as Payoneer. This large distribution comes in after the successful distribution of two billion dollars, which was carried out earlier in March. 

FTX announced it will begin its Fifth Distribution of ~$900 million on 7/31/26 to holders of allowed claims in the Plan’s Convenience and Non-Convenience Classes that have completed the pre-distribution requirements.

— FTX (@FTX_Official) July 17, 2026 Achieving Multiyear Restitution Benchmarks This latest distribution plan includes some slight variations in the percentage recovery rates for the various tiers of allowed client claims. In the case of Dotcom customer claims, they will receive nine more percentage points to accumulate a total recovery rate of 105%. Similarly, in the case of the United States customer claims, they will also receive five more percentage points to accumulate that exact recovery rate. Unsecured claims and digital asset loan classes will get three more percentage points from the managers.

Additionally, the estate shall pay out $18 million to qualifying preferred equity members on July 31. This takes the total sum of payments to preferred shareholders via remission to $95 million. Nonetheless, the administrators have made several cautions about phishing emails and fraudulent claim portals. Official spokespeople remind everyone that the estate will not request connecting a personal crypto wallet at any point. 

In mathematical terms, this means that the recovery figures surpass the initial prices quoted in the infamous November 2022 market crash by far. Indeed, creditors get more money than what was the bankruptcy value of their positions. Nonetheless, the previous users do not benefit from the entire recovery of the digital assets market.

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Meanwhile, FTX's ex-CEO requested a pardon but it was unanimously rejected by the US Senate.

The former cryptocurrency exchange giant announced yesterday that it will begin its fifth creditor distribution at the end of the month, pushing the total announced repayments beyond $10 billion almost four years after it went bust.

The next batch of repayments will be for $900 million, which works in alignment with the company’s Chapter 11 reorganization plan.

FTX to Begin New Repayments The firm’s press release outlined July 31 as the start date, after which eligible creditors are expected to receive their funds via BitGo, Kraken, or Payoneer within 3 business days. It’s worth noting that this repayment applies to creditors holding allowed claims in FTX’s Convenience and Non-Convenience Classes who had completed the required procedures by June 16.

The size of the actual payment will depend on the creditor class. Users of the global and the US exchanges (ftx.com and FTX US) will receive an additional 9% under Class 5a, taking their cumulative recovery to 105% of the value of their approved claims.

General unsecured creditors and holders of crypto loan claims will each receive an incremental 3%, and their total is expected to reach 103%. Convenience-class creditors, generally representing smaller customer claims, will get a cumulative 120% of their approved claims after the latest repayment.

The failed exchange also plans to distribute $18 million to eligible preferred shareholders on July 31, bringing the total payments from the separate Preferred Shareholder Remission Fund Trust to $95 million.

These repayment figures do not necessarily mean that customers have been made whole in crypto terms. Claims were considered in US dollar terms on crypto prices around FTX’s bankruptcy in November 2022, before the major price rallies for almost all involved assets.

You may also like: FTT Skyrockets as SBF Seeks Presidential Pardon While Serving 25-Year Sentence: Report Consequently, receiving 105% or 120% of its initial claims in USD may still be significantly less than the present-day value of the crypto assets held on the platform at the time. For instance, recall that BTC traded around $20,000 when FTX collapsed, and despite its correction since the October 2025 ATH, it’s still over 200% higher.

SBF Pardon Rejected FTX’s former CEO and the person considered the main culprit of its rapid decline, Sam Bankman-Fried, was convicted in 2023 on seven counts of fraud and conspiracy following the misallocation of over $8 billion worth of customer funds.

He remains in prison to this day but tried to lobby for clemency, especially since US President Donald Trump issued pardons to Changpeng Zhao and Arthur Hayes. However, in a unanimous vote earlier this week, the Senate ruled that “under no circumstances should Samuel Bankman-Fried receive executive clemency, including a pardon, or commutation.”

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Key Highlights The FTX Recovery Trust plans to release approximately $900 million to creditors beginning July 31 This represents the fifth distribution since the platform’s collapse in late 2022 Cumulative distributions have approached $10 billion since the repayment process launched in 2025 Smaller claims under $50,000 are receiving 120% repayment; larger claims receive 103–105% Former CEO Sam Bankman-Fried serves a 25-year sentence; bipartisan Senate resolution opposes pardon The FTX Recovery Trust revealed on Friday plans to commence distribution of approximately $900 million to affected creditors starting July 31. This represents the fifth major repayment installment since the cryptocurrency platform’s dramatic collapse in November 2022.

LATEST: ⚡ FTX plans to distribute roughly $900M to creditors in its fifth payout round, with eligible recipients set to receive funds within three business days starting July 31. pic.twitter.com/7iSI7R4kRa

— CoinMarketCap (@CoinMarketCap) July 18, 2026

Qualifying creditors will have access to their funds via BitGo, Kraken, or Payoneer platforms. The Recovery Trust anticipates payments will reach recipients within a one to three business day window following the July 31 start date.

Breakdown of Payment Allocations The FTX distribution structure divides creditors into two distinct categories: convenience class and non-convenience class. Those with convenience class claims — defined as claims valued below $50,000 — are entitled to receive 120% of their original claim value.

Non-convenience class claims, which encompass larger or more intricate cases, will see recovery rates ranging from 103% to 105% of their filed claim amounts. The bankruptcy proceedings have typically compensated retail investors between 118% and 142% beyond their asset valuations recorded during the collapse.

An important caveat: these percentages are calculated based on the U.S. dollar valuation of assets when FTX filed for bankruptcy, rather than current cryptocurrency market prices — a methodology that has generated pushback from certain creditors who preferred in-kind asset restitution.

Total Distribution Amounts to Date In March 2026, FTX released $2.2 billion to its creditor base. Following this upcoming distribution, aggregate repayments will reach nearly $10 billion since systematic disbursements commenced in 2025.

The FTX bankruptcy estate initiated Chapter 11 proceedings in November 2022, stranding customers without access to their holdings amid a widespread cryptocurrency market crisis that claimed multiple trading platforms.

In May 2026, legal firm Fenwick & West reached a $54 million settlement agreement in a class action case. The firm had acted as FTX’s primary external legal advisor prior to the platform’s downfall. A coalition of 20 platform users had filed suit seeking $525 million mere days before the settlement was finalized.

Current Status of Sam Bankman-Fried Former FTX chief executive Sam Bankman-Fried received a 25-year prison term in 2024 following his conviction for the misappropriation of customer assets. His appellate challenge was rejected last month when federal courts affirmed the initial verdict.

Bankman-Fried submitted a request for presidential clemency to Donald Trump. Trump indicated in January that he had no intention of granting such relief.

Earlier this week, the United States Senate approved by unanimous consent a resolution expressing opposition to any clemency consideration for Bankman-Fried. While this resolution carries no binding legal authority to prevent a presidential pardon, it demonstrates unified bipartisan resistance to the concept.

Congressional members have additionally voiced apprehension regarding Trump’s pardon of former Binance chief executive Changpeng Zhao, particularly following a $2 billion capital injection into Binance from a United Arab Emirates entity utilizing a stablecoin developed by the Trump family’s venture, World Liberty Financial.

FTX creditors should anticipate receiving payment verification from their selected distribution platform following the July 31 commencement date.

Polymarket’s corporate structure raises concerns amid FBI inquiry

FTX has scheduled its fifth creditor distribution for July 31, preparing to return nearly $900 million as founder Sam Bankman-Fried’s efforts to secure clemency face political resistance.

Summary

FTX will begin its fifth creditor distribution, worth nearly $900 million, on July 31. Preferred shareholders will receive another $18 million, lifting total trust payments to $95 million. SBF’s pardon campaign faces resistance as criminal cases linked to FTX continue. According to an FTX press release, the bankrupt exchange will distribute funds to creditors with approved claims in the Convenience and Non-Convenience Classes under its Chapter 11 reorganization plan. Claimants must have completed all pre-distribution requirements by the June 16 record date to qualify.

