From Losing Everything in FTX to Starting Over With Bitcoin

[GreatArkansas]

I just want to share something that felt like a full-circle moment for me.

I was one of the people who had money stuck in FTX. When everything crashed and the truth about FTX came out, I really thought I would never see that money again. It was devastating. I am not someone who has a lot, so the amount I had there, around $x,xxx, felt too big to lose. It was hard to accept, and honestly, I already did. I just told myself it was gone forever.

But recently, I got an unexpected surprise. The FTX Distribution gave me back that $x,xxx. I did not expect it at all. And the moment I got it, I did not even hesitate. I used it to buy Bitcoin. Whatever the price was at the time, I just bought.

Why? Because during the time I lost that money, I felt helpless. But now, even if it is just symbolic, I wanted to take that back into my hands. I believe in Bitcoin. And even after what happened with FTX, I still believe Bitcoin is one of the few things you can hold without trusting a person or company. It is pure code and math.

Getting that money back felt like a second chance. I am not saying it is a perfect decision, but it is mine.

Just wanted to put this out there in case someone is going through the same thing. There is hope. Hang in there.

[DeathAngel]

Good for you, I’m glad that yourself & others received the $ value that you had at the time of the FTX disaster. It was a really bad time for a lot of people, one positive is you didn’t have to wait as long as the MtGox victims in a similar situation. I only had dust in my FTX account at the time luckily but it must have been tough when you were unable to withdraw. Happy you had a good outcome though & full respect for the continued Bitcoin conviction.

[Pablo-wood]

I am glad you were able to recover your already forgotten funds. FTX began repayment on the 30th of May 2025. But my concern are for customers who haven't completed their KYC or lack the necessary document to begin the process. Cases like this can be capitalized on to deprive people of their assets, the worst nightmare that accompanies centralized systems.

2022 ending must have been a rough year for FTX customers. Many would have suffered heart break, lost hopes, illness and all. But it is good to hear the have begun crediting customers their funds, those who have completed their KYC. I heard you guys received a 9% interest  

[Ruttoshi]

I am so happy that you were able to get back you refund from FTX. I see that you have learnt the biggest lesson of your life to be in self custody of your funds and not keeping it in an exchange anymore. You made the right decision for not giving up after FTX crashed and also buying bitcoin with the money that was refunded.

Bitcoin is decentralized and gives you the freedom to be your own bank, because Satoshi knows that is the best freedom for human against the government and their fiat currency that is used to control the citizens financial life through continuous printing of fiat overtime.

[Odusko]

First congratulations, not many hard this opportunity to get such money back as you did because sure alot aside from FTX happened and no penny was paid back, so I will like to congratulate you on your found recovery and also a double congratulations for buying Bitcoin with that money, I am sure you already moved on all the while that ftx was bankrupt so having such money back feels like a bonus to you, and sure Bitcoin is the perfect choice of investment.

[freedomgo]

Great decision, mate, and congratulations!
You weren’t expecting it, but you ended up getting a refund.

Even though bitcoin’s price is pretty high right now, I’m sure we’ll hit $200k in the near future. It’s always wiser to invest rather than spend, especially since we’re in crypto to grow our investments. And honestly, bitcoin has always been the most reliable investment in this space.

[Ishicryptic]

I am very happy for you that FTX distribution paid you back in full because you had lost all hope of getting it back and you took the best decision to use it to accumulate Bitcoin, now you have self custody of your coins, no more in the custody of any exchanges. Your experience should be a lesson to crypto owners who still trust exchanges to keep their coins, if hack or bankruptcy happens they can lose everything, imagine that you had thought that hope was lost to recover your coins, others might not be lucky like you. "Not your keys not your coins" and " keep your coins in a none custodial wallet" this is a privileged information that everybody that joins this forum should know.

Many crypto holders don't know about the the difference between holding their Bitcoin in a none custodial wallet and leaving it in an exchange account, when they buy Bitcoin for investment in an exchange they will leave it there, they don't know about the better option of creating a none custodial wallet and moving their Bitcoin there. I have personally educated some friends who told me that they are now into Bitcoin investment and I eventually find out they are using exchange accounts, I tell them the dangers of it then I educate them about none custodial wallets.

