FTX, the bankrupt crypto exchange, has added Payoneer to its creditors’ repayment options, according to a June 10 statement.

The new company would serve as an additional asset distribution channel, alongside BitGo and Kraken.

Payoneer operates a global payments platform across more than 190 countries and territories. Under the agreement, Payoneer will help distribute funds to retail customers in eligible jurisdictions, which aligns with FTX’s ongoing reorganization plan.

This new option will be available for all future distributions made after May 30, 2025.

FTX clarified that customers choosing this method will waive their right to direct US dollar distributions. Instead, the bankrupt exchange will transfer funds to Payoneer, which will credit the customer’s chosen bank account.

The company stressed that the value received will align with each customer’s entitlement under the plan, regardless of currency.

This development follows FTX’s recent completion of two significant repayment phases. The exchange returned nearly $7 billion to creditors across both rounds, roughly $1.8 billion in the first phase and $5 billion in the second.

Notably, retail investors with smaller claims were repaid mainly in full, while larger creditors with claims exceeding $50,000 have faced limits on full recovery.

FTX creditors in Nigeria and China remain excluded

Despite adding Payoneer to the distribution process, FTX’s repayment reach remains incomplete.

Thomas Braziel, a specialist in FTX claims at 117 Partners, pointed out that the new channel primarily benefits customers in India, Indonesia, Japan, and select US states where restrictions on crypto custodians previously blocked payouts.

He furthered that many FTX creditors in key markets like Russia, China, Egypt, and Nigeria remain sidelined from the ongoing repayment process.

Interestingly, creditors from these countries made up a significant portion of FTX’s user base before its collapse. For context, FTX’s data shows that creditors from China alone represent 8% of total claims.

The ongoing lack of access for these regions highlights persistent gaps in FTX’s global asset recovery, raising concerns about fairness and transparency as the process progresses.

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Coinbase analysts believe that the $5 billion repayment round initiated by the FTX Recovery Trust could function as a significant injection of liquidity into digital asset markets, potentially influencing trading behavior and asset flows as funds reach affected creditors this week.

The FTX Recovery Trust began distributing more than $5 billion in stablecoins on May 30, launching a long-awaited second round of repayments to creditors affected by the crypto exchange’s 2022 collapse.

The funds will be disbursed via BitGo and Kraken over a three-day period and span a broad range of claimants, including institutional lenders, US customers, digital asset lenders, and general unsecured creditors.

Recovery rates in this round vary by class, with institutional and international claimants receiving 72%, digital asset lenders and general unsecured creditors recovering 61%, and US-based FTX customers receiving 54%.

Smaller claimants with approved claims under $50,000, classified as “convenience claims,” are set to recover 120% of the allowed amount.

According to a recent Coinbase report, this repayment marks the first large-scale distribution of stablecoins, which may offer greater stability for recipients compared to the February round, which included a mix of cash and crypto.

Different market environment

According to Coinbase’s research team, the method and timing of these repayments could have a meaningful market impact.

Unlike the initial February 2025 round, when roughly $7 billion was distributed primarily in cash and crypto, this phase is denominated in stablecoins, giving recipients immediate reinvestment optionality.

Analysts suggest this could catalyze new flows into digital assets, especially among institutional claimants better equipped to redeploy capital quickly. They added that the February round did little to lift digital asset prices due to subdued market sentiment, which led to the COIN50 index closing the month down 16%.

The report attributed the lack of response to macroeconomic headwinds, including tariff-related uncertainty and limited crypto-specific catalysts.

However, the exchange believes that the environment appears more favorable this time. Bitcoin recently touched a new all-time high, institutional interest in crypto treasuries is resurging, and US lawmakers have made meaningful progress on regulatory clarity.

The decision to issue repayments in stablecoins may prompt greater reinvestment into the market, especially from institutional claimants who now face fewer frictions when reallocating capital.

The FTX recovery process remains one of the largest and most complex in crypto’s history, involving claims across multiple jurisdictions and a tangled web of counterparties.

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The FTX Recovery Trust will begin distributing over $5 billion in cash and stablecoins to creditors starting on Friday, with funds expected to land in accounts within the next three business days via BitGo and Kraken.

And there’s a chance this wave of repayments will help lift the crypto market, analysts at Coinbase wrote in a report on Friday.

It’s the second major round of repayments following the exchange’s collapse. The first, which began on Feb. 18, returned roughly $7 billion to creditors with claims under $50,000. That did little to lift broader crypto markets at the time, which remained under pressure from macro headwinds.

This latest wave of distributions comes as investor sentiment has shifted, the analysts said. Payments will arrive in stablecoins, offering recipients immediate on-chain liquidity, instead of cash and crypto. That could influence whether the funds are reinvested.

There’s also a broader sense of optimism in crypto markets, thanks in part to a rally in major assets and increased political clarity around regulation. Institutional players, in particular, may feel more comfortable acting on incoming funds, especially as Congress moves closer to passing legislation that would define the roles of U.S. regulators overseeing digital assets.

Repayments of on-chain loans using stablecoins can often serve as an early warning indicator of liquidity shifts and volatility spikes in Ethereum’s (ETH) price, according to a recent Amberdata report. 