Eligible creditors will receive their payments through one of FTX’s approved distribution providers. The company has named Kraken, Payoneer, and crypto custodian BitGo among the services handling the transfers.

FTX described the July payment as its fifth distribution since the repayment process began. The company said the round will return almost $900 million to creditors, though it did not provide a breakdown of how much each claim class will receive.

Future record and payment dates will be announced later, according to the exchange. The bankruptcy proceedings also remain active, with the court scheduled to hold omnibus hearings on July 23 and Aug. 16.

Preferred shareholders will receive another $18 million Alongside the creditor distribution, FTX will issue a second payment to eligible Preferred Equity Holders on July 31. The company said eligibility for this group was also determined using the June 16 record date.

Funds will come from the Preferred Shareholder Remission Fund Trust, which was established to compensate qualifying shareholders. FTX said the upcoming payment will distribute $18 million and raise total payments from the trust to $95 million.

Individual shareholders will receive their funds through Kraken, while BitGo will process payments for institutional recipients, according to the exchange. FTX added that it began contacting eligible Preferred Equity Holders in January to help them complete the required steps.

The dual distribution continues the financial unwind of FTX, which filed for bankruptcy in 2022 after a liquidity crisis exposed a multibillion-dollar shortfall. Under the court-approved plan, distributions depend on claim approval, record-date eligibility and completion of verification requirements.

SBF’s clemency campaign faces political resistance While creditors await the latest payment, Bankman-Fried has continued seeking a presidential pardon for his criminal conviction. The former FTX chief is serving a 25-year prison sentence after a federal jury found him guilty of fraud and conspiracy charges connected to the exchange’s collapse.

Notably, the U.S. Senate recently rejected a clemency effort involving Bankman-Fried. President Donald Trump has also indicated that he does not plan to pardon the former executive, weakening the prospects of an early release through presidential action.

Criminal cases tied to FTX have continued even as the bankruptcy estate returns money to creditors. Last month, crypto.news reported that a federal judge rejected Michelle Bond’s attempt to dismiss four campaign finance-related charges and scheduled her trial for Nov. 9.

In an order filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, Judge George Daniels rejected Bond’s argument that prosecutors had promised not to charge her if her husband, former FTX executive Ryan Salame, pleaded guilty. Bond’s prosecution was one of the final criminal cases linked to FTX after several former executives faced charges following the exchange’s failure.

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17 July 2026 | 23:05 FTX will begin its fifth round of creditor distributions on July 31, 2026, releasing approximately $900 million through the collapsed exchange’s bankruptcy recovery process.

Key Takeaways FTX will begin distributing approximately $900 million to eligible creditors on July 31, 2026. Dotcom and U.S. customer claims will reach cumulative distributions of 105% of their allowed claim values. Payments will arrive through BitGo, Kraken, or Payoneer, generally within one to three business days. The percentages apply to bankruptcy claim values, not the present market value of cryptocurrency previously held on FTX. According to the official announcement from FTX and the FTX Recovery Trust, the distribution covers eligible creditors in both the Convenience and Non-Convenience Classes. Recipients must have held an allowed claim and completed all required steps by the June 16 record date.

Eligible creditors should receive the money through BitGo, Kraken, or Payoneer within one to three business days after distributions begin. With five rounds now announced since repayments started in February 2025, the estate’s disclosed creditor distributions have moved beyond $10 billion.

Customer Claims Move Above 100% of Allowed Value The fifth distribution adds different percentages depending on the type of claim:

Class 5A: Dotcom Customer Claims
Additional 9% distribution

105% Total

Class 5B: U.S. Customer Claims
Additional 5% distribution

105% Total

Classes 6A & 6B: Unsecured/Loan Claims
Additional 3% distribution

103% Total

Class 7: Convenience Claims
Final settlement target

120% Total

FTX did not announce a new incremental percentage for Class 7 creditors who have already received their full treatment under the plan. The cumulative figure may also cover convenience claims that became allowed after earlier record dates and are only now eligible for payment.

The estate cautioned that actual percentages could differ slightly because of rounding. A more detailed breakdown by claim class is expected to be filed with the bankruptcy court after the July 31 distribution.

Why a 105% Payout Is Not a 105% Crypto Recovery The percentages above 100% require an important qualification. They apply to the value of each creditor’s allowed bankruptcy claim, with additional amounts reflecting post-petition interest and other treatment established under the restructuring plan.

They do not mean creditors are receiving 105% or 120% of the current value of the Bitcoin, Ethereum, or other digital assets they previously held on FTX.

FTX’s official claims documentation states that customer balances are reflected as of November 11, 2022. Their U.S. dollar values were calculated using the Digital Asset Conversion Table approved during the bankruptcy proceedings.

A creditor who held an appreciating asset such as Bitcoin is therefore being repaid against its court-recognized claim value rather than receiving the original number of coins or their present market value. Passing 100% represents repayment of the allowed dollar claim plus applicable plan treatment, not full restoration of the investment position the customer would hold today.

The $900 Million Is Not Automatic Crypto Buying Pressure The distribution may return substantial liquidity to former FTX customers, but it should not automatically be interpreted as $900 million entering the crypto market.

FTX sends distributions to its service providers in U.S. dollars. According to the estate’s distribution provider guidance, BitGo and Kraken may allow recipients to withdraw fiat or convert their payments into digital assets, depending on their jurisdiction and account. Payoneer primarily delivers fiat payments to bank accounts.

The eventual market effect will depend on what creditors do after receiving the money. Some may return part of their payout to crypto, while others may withdraw it, cover taxes, repay obligations, or move the funds into unrelated investments. The distribution creates the capacity for new demand but does not confirm that the money will be reinvested in digital assets.

Who Qualifies for the July 31 Distribution Eligibility was determined using the June 16, 2026 record date. According to FTX’s distribution dashboard guidance, creditors needed to have an allowed claim and complete the following requirements:

Required Onboarding Steps KYC Identity Verification Secure validation of your identity documents.

Tax Documentation Submission of a valid and signed tax form.

Provider Onboarding Successful setup with an approved distribution provider.

Sanctions Screening Final completion of mandatory regulatory compliance checks.

Creditors who did not complete those steps by June 16 will not participate in the July 31 round. They may become eligible for a later distribution after satisfying the requirements, subject to the deadlines and forfeiture provisions contained in the restructuring plan.

Transferred claims face an additional condition. The new holder must appear on the official claims register, and the applicable 21-day transfer notice period must have expired without an objection before the relevant record date.

Preferred Shareholders Will Receive a Separate $18 Million FTX also announced a separate payment of approximately $18 million to eligible preferred equity holders on July 31.

The money will come from the Preferred Shareholder Remission Fund Trust rather than the creditor distribution pool. The second preferred payment will increase total payments from that trust to approximately $95 million.

Eligible institutions must onboard with BitGo, while eligible individuals use Payoneer. Preferred shareholders must also provide an ownership certification, complete KYC checks, submit the required tax documents, and sign the accompanying consent form.

Because this payment follows a separate shareholder process, it should not be combined with the $900 million creditor distribution when measuring the recovery received by customer and unsecured claim classes.

FTX has not announced the record date or size of its next creditor distribution. Future payments will depend on available cash, remaining reserves, the resolution of disputed claims, and additional recoveries obtained by the estate.

Creditors should use only the official FTX Customer Claims Portal and verify any communication before opening links or providing personal information. FTX has repeatedly warned that it will never ask claimants to connect a crypto wallet to receive a bankruptcy distribution.

The information provided in this article is for educational purposes only and does not constitute financial, investment, or trading advice.

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Kosta has reported on cryptocurrency markets and blockchain infrastructure since 2020, bringing over six years of hands-on experience in the crypto industry built through daily tracking of markets, trends, and emerging blockchain developments. Specializing in Bitcoin on-chain analysis, institutional ETF flows, and digital asset price action, his work at Coindoo has been cited by other news agencies and consistently covers market developments with a focus on data-driven reporting across Bitcoin, Ethereum, Solana, and XRP. Over the years, Kosta has contributed to multiple crypto media outlets in different regions, authoring over 6,000 articles across the sector. His reporting spans cryptocurrency markets and the broader fintech industry, tracking not only price action but also the technological and regulatory forces shaping the ecosystem. To support his analysis, Kosta actively leverages on-chain data and metrics from leading platforms such as Santiment, Glassnode, and CryptoQuant, enabling deeper, evidence-based market insights. He believes in the power of transparency and the data that underpins the blockchain ecosystem. His academic background in Marketing Management from Denmark further complements his analytical approach, adding a strong understanding of communication strategy and content positioning to his work.

FTX is set to release roughly $900 million to creditors on July 31 in its fifth distribution since the collapsed exchange filed for Chapter 11 protection in November 2022. According to an official press release from FTX Trading Ltd. and the FTX Recovery Trust, eligible creditors can expect funds from their chosen distribution provider, either BitGo, Kraken, or Payoneer, within one to three business days of that date.

Who Gets What The fifth distribution allocates an incremental 9% to Dotcom customers, 5% to US customers, and 3% each to general unsecured and digital asset loan claimants. Convenience claimants, typically smaller retail creditors, reach 120% on a cumulative basis. Dotcom and US customers both now cross the 105% cumulative mark, meaning they have, in dollar terms, recovered more than they originally lost.

That milestone matters in context. The Block reports that FTX's bankruptcy estate has now distributed nearly $10 billion to creditors and other claimants since repayments began in 2025, following a $2.2 billion fourth round in March.

The Catch: Frozen in November 2022 The headline recovery figures come with a significant caveat. All claims are valued in November 2022 dollars, when $BTC traded at around $16,871 at the time of FTX's bankruptcy filing. The exchange has faced criticism for not repaying assets in kind, and that criticism carries weight given where Bitcoin trades today.

As legal analysts have noted, a creditor who held one Bitcoin on FTX recovers roughly $20,000 in cash at 119%, not one Bitcoin, which trades at a fraction of that in purchasing power terms compared to current market prices. The court approved petition-date valuation as required under US bankruptcy law, meaning creditors do not benefit from any of the price appreciation that followed the collapse. On paper, crossing 100% looks like a full recovery. In crypto terms, it is considerably less than whole.

Creditors who have not yet completed KYC verification, submitted required tax forms, and onboarded with an approved distribution provider will need to do so before a future record date to remain eligible for subsequent rounds.

Sources:
FTX Official Press Release, PR Newswire, July 17, 2026
The Block: FTX fifth distribution reporting
Astraea Counsel: Crypto Bankruptcy Asset Recovery Analysis

The trust behind reimbursing creditors with ties to defunct cryptocurrency exchange FTX announced that its next distribution of funds would start on July 31.

In a Friday notice, the FTX Recovery Trust and crypto exchange said that they would distribute about $900 million to claimants in the recovery plan’s “convenience and non-convenience classes.” Eligible creditors can receive funds through their BitGo, Kraken or Payoneer accounts within one to three business days starting from July 31.

The distribution will mark the fifth round of attempts of repaying FTX’s creditors. Convenience claims under $50,000 will receive a 120% reimbursement under FTX’s recovery plan, while others will receive between a 103-105% distribution.

Source: Sunil Kavuri

Following a March distribution of $2.2 billion, the trust has paid out about $10 billion since the company filed for bankruptcy in November 2022 amid a crypto market downturn that resulted in many exchanges filing for Chapter 11 protection. Former FTX executives including CEO Sam “SBF” Bankman-Fried and Ryan Salame, the co-CEO of FTX’s Bahamian affiliate, are still in federal prison as part of their role in the exchange’s misuse of customer funds.

In May, the law firm Fenwick & West, which advised FTX before its collapse, agreed to pay $54 million to settle a class action lawsuit filed by former users. A group of 20 FTX users sued the law firm for $525 million just days earlier.

Presidential pardon looking less likely for former FTX CEOBankman-Fried, who pleaded not guilty to criminal charges related to his role in the misuse of customer funds at FTX, was found guilty and sentenced to 25 years in prison in 2024. His appeal for his conviction and sentence was denied last month after a federal court upheld the New York court ruling.

However, even before the appellate court ruling became public, Bankman-Fried applied for a pardon from Donald Trump, something the US president said in a January interview that he did not plan on granting. Despite the statement from Trump, this week the US Senate unanimously adopted a resolution opposing clemency for the former FTX CEO.

The measure can’t stop Trump from issuing a pardon but reflected bipartisan opposition to the president granting clemency to a convicted felon. Many lawmakers have criticized the president issuing a pardon for former Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao after a UAE entity invested $2 billion into the crypto exchange using a stablecoin issued by the Trump family business, World Liberty Financial.

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TLDR: The FTX repayment will distribute approximately $900 million on July 31 to eligible creditors meeting all verification requirements. Dotcom and United States customer claims will reach cumulative recoveries of 105% under the fifth bankruptcy distribution. General unsecured and digital asset loan claims will reach 103%, while Convenience Claims will receive cumulative recoveries of 120%. Preferred equity holders will separately receive $18 million, raising total payments from their remission trust to $95 million. FTX will begin its fifth creditor distribution on July 31, paying approximately $900 million under its confirmed restructuring plan. The FTX repayment covers eligible Convenience and Non-Convenience claim holders who met the June 16 record date requirements.

Recipients should receive their money through BitGo, Kraken or Payoneer within one to three business days. FTX confirmed that claimants must complete identity checks, tax documentation, and provider onboarding before receiving payments.

The latest bankruptcy distribution continues a repayment process that began after FTX’s Chapter 11 reorganization became effective. Several claim classes will now receive cumulative distributions exceeding their allowed bankruptcy values.

FTX announced it will begin its Fifth Distribution of ~$900 million on 7/31/26 to holders of allowed claims in the Plan’s Convenience and Non-Convenience Classes that have completed the pre-distribution requirements.

— FTX (@FTX_Official) July 17, 2026

However, those values remain based on cryptocurrency prices around FTX’s November 2022 collapse. Creditors therefore receive additional cash above approved claims, but not the full gains produced by the later cryptocurrency recovery.

FTX Repayment Raises Recoveries Across Creditor Classes Allowed Dotcom Customer Entitlement Claims will receive an additional distribution equal to 9% of approved claim values. This payment raises their cumulative recovery to 105%.

United States Customer Entitlement Claims will receive another 5%, also increasing their total recovery to 105%. General Unsecured Claims and Digital Asset Loan Claims will each receive an additional 3%.

Those two groups will reach cumulative distributions of 103% following the FTX repayment. Convenience Claims will receive cumulative recoveries of 120%, according to the official payment schedule.

Actual percentages may vary slightly because of rounding and individual claim calculations. FTX plans to file detailed distribution figures with the bankruptcy court after the July 31 payment date.

Eligible FTX creditors previously selected a distribution provider through the customer claims portal. Their choices include BitGo, Kraken and Payoneer, depending on their location and account eligibility.

Selecting a provider directs FTX to send the cash payment directly to that company. Creditors must then contact their selected provider regarding account access or the availability of transferred funds.

Future payments will only cover claims recorded as allowed before the relevant record date. Transferred claims must also appear on the official register after the required objection period expires.

FTX Repayment Includes Preferred Shareholder Payment FTX will make a separate $18 million payment to eligible preferred equity holders on July 31. That payment will come from the Preferred Shareholder Remission Fund Trust.

The second preferred payment will raise total distributions from the trust to $95 million. Eligible holders must have qualified by the June 16 preferred record date.