The report highlighted how lending behaviors within DeFi ecosystems, particularly repayment frequency, can serve as early indicators of emerging market stress.

The study examined the connection between Ethereum price movements and stablecoin-based lending activity involving USDC, USDT, and DAI. The analysis revealed a consistent relationship between heightened repayment activity and increased ETH price fluctuations.

Volatility framework

The report used the Garman-Klass (GK) estimator. This statistical model accounts for the full intraday price range, including open, high, low, and close prices, rather than relying solely on closing prices. 

According to the report, this method enables more accurate measurement of price swings, particularly during high-activity periods in the market.

Amberdata applied the GK estimator to ETH price data across trading pairs with USDC, USDT, and DAI. The resulting volatility values were then correlated with DeFi lending metrics to assess how transactional behaviors influence market trends. 

Across all three stablecoin ecosystems, the number of loan repayments showed the strongest and most consistent positive correlation with Ethereum volatility. For USDC, the correlation was 0.437; for USDT, 0.491; and DAI, 0.492. 

These results suggest that frequent repayment activity tends to coincide with market uncertainty or stress, during which traders and institutions adjust their positions to manage risk.

A rising number of repayments may reflect de-risking behaviors, such as closing leveraged positions or reallocating capital in response to price movements. Amberdata views this as evidence that repayment activity may be an early indicator of changes in liquidity conditions and upcoming Ethereum market volatility spikes.

In addition to repayment frequency, withdrawal-related metrics displayed moderate correlations with ETH volatility. For instance, the withdrawal amounts and frequency ratio in the USDC ecosystem exhibited correlations of 0.361 and 0.357, respectively.

These numbers suggest that fund outflows from lending platforms, regardless of size, may signal defensive positioning by market participants, reducing liquidity and amplifying price sensitivity.

Borrowing behavior and transaction volume effects

The report also examined other lending metrics, including borrowed amounts and repayment volumes. In the USDT ecosystem, the dollar-denominated amounts for repayments and borrows correlate with ETH volatility at 0.344 and 0.262, respectively. 

While less pronounced than the count-based repayment signals, these metrics still contribute to the broader picture of how transactional intensity can reflect market sentiment.

DAI displayed a similar pattern on a smaller scale. The frequency of loan settlements remained a strong signal, while the ecosystem’s smaller average transaction sizes muted the correlation strength of volume-based metrics. 

Notably, metrics such as dollar-denominated withdrawals in DAI showed a very low correlation (0.047), reinforcing the importance of transaction frequency over transaction size in identifying volatility signals in this context.

Multicollinearity in lending metrics

The report also highlighted the issue of multicollinearity, which is high intercorrelation between independent variables within each stablecoin lending dataset. 

For example, in the USDC ecosystem, the number of repays and withdrawals showed a pairwise correlation of 0.837, indicating that these metrics may capture similar user behavior and could introduce redundancy in predictive models.

Nevertheless, the analysis concludes that repayment activity is a robust indicator of market stress, offering a data-driven lens through which DeFi metrics can interpret and anticipate price conditions in Ethereum markets.

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Kraken reportedly confirmed that the second phase of FTX creditor repayments will start on May 30.

On March 6, FTX creditors’ representative Sunil Kavuri shared a screenshot of an email allegedly from Kraken. The email indicated that the exchange would initiate another round of repayments in May for customers affected by FTX’s 2022 collapse.

According to Kavuri, this phase will cover claims below and above $50,000.

As of press time, Kraken has not responded to CryptoSlate’s request for comment.

However, the timeline aligns with an earlier statement from the defunct FTX exchange, which announced that the next distribution would begin in May.

Meanwhile, this round of repayments follows the first phase, which started on Feb. 18. That initial distribution covered FTX customers with claims worth $50,000 or less. At the time, blockchain analytics platform Arkham Intelligence reported that around $1.2 billion in assets had been withdrawn from FTX-controlled wallets.

The upcoming repayment phase will expand eligibility, allowing larger investors to receive funds.

However, creditors in several countries—including China, Russia, Egypt, Nigeria, and Ukraine—have yet to receive any compensation. While these regions represent a significant portion of FTX’s user base, they were excluded from previous distributions.

Kavuri stated that FTX is exploring ways to resolve these issues, but it remains uncertain whether affected users will receive payments in the next round.

FTX unstakes Solana

As repayment plans progress, FTX has unstaked a large amount of its Solana (SOL) tokens this month.

On March 3, blockchain analytics firm Spot On Chain reported that FTX and its affiliate Alameda Research unlocked 3.03 million SOL—valued at approximately $432.5 million—and moved the tokens across multiple wallets.

The firm noted that this marks the largest unstaking event for FTX/Alameda since November 2023. The move appears to be part of a broader plan to unlock 11.2 million SOL, worth roughly $1.5 billion, scheduled for early March.

Since November 2023, FTX/Alameda has unstaked and liquidated 7.83 million SOL, worth around $986 million, through Coinbase and Binance. The average sale price for these transactions was $125.80 per token.

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