Institutions receiving preferred payments must onboard with BitGo. Individual preferred shareholders must use Payoneer and complete the required consent documents.

Additional requirements include ownership certification, identity verification, and completed tax forms. FTX began contacting possible preferred equity holders in January 2026.

The FTX repayment announcement follows a fourth distribution of approximately $2.2 billion completed during March. The estate has continued releasing funds as claims become allowed and reserves are adjusted

FTX previously proposed reducing its disputed claims reserve by about $600 million, from $2.4 billion to $1.8 billion. The planned reduction could release additional cash for approved claims under the bankruptcy distribution process.

The estate also repeated its warning about fraudulent emails and imitation claims websites. FTX said it will never request customers to connect cryptocurrency wallets when processing payments.

Polymarket’s probability of the CLARITY Act passing this year has fallen to 32%, hitting an all-time low.

As the U.S. Senate remains deadlocked over the CLARITY Act, prediction market Polymarket has slashed the probability of the bill being passed by the end of 2026 to 32%, the lowest level since the platform launched in January this year. Data shows this probability has dropped by roughly 30 percentage points from the market’s launch, and plummeted sharply from the 82% peak hit in February this year. Market participants believe that with the Senate’s legislative schedule tightening and bipartisan support still unachieved, the likelihood of the bill passing this year continues to decline. Reports indicate that the biggest sticking point right now is that the two parties have yet to reach an agreement on ethics provisions related to conflicts of interest for government officials involving digital assets. Democratic Senator Ruben Gallego previously stated clearly that he would not support the bill in Senate votes if it does not include the bipartisan-backed ethics provisions. The CLARITY Act aims to establish a regulatory framework for the U.S. digital asset market and clarify the jurisdictional boundaries between the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). Multiple industry stakeholders testified at a House of Representatives hearing that the bill would help end "regulation by enforcement" and provide long-term, stable regulatory rules for the digital asset sector. As the U.S. Congress heads into its August recess, market expectations for the bill to be enacted into law this year are continuing to cool.

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An address linked to the Ondo team transferred 26.05 million ONDO tokens to Coinbase, worth approximately $9.79 million.

According to monitoring by crypto analytics account Ai Yi, an address linked to the Ondo team transferred 26.05 million ONDO tokens to Coinbase, worth approximately $9.79 million. The address received 150 million ONDO from the Ondo team’s multi-sig address on June 23, held the tokens for nearly a month, and transferred a portion to Coinbase 11 hours ago. The operation follows a similar pattern to prior moves: team address transfer → address holding → transfer to exchange platform, though the specific purpose of this action remains unclear.

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Claude Fable 5 will not be discontinued, and has officially remained in the premium subscription tier.

Anthropic announced that Claude Fable 5 will be officially included in its Max and Team Premium plans starting July 20. Users can allocate up to 50% of their plan credits to Fable 5, with no temporary deadline imposed. Pro and Team Standard users will still need to access Fable 5 on a pay-as-you-go basis, and Anthropic will grant these users a one-time $100 credit. When Fable 5 launched, Anthropic only committed to offering free access to the model until June 22. The model was later suspended due to U.S. export controls; after resuming on July 1, the plan access window was extended from July 7 to July 12, then to July 19. Anthropic has consistently stated that demand is unpredictable, requiring gradual increases in computing power. This timing is hard not to link to Kimi K3, which has recently matched or surpassed Fable 5 in multiple programming and agent benchmarks, with some tasks even outperforming it. Competitive pressure may have accelerated Anthropic’s decision, though no direct evidence exists to confirm this.

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Alibaba releases Miaowu Team Edition, an enterprise-level AI application creation platform.

At the 2026 World Artificial Intelligence Conference (WAIC), Alibaba unveiled Meoo Team, the enterprise team edition of its Miaowu enterprise-grade AI application creation platform. Its core capabilities include unified identity management, unified procurement and quota control, fine-grained permission management, and team asset sharing, among others. Meoo Team is designed to address key challenges enterprises face in AI creation, such as resource coordination, permission allocation, and asset ownership, while enhancing collaboration efficiency for teams across e-commerce, content creation, product operations, marketing, finance, education, and other fields.

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Crypto whale, following the strategy of "setting 10 major targets first", again goes long on BTC, accumulating $3.94 million in profit over the past month.

According to monitoring by crypto analytics account Ai Yi, whale trader alias "Set 10 Big Goals First" posted early this morning that he has opened a long position of 69.4 BTC, valued at roughly $4.43 million, with an entry price of $63,827.06. Ai Yi notes the position was built during Bitcoin’s early-morning rally and is likely only an initial entry. Data indicates that since June 25, Jason’s three BTC long trades each exceeded $200 million in size, generating cumulative profits of approximately $3.94 million.

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A crypto whale has added 1001 BTC to its holdings once more; last year, it purchased over $290 million worth of Bitcoin via over-the-counter (OTC) trades.

According to monitoring by Onchain Lens, a whale address that previously accumulated over $290 million worth of Bitcoin through Galaxy Digital last year has added to its holdings, receiving 1001 BTC valued at approximately $64 million. The relevant addresses include the main wallet bc1qexplq4mlp7umxavr2qceaqzc2w8fzc9enpty55 and its associated address 39aNzneDLY6oHifvRpxwXaeCPkP9gcZxNx.

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FTX will begin distributing roughly $900 million to creditors on July 31 as the collapsed crypto exchange continues repayments under its Chapter 11 reorganization plan.

The payment will mark FTX’s fifth distribution since creditor repayments began in 2025. The bankruptcy estate distributed $2.2 billion in March and has now returned nearly $10 billion to creditors and other claimants.

The latest distribution covers holders of allowed claims in the Convenience and Non Convenience Classes who completed the required steps by the June 16 record date.

Eligible creditors are expected to receive funds through BitGo, Kraken or Payoneer within one to three business days after the distribution begins.

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Allowed Class 5A Dotcom Customer Entitlement Claims will receive an additional 9%, bringing cumulative distributions to 105%.

Allowed Class 5B US Customer Entitlement Claims will receive an additional 5%, also bringing cumulative distributions to 105%.

General Unsecured Claims and Digital Asset Loan Claims will each receive another 3%, raising their cumulative distributions to 103%. Convenience Claims will reach a cumulative recovery of 120%.

The Convenience Class generally covers retail customers and smaller creditors, while the Non Convenience Classes include larger or more complex claims.

FTX has sought to provide retail creditor recoveries above the dollar value of their approved claims. However, the process has faced criticism because customer claims were valued based on cryptocurrency prices at the time of the exchange’s collapse in 2022 rather than repaid using the original digital assets.

Customers who selected a distribution provider have directed FTX to send their payments directly to that provider. Creditors seeking to qualify for future distributions must complete identity verification, submit tax forms and onboard with BitGo, Kraken or Payoneer.

FTX will also distribute $18 million to eligible preferred equity holders on July 31, bringing total payments from the Preferred Shareholder Remission Fund Trust to $95 million.

The estate has continued pursuing settlements connected to the exchange’s collapse. In May, law firm Fenwick & West agreed to pay $54 million to resolve claims that it helped enable misconduct at FTX before the company filed for bankruptcy.

FTX warned creditors to remain alert for phishing emails and fraudulent websites impersonating its claims portal, noting that it will never ask customers to connect a crypto wallet.

Disclosure: This article was edited by Editorial Team. For more information on how we create and review content, see our Editorial Policy.

Key Takeaways A unanimous Senate resolution opposes presidential clemency for Sam Bankman-Fried, the disgraced FTX founder Every single senator supported the measure — zero objections were recorded The bipartisan initiative was spearheaded by Senators Cynthia Lummis and Ruben Gallego Bankman-Fried received a conviction in November 2023 across seven charges related to FTX’s $8 billion implosion While President Trump granted pardons to crypto personalities like Changpeng Zhao and Ross Ulbricht, he has refused to extend mercy to Bankman-Fried On July 16, the United States Senate delivered a striking unanimous verdict: no pardon or sentence reduction should be granted to Sam Bankman-Fried, the architect behind the spectacular FTX cryptocurrency exchange failure.

U.S. Senate Unanimously Opposes Clemency for FTX Founder Sam Bankman-Fried

The U.S. Senate unanimously approved a nonbinding resolution stating that FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried should not receive a presidential pardon, sentence commutation or any other form of federal clemency… pic.twitter.com/u9yO9gHhVw

— Wu Blockchain (@WuBlockchain) July 16, 2026

Identified as S. Res. 772, the resolution sailed through without opposition under unanimous consent rules. In practical terms, this means zero senators stepped forward to contest it.

The initiative originated on June 17 through a collaborative effort between Senator Cynthia Lummis, Wyoming Republican, and Senator Ruben Gallego, Arizona Democrat. Both legislators chair opposite ends of the Senate Banking Committee’s cryptocurrency subcommittee.

“He received fair judicial proceedings,” Lummis stated during the resolution’s introduction. Gallego delivered a more direct assessment: “Keep him locked up.”

While the resolution carries symbolic weight rather than legal authority to prevent a presidential pardon, it transmits an unmistakable political message to the executive branch.

Understanding the FTX Disaster and Bankman-Fried’s Legal Downfall Bankman-Fried faced judgment in November 2023, resulting in convictions on seven criminal counts connected to FTX’s catastrophic failure. Federal prosecutors characterized the scheme as among the most significant financial crimes in American history.

U.S. customers suffered losses exceeding $8 billion. Bankman-Fried remains incarcerated with an anticipated release date around 2044.

The fraud’s core involved redirecting billions in FTX customer funds to Alameda Research, Bankman-Fried’s proprietary trading operation. These misappropriated funds financed speculative trades, startup investments, campaign contributions, and luxury properties in the Bahamas.

The operation collapsed in November 2022 following CoinDesk’s publication of Alameda’s financial records, which exposed that the company’s asset base consisted predominantly of FTT, FTX’s proprietary digital token.

Within days, Binance announced plans to liquidate its FTT position. This announcement precipitated a token value crash, massive customer withdrawals, and FTX’s bankruptcy declaration on November 11, 2022.

Contrasting Trump’s Treatment of Other Cryptocurrency Cases President Trump has extended executive clemency to other prominent cryptocurrency personalities. This year witnessed pardons for Binance’s founder Changpeng Zhao and Ross Ulbricht, who created Silk Road.

These clemency grants sparked widespread conjecture that Bankman-Fried might receive similar treatment. His relatives actively pursued White House advocacy on his behalf.

However, the administration clarified in January that pardoning Bankman-Fried was not under consideration. The Senate’s universal support for the resolution solidifies this stance.

Bankman-Fried’s legal challenge to reverse his conviction also failed in appellate court, making presidential clemency his sole remaining avenue.

The Senate’s action demonstrates that while cryptocurrency regulatory matters may receive lenient consideration, massive fraud targeting customers remains unforgivable.

CROWDFUNDINSIDER: US Senate Passes Resolution Stating FTX Founder Sam Bankman Fried Should Never Receive a Pardon

El Senado de EE. UU. se opone unánimemente a la clemencia para Sam Bankman-Fried, de FTX

English日本語한국어繁體中文ไทยPortuguêsItalianoDeutschFrançaisEspañol El Senado de EE. UU. alcanzó por unanimidad una resolución bipartidista que declara que el ex fundador de FTX, Sam Bankman-Fried, no debe recibir clemencia ejecutiva. Este acuerdo unánime del Senado de EE. UU. es una de las señales políticas más contundentes contra un posible indulto presidencial o conmutación de sentencia para el condenado ejecutivo de criptomonedas.

La resolución no vinculante, S.Res. 772, fue aprobada el miércoles tras ser presentada por los senadores Cynthia Lummis (republicana de Wyoming) y Ruben Gallego (demócrata de Arizona), presidenta y miembro de mayor rango, respectivamente, del Subcomité Bancario del Senado sobre Activos Digitales. Aunque la medida no tiene fuerza legal y no puede impedir que un presidente conceda clemencia, refleja un raro consenso bipartidista sobre la rendición de cuentas por uno de los mayores fraudes financieros de la industria cripto.

Resolución del Senado de EE. UU. (S. Res. 772). Fuente: Senador Gallego.

Conclusión para inversores Aunque no es vinculante, la postura unánime del Senado envía una señal contundente de que Washington sigue comprometido con exigir responsabilidad a los ejecutivos del sector cripto.

El Senado de EE. UU. afirma: “Sin indulto presidencial” para Sam Bankman-Fried La resolución del Senado de EE. UU. establece que Bankman-Fried no debe recibir, bajo ninguna circunstancia, un indulto presidencial, una conmutación ni ninguna otra forma de clemencia federal. Además, afirma que la sentencia de 25 años de prisión impuesta al exdirectivo de FTX refleja la magnitud extraordinaria de sus delitos, su falta de remordimiento y las devastadoras pérdidas sufridas por clientes e inversores.

La resolución también rechaza las reiteradas afirmaciones de Bankman-Fried de que su procesamiento constituyó una forma de «lawfare» (guerra jurídica), reafirmando en cambio la integridad del proceso de justicia penal federal que derivó en su condena por un jurado unánime y su sentencia dictada por un juez federal.

Según la Galería de Prensa del Senado de EE. UU., la resolución fue adoptada por consentimiento unánime, lo que significa que ningún senador se opuso a su aprobación. Una sección de la resolución establece:

«Considerando que la clemencia borraría la condena de Bankman-Fried, debilitaría el efecto disuasorio y enviaría un mensaje profundamente perjudicial de que los perpetradores de fraudes financieros a gran escala pueden eludir la rendición de cuentas permanente.» Los legisladores también señalaron los procedimientos de quiebra de FTX que siguen en curso, indicando que los esfuerzos para compensar a las víctimas aún no se han completado. La acción del Senado se produce semanas después de que Bankman-Fried, según se informa, presentara una petición formal solicitando clemencia presidencial tras el fracaso de su apelación contra su condena.

La resolución señala que su solicitud está pendiente ante la Oficina del Fiscal de Indultos del Departamento de Justicia, y que la clemencia socavaría el efecto disuasorio frente a los delitos financieros a gran escala.

Conclusión para inversores Las repercusiones del colapso de FTX siguen influyendo en las políticas, con legisladores que señalan que el fraude cripto de alto perfil no será tratado de manera diferente a los delitos financieros tradicionales.

El colapso de FTX sigue marcando la regulación cripto En marzo de 2024, Bankman-Fried fue sentenciado a 25 años de prisión federal y se le ordenó decomisar $11.000 millones. La resolución del Senado de EE. UU. cita hallazgos según los cuales los clientes de FTX perdieron más de $8.000 millones, los inversores en renta variable perdieron más de $1.700 millones, y los prestamistas de Alameda Research perdieron más de $1.300 millones tras el colapso del exchange.

El documento también argumenta que la rendición de cuentas es esencial para mantener la confianza en los mercados financieros estadounidenses y proteger a los inversores de futuras conductas indebidas.

Cabe destacar que la resolución no impide que un futuro presidente conceda un indulto o conmute la sentencia de Bankman-Fried, ya que la clemencia ejecutiva sigue siendo una facultad presidencial de carácter constitucional. Aun así, la votación eleva el costo político de cualquier futura decisión de clemencia, al dejar constancia de que el Senado se opone unánimemente a otorgar alivio al condenado ex multimillonario cripto.

Updated Jul 16, 2026, 7:23 a.m. Published Jul 16, 2026, 6:00 a.m.

2 min read

Summary

The Senate unanimously approved a resolution declaring that FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried should under no circumstances receive a presidential pardon or commutation.The bipartisan measure, led by Senators Cynthia Lummis of Wyoming and Ruben Gallego of Arizona, underscores lawmakers’ view of Bankman-Fried’s role in what prosecutors called one of the largest financial frauds in U.S. history.Bankman-Fried, convicted in 2023 on seven counts related to FTX’s collapse and the loss of more than $8 billion in customer funds, is not eligible for release until around 2044, and former President Donald Trump has said he has no plans to pardon him.The Senate agreed Wednesday that Sam Bankman-Fried should never receive clemency, passing a resolution that states the FTX founder should "under no circumstances" get a pardon or commutation.

It passed by unanimous consent, a procedure that clears as a measure if not a single senator objects to it.

Senators Cynthia Lummis, a Wyoming Republican, and Ruben Gallego, an Arizona Democrat, serve as the Senate Banking Committee's digital assets subcommittee's top Republican and Democrat, respectively.

Lummis is the crypto industry's most committed advocate in Congress and has spent years writing the legislation the industry wants. She has led the effort to keep one of its most infamous figures behind bars.

"He had his day in court," Lummis said when the pair introduced the measure on June 17. Gallego's statement ended with four words: "Keep him locked up."

Bankman-Fried is not eligible for release until around 2044. A jury convicted him in November 2023 on seven counts tied to the collapse of FTX, which prosecutors called one of the largest financial frauds in U.S. history, with American customers losing more than $8 billion.

President Donald Trump said in January he had no plans to pardon Bankman-Fried. He has cleared Binance founder Changpeng Zhao and Silk Road creator Ross Ulbricht, along with other white-collar offenders.

Bankman-Fried ran two companies at once. FTX was a crypto exchange, which holds customer money the way a broker does and is not supposed to touch it. Alameda Research was a trading firm he also owned. He moved billions of dollars in FTX customer deposits to Alameda, which spent the money on trades, venture investments, political donations, and Bahamian real estate, while FTX's software exempted Alameda from the rules that would have forced it to cover its losses like any other trader.

The facade was blown open after CoinDesk obtained Alameda's balance sheet in November 2022 and found that most of what the firm counted as assets was FTT – a token FTX had created itself and could issue at will.

The collateral propping up Alameda was, in effect, something its sister company had invented. Further cracks emerged after the prominent exchange Binance said, days later, it would sell its FTT holdings, leading to a rapid collapse in FTT prices.

Customers rushed to pull their deposits, and FTX could not return the money because it was no longer there. The exchange filed for bankruptcy on Nov. 11, 2022, just over a week after the story ran.

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The US government has transferred approximately $250,000 worth of Shiba Inu (SHIB) tokens that were seized during the investigation into the collapse of cryptocurrency exchange FTX and its associated trading firm Alameda Research.

FTX Bankruptcy Asset ManagementBlockchain analytics provider Arkham Intelligence reported that the SHIB tokens originated from wallets tied to assets confiscated in connection with FTX and Alameda Research. Arkham noted that the recent transaction is part of the government’s ongoing management of seized digital assets tied to the FTX bankruptcy proceedings.

The transaction on the blockchain did not indicate a sale of the SHIB holdings. Instead, the tokens were shifted internally between addresses under the control of US government authorities. The move aligns with established practices for handling confiscated digital assets while legal and financial proceedings continue.

Arkham Intelligence commented that the Shiba Inu tokens are expected to remain in government custody for now, likely to be used in creditor repayment processes once court-approved distributions are finalized. Authorities have not provided a public explanation for this specific transfer, and the tokens have not been moved to an exchange for liquidation.

Arkham Intelligence observed that wallet activity linked to US authorities often attracts attention from market participants, especially when it involves popular assets like SHIB, even if there is no immediate sale taking place.

FTX, once one of the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchanges, filed for bankruptcy in November 2022 after revelations of misused customer funds and financial instability. Since then, US officials have seized billions of dollars in digital assets, aiming to maximize compensation for creditors impacted by FTX’s collapse.

Impact on SHIB Holders and Market ReactionsThe distinction between moving seized tokens between government-controlled wallets and selling them on public markets is significant for SHIB holders. Internal transfers do not directly change market supply or affect token price, while large-scale sales onto exchanges could exert downward pressure depending on overall liquidity.

Governments and bankruptcy trustees typically avoid rushing to liquidate all assets, often transferring funds between secure digital wallets in preparation for eventual distributions. This process serves both to protect the value of the assets and to ensure compliance with ongoing legal procedures.

ActionImpact on SHIB PriceMarket ReactionInternal transfer (custody wallet to custody wallet)No immediate impactTypically lowSale on public exchangePotential downward pressureHigh (due to increased supply)For holders of Shiba Inu, understanding the nature of such wallet activity is important. Large custodial movements are usually administrative and do not result in immediate price changes, in contrast to tokens being sold on exchanges.

Transparency in Government Crypto HoldingsTraders continue to monitor government-controlled crypto wallets closely after previous high-profile transfers of Bitcoin and other digital assets. Analytics firms like Arkham Intelligence make these movements publicly trackable, helping the market differentiate between simple custody management and actual sales or liquidations.

Although the recent SHIB transfer appears to be an administrative relocation, it underscores how blockchain transparency now enables anyone to observe significant shifts in government-held cryptocurrencies. As the FTX bankruptcy process unfolds, authorities may make further asset movements before distributions commence.

Mini dictionary: Arkham Intelligence is a blockchain analytics company that tracks and monitors on-chain activity for cryptocurrencies and wallet addresses, providing insights into government, corporate, and individual asset movements.

No timeline has been set for the eventual creditor repayments involving the seized Shiba Inu tokens. The US government continues to hold the funds under secure custody pending further court-directed actions.

Disclaimer: The information contained in this article does not constitute investment advice. Investors should be aware that cryptocurrencies carry high volatility and therefore risk, and should conduct their own research.

The U.S. Senate has unanimously approved a nonbinding resolution opposing any federal clemency for FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried. 

Summary

Senators unanimously backed a resolution opposing any pardon, commutation or other federal clemency for Bankman-Fried. Bankman-Fried remains imprisoned for FTX fraud while his formal presidential pardon application continues seeking review. The resolution follows Trump’s earlier pardons of other prominent crypto figures, including Zhao and Ulbricht. Senators agreed to the measure by unanimous consent on July 15, meaning no senator objected when it was brought before the chamber.

The resolution states that Bankman-Fried should “under no circumstances” receive executive clemency, including a presidential pardon or sentence commutation. The Senate measure does not limit the president’s constitutional pardon power, but it places the chamber on record against clemency for the former FTX chief.

Senate backs bipartisan resolution without objection The Senate approved S.Res.772, according to the U.S. Senate Daily Press. The measure also states that denying clemency would support the rule of law and the integrity of the U.S. financial system.

Agreed to by unanimous consent: S. Res. 772, A resolution expressing the sense of the #Senate that under no circumstances should Samuel Bankman-Fried receive executive clemency, including a pardon or commutation, and affirming the Senate's commitment to the rule of law and…

— Senate Press Gallery (@SenatePress) July 15, 2026 Senators Cynthia Lummis and Ruben Gallego introduced the resolution on June 17. Lummis, a Republican from Wyoming, and Gallego, a Democrat from Arizona, serve on the Senate Banking Committee’s digital assets subcommittee. When introducing the measure, Lummis said Bankman-Fried “had his day in court,” while Gallego called for him to remain imprisoned.

Bankman-Fried continues to pursue a pardon The Senate action follows Bankman-Fried’s request for presidential clemency. As previously reported by crypto.news, the former FTX chief submitted a pardon application in June while continuing efforts to challenge his conviction and 25-year prison sentence.

His legal options narrowed days later when an appeals court upheld his conviction. As reported by crypto.news, a three-judge panel rejected arguments that the trial court had wrongly limited evidence that Bankman-Fried wanted to present in his defense. The ruling left his conviction and sentence in place, though routes for further review remain available.

FTX collapse remains central to Senate opposition A federal jury convicted Bankman-Fried in November 2023 on seven fraud and conspiracy charges linked to the collapse of FTX. Prosecutors accused him of moving billions of dollars in customer funds from the exchange to Alameda Research and using the money for investments, political donations and other spending.

A judge sentenced him to 25 years in prison in March 2024. Bankman-Fried has continued to dispute parts of the government’s case and has sought legal and political routes to reduce or overturn his punishment. Federal prison records cited in recent reporting indicate that his projected release date falls in 2044.

Trump’s earlier crypto pardons shape the backdrop The resolution arrives after President Donald Trump granted clemency to other figures linked to the crypto industry. Trump pardoned Silk Road founder Ross Ulbricht in January 2025 and later pardoned Binance founder Changpeng Zhao in October 2025.

Bankman-Fried has not received support from the White House. As previously reported, Trump said in January that he did not plan to pardon the FTX founder. A White House spokesperson later referred reporters back to those remarks after Bankman-Fried filed his formal application.

The Senate resolution remains nonbinding and cannot block a president from granting clemency. However, its unanimous passage shows that no senator present objected to formally opposing a pardon or commutation for Bankman-Fried.

In brief The U.S. Senate has unanimously passed a resolution stating that FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried should "under no circumstances" receive executive clemency, including a pardon or commutation. The bipartisan measure was led by Senators Cynthia Lummis (R-WY) and Rubén Gallego (D-AZ), the top members of the Banking Committee's digital assets subcommittee. The resolution is symbolic and doesn't limit the president's constitutional pardon power; Bankman-Fried, convicted in 2023, isn't eligible for release until 2044. The U.S. Senate has unanimously declared that Sam Bankman-Fried should never win clemency, passing a resolution on Wednesday that says the convicted FTX founder should "under no circumstances" receive a pardon or commutation of his 25-year sentence.

Agreed to by unanimous consent: S. Res. 772, A resolution expressing the sense of the #Senate that under no circumstances should Samuel Bankman-Fried receive executive clemency, including a pardon or commutation, and affirming the Senate's commitment to the rule of law and…

— Senate Press Gallery (@SenatePress) July 15, 2026

The measure, S. Res. 772, passed by unanimous consent—a procedure that clears a resolution as long as not a single senator objects. Alongside its stance on Bankman-Fried, it affirmed the Senate's commitment to "the rule of law and integrity of the United States financial system."

As a nonbinding resolution, it carries no legal force, and cannot curb the president's constitutional power to grant clemency.

A rare bipartisan frontThe measure was steered by Senators Cynthia Lummis (R-WY) and Rubén Gallego (D-AZ), the top Republican and Democrat on the Senate Banking Committee's digital assets subcommittee, who introduced it on June 17. Lummis, the crypto industry's most prominent advocate in Congress, said at the time that Bankman-Fried "had his day in court." Gallego was more blunt, stating, "Keep him locked up."

At the time, a spokesperson for Lummis' office told Decrypt that, “SBF has clearly ramped up his pardon campaign and Senator Lummis wants Fried to know she and her colleagues think he’s right where he belongs.”

A narrowing path to freedomThe vote lands as Bankman-Fried keeps looking for a way out. He lost his appeal when a federal court upheld his fraud conviction last month, while President Donald Trump said in January that he had no plans to pardon him.

Trump has been willing to extend clemency to other crypto figures—among them Binance founder Changpeng "CZ" Zhao, BitMEX co-founders Arthur Hayes, Ben Delo, and Samuel Reed, and Silk Road creator Ross Ulbricht, all of whom he pardoned.

How FTX unraveledA jury convicted Bankman-Fried in November 2023 on seven counts tied to the 2022 implosion of FTX, once one of the world's largest crypto exchanges.  He was sentenced to 25 years in prison, with prosecutors called it one of the biggest financial frauds in U.S. history after American customers lost more than $8 billion.

With the courts, the White House, and now the full Senate lining up against him, Bankman-Fried's options are thinning—leaving his scheduled release, somewhere around 2044, as his likeliest route out.

Daily Debrief NewsletterStart every day with the top news stories right now, plus original features, a podcast, videos and more.

The Senate unanimously passed a nonbinding resolution stating that FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried should never receive a presidential pardon or commutation.

Posted July 16, 2026 at 6:14 am EST.

The U.S. Senate agreed on Wednesday that Sam Bankman-Fried should never receive clemency, passing a resolution stating that the FTX founder should “under no circumstances” get a pardon or commutation. It passed by unanimous consent.

The nonbinding resolution was led by Senators Cynthia Lummis, a Wyoming Republican, and Ruben Gallego, an Arizona Democrat, who serve as the top Republican and Democrat on the Senate Banking Committee’s digital assets subcommittee. The pair introduced the measure last month, after Bankman-Fried formally asked Trump for a pardon.

This story is an excerpt from the Unchained Daily newsletter.

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“He had his day in court,” Lummis said, introducing the resolution last month.

President Trump has pardoned Binance founder Changpeng Zhao and Silk Road creator Ross Ulbricht, but said in January he had no plans to rescue Bankman-Fried.

Bankman-Fried is serving a 25-year sentence and is not eligible for release until around 2044. A jury convicted him in November 2023 on seven counts tied to the collapse of FTX, which prosecutors called one of the largest financial frauds in U.S. history, with customers losing more than $8 billion. He lost an appeal of that conviction in June and is separately seeking a new trial.

FTX collapsed in November 2022 after it emerged that Bankman-Fried had funneled billions in customer deposits to Alameda Research, his affiliated trading firm, which spent the money on trades, venture bets, political donations, and real estate. The exchange filed for bankruptcy on Nov. 11, 2022, once customers rushed to withdraw funds that were no longer there.

Related Listen: DEX in the City: Why the Supreme Court’s FTC Ruling Could Rewire Crypto Regulation

AI-assisted content: This article was produced with the assistance of AI tools and was reviewed, edited, and fact-checked by a member of the Unchained editorial team before publication.

14h05 ▪ 4 min read ▪ by Lydie M.

Summarize this article with:

The US Senate has just sent a harsh message in the FTX case. Sam Bankman-Fried should not receive any presidential pardon. This resolution does not legally block the president’s power. But it further isolates the former king of crypto, already sentenced to 25 years in prison for one of the largest financial frauds in American history.

In brief The US Senate unanimously opposes any pardon for Sam Bankman-Fried. The resolution is symbolic but very heavy politically. The FTX case remains a central marker for the credibility of crypto. A rare vote against Sam Bankman-Fried The US Senate adopted a clear resolution against any leniency for the former FTX boss. The text states that Sam Bankman-Fried should receive no pardon, no sentence commutation, and no other form of federal clemency. The vote was obtained by unanimous consent. This means that no senator opposed its adoption. In a frequently fractured Congress, this consensus gives the case a strong political weight.

The resolution remains non-binding. It does not remove the president’s constitutional power of pardon. But it establishes a public line. Granting a favor to SBF would now mean opposing a position expressed by the entire Senate. The FTX case continues to stick to the crypto sector’s skin. Sam Bankman-Fried had built an image of genius, political donor, and industry savior. His fall left a deep scar.

The jury found him guilty in 2023 on seven counts related to fraud. In March 2024, the court sentenced him to 25 years in prison. Prosecutors described the collapse of FTX as one of the largest financial frauds in American history. For the crypto industry, this vote comes at a sensitive moment. Serious players want to distinguish themselves from the era of opaque empires, missing ledgers, and inflated promises. The Senate’s message strengthens this boundary.

SBF’s clemency would have blurred this separation. It would have given the impression that notoriety, political networks, or communication can soften massive fraud. This is precisely what elected officials want to avoid.

FTX remains a warning for the entire market The text was carried by Cynthia Lummis and Rubén Gallego, two senators at the heart of the discussions on digital assets. Their alliance gives special weight to the initiative. Lummis is known for her pro-crypto positions. Gallego also advocates a more structured framework for the industry. Their message is thus not anti-crypto. It aims rather to separate digital innovation from fraud.

This is where the vote becomes interesting. The Senate does not say that crypto should be rejected. It says that the FTX case cannot be erased by a political gesture. The nuance matters. Sam Bankman-Fried has already tried several defense routes. He challenged his trial, criticized the procedure, and sought to evolve his public narrative. But the courts have so far scarcely followed this line. His judicial path has narrowed, as shown by his appeal hearing.

The resolution does not free the victims. It does not reimburse the losses. It does not repair the years of chaos following the bankruptcy. But it locks the symbol. FTX was not only a platform that collapsed. It was a large-scale failed trust test. Clients thought they were depositing funds in a safe infrastructure. They discovered a fragile, confused system mixed with Alameda Research.

For Sam Bankman-Fried, the political window is closing. His scheduled release around 2044 remains the most likely scenario. For crypto, the message is broader: the industry can only gain durable public trust by accepting that the FTX case remains a precedent, not an embarrassing parenthesis.

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Lydie M.

Enseignante et ingénieure IT, Lydie découvre le Bitcoin en 2022 et plonge dans l’univers des cryptomonnaies. Elle vulgarise des sujets complexes, décrypte les enjeux du Web3 et défend une vision d’un futur numérique ouvert, inclusif et décentralisé.

DISCLAIMER

The views, thoughts, and opinions expressed in this article belong solely to the author, and should not be taken as investment advice. Do your own research before taking any investment decisions.

The Senate passed a resolution on Wednesday stating that Sam Bankman-Fried should “under no circumstances” receive executive clemency, a rebuke of the FTX founder’s request that President Donald Trump commute or pardon his sentence.

The measure, S. Res. 772, cleared by unanimous consent, a procedure that adopts a resolution when no senator objects. It expresses the sense of the Senate that Bankman-Fried should receive neither a pardon nor a commutation, and it affirms the chamber’s commitment to “the rule of law and integrity of the United States financial system.” 

The resolution is nonbinding and does not limit the president’s constitutional power to grant clemency.

Senators Cynthia Lummis, a Wyoming Republican, and Ruben Gallego, an Arizona Democrat, sponsored the measure. The two serve as the top Republican and top Democrat on the Senate Banking Committee’s digital assets subcommittee. They introduced the resolution on June 17, days after Bankman-Fried filed a formal pardon application with the Justice Department.

Lummis is the crypto industry’s most committed advocate in Congress and has spent years drafting the legislation the industry seeks. On this measure she has led the push to keep one of the industry’s most infamous figures in prison. “He had his day in court,” Lummis said when she and Gallego introduced the resolution. Gallego’s statement closed with four words: “Keep him locked up.”

The text of the resolution states that Bankman-Fried’s 25-year sentence “reflects the extraordinary scale and deliberateness of his crimes, his lack of remorse, and the catastrophic harm inflicted upon millions of victims.”

Bankman-Frieds’ attempts to get out of jail Bankman-Fried, 34, filed his petition on June 8. His application seeks a “pardon after completion of sentence,” a form of clemency that would not erase his conviction but would restore civil rights such as voting and jury service and lift barriers to licensing, employment, and housing after he leaves prison. 

He is not eligible for release until around 2044.

Trump said in a January interview that he had no intention of pardoning Bankman-Fried. During his second term the president has granted clemency to other figures tied to crypto and to online markets, including Binance founder Changpeng Zhao and Silk Road creator Ross Ulbricht, along with other white-collar offenders.

A jury convicted Bankman-Fried in November 2023 on seven counts tied to the collapse of FTX, a case prosecutors described as one of the largest financial frauds in U.S. history. American customers lost more than $8 billion. A judge sentenced him to 25 years in prison in 2024.

Bankman-Fried ran two companies at the same time. FTX was a crypto exchange, which holds customer money the way a broker does and is not supposed to spend it. Alameda Research was a trading firm he owned. 

He moved billions of dollars in FTX customer deposits to Alameda, which used the money for trades, venture investments, political donations, and Bahamian real estate. FTX’s software exempted Alameda from the rules that would have forced it to cover its losses like any other trader.

The arrangement came apart once Alameda’s balance sheet was found and reported that much of what the firm counted as assets was FTT, a token FTX had created and could issue at will. The collateral behind Alameda was, in effect, an asset its sister company had invented. The exchange Binance said within days that it would sell its FTT holdings, and the price of the token dropped.

Customers moved to withdraw their deposits, and FTX could not return the money because it was no longer there. The exchange filed for bankruptcy on Nov. 11, 2022.

CoinDesk was the first to report on FTX’s dubious balance sheets.

Micah Zimmerman

Micah first discovered Bitcoin in 2018 but remained a skeptic on the sidelines for too long. Since 2021, he has covered crypto and business and now works as a news reporter for Bitcoin Magazine, based in North Carolina.

The U.S. government has transferred nearly $250,000 worth of Shiba Inu tokens seized from the collapsed cryptocurrency exchange FTX. 

The transactions, first flagged by blockchain analytics platform Arkham Intelligence, have sparked speculation that the assets are being repositioned as part of the ongoing FTX bankruptcy recovery process.

U.S. Government Transfers Nearly 55 Billion SHIB According to Arkham Intelligence, the U.S. government executed the Shiba Inu transfers in two separate transactions.

The first and largest transfer moved 54.89 billion SHIB, valued at approximately $235,500, to an unlabeled wallet address. Authorities then sent an additional 2.32 million SHIB to the same destination wallet. Overall, the government moved a total of 54,897,092,652 (54.89 billion) SHIB tokens. 

US Government Transfers Shiba Inu On-chain data shows that the original U.S. government wallet no longer holds any SHIB after the transfers. Meanwhile, the receiving wallet now contains 54.89 billion SHIB, with SHIB representing the wallet’s only asset. 

The SHIB transfers were not the only transactions recorded by Arkham Intelligence. Blockchain data also shows that the U.S. government transferred $19.62 million in USDT to Coinbase, alongside roughly $9.3 million worth of ETH sent to the same exchange. 

Seized Assets Expected to Support FTX Creditor Repayments The transferred SHIB originated from assets the U.S. government seized from FTX and Alameda Research after the exchange collapsed in November 2022.

Arkham Intelligence indicated that the tokens will presumably help fund repayments to creditors affected by the FTX bankruptcy. However, creditors are unlikely to receive SHIB or other cryptocurrencies directly.

Instead, the FTX bankruptcy estate has consistently liquidated recovered digital assets and distributed the proceeds in cash. As a result, creditors receive U.S. dollar payments based on cryptocurrency prices at the time FTX filed for bankruptcy in November 2022, rather than at current market values.

FTX Repayment Program Nears $9.5 Billion The latest government wallet activity comes as FTX continues to make substantial repayments to creditors. On March 31, 2026, the bankruptcy estate completed its fourth distribution round, paying $2.2 billion to eligible creditors. That payment increased the total amount distributed to around $9.5 billion.

According to the estate, most U.S. customers and general unsecured creditors have now recovered 100% of their approved claims, while convenience class claimants have received payouts of up to 120%.

The March distribution followed three earlier repayment rounds completed in February, May, and September 2025. Meanwhile, FTX also began processing payments to preferred equity shareholders in late May 2026, marking another milestone in the bankruptcy proceedings. 

DisClamier: This content is informational and should not be considered financial advice. The views expressed in this article may include the author's personal opinions and do not reflect The Crypto Basic opinion. Readers are encouraged to do thorough research before making any investment decisions. The Crypto Basic is not responsible for any financial losses.