[Lucius]

I just want to share something that felt like a full-circle moment for me.
I was one of the people who had money stuck in FTX. When everything crashed and the truth about FTX came out, I really thought I would never see that money again. It was devastating. I am not someone who has a lot, so the amount I had there, around $x,xxx, felt too big to lose. It was hard to accept, and honestly, I already did. I just told myself it was gone forever.
~snip~

You've been a member of this forum since 2017 and should have learned the difference between an exchange and a non-custodial wallet a long time ago. I find such things incomprehensible, because storing so much value online with clowns like SBF is worse than gambling.

I wonder if all those who were victims of this scandal learned anything at all from everything? Do they still store their cryptocurrencies online or have they changed tactics? I think most are still going down the wrong path considering that CEXs still hold huge value in various cryptocurrencies.

[Ziskinberg]

I don’t have an account with FTX, but I just want to ask, was your account there fully verified?

And about your refund, that’s kind of a blessing, even if you lost out a bit. If you deposited bitcoin, they didn’t pay you back based on the current value, they used the fiat value at the time the bankruptcy was declared. I also heard there was only a small amount of interest added.

[Beparanf]

Congratulations on your claim. I don’t use this exchange before because the UI/UX is not my type.

I’m wondering if they just refund the same amount of your crypto in $ before the crypto pump or they send the amount based on the current price.

You should at least receive a compensation for waiting for this long.

[guybrushthreepwood]

Dang, you got over 100k back? I lost a small amount of bitcoin -- around 0.1 -- on Celsius and last year I got some of that back through their redistribution, but I'm so glad I never had any more in there. I think at one point I was considering holding all my crypto and bitcoins there as I was a long-term holder and didn't plan to sell anytime soon but luckily I was overly cautious and went with the mantras don't put all your eggs in one basket and don't invest more than you can afford to lose. I don't know what I would have done had I lost all my crypto or even a significant amount.

[Uruhara]

I just want to share something that felt like a full-circle moment for me.

I was one of the people who had money stuck in FTX. When everything crashed and the truth about FTX came out, I really thought I would never see that money again. It was devastating. I am not someone who has a lot, so the amount I had there, around $x,xxx, felt too big to lose. It was hard to accept, and honestly, I already did. I just told myself it was gone forever.

But recently, I got an unexpected surprise. The FTX Distribution gave me back that $x,xxx. I did not expect it at all. And the moment I got it, I did not even hesitate. I used it to buy Bitcoin. Whatever the price was at the time, I just bought.

Why? Because during the time I lost that money, I felt helpless. But now, even if it is just symbolic, I wanted to take that back into my hands. I believe in Bitcoin. And even after what happened with FTX, I still believe Bitcoin is one of the few things you can hold without trusting a person or company. It is pure code and math.

Getting that money back felt like a second chance. I am not saying it is a perfect decision, but it is mine.

Just wanted to put this out there in case someone is going through the same thing. There is hope. Hang in there.

I want to congratulate you on getting back the money. And yes, the fall of FTX has indeed frustrated many people, most of whose cases are the same as what you experienced. And I'm sure there are now many happy people who have also gotten back their money that was also initially stuck with FTX.

And I like your decision about putting your money into buying or accumulating bitcoin no matter what the price. I understand why you decided that. Because you even gave up the money if it had to be lost. So now you definitely won't hesitate to buy that money on assets with the most potential for the long term. Besides, it looks like you are ready not to use it in the long term. So yeah it was a wise decision to put it into bitcoin.

And yes, the second chance you have has also made you learn that saving money on the stock exchange is not recommended and you no longer want to save money on the stock exchange, right? And the proof is that now you buy it directly into Bitcoin. But I hope you keep your bitcoins in your cold wallet.

[rdluffy]

I also lost money at FTX and I know your pain
It was quite hard to go without money during that time but I'm glad we got a refund
I believe you made a good decision

I also bought some BTC with what I received and the rest was in stablecoins
I even had BTC at the time of the FTX crash and unfortunately we were rewarded the value of BTC at 18k or 20k

But with BTC in our portfolio, the tendency is for our investment to appreciate again
I was curious to know if the people who were hurt by FTX would buy cryptos again.

[Findingnemo]

Dang, you got over 100k back?

Nope, you missed the point, OP mentioned $x,xxx so it must be an amount that is below 10K. ANd what you see on the image about $104K is the current market price of bitcoin at which OP bought the bitcoin and the amount is hidden by OP.


You got lucky, but this is a reminder why we should not trust the exchanges to keep our money, and it's been said many times but here you go one more time, Not Your Keys, Not Your Cryptos.

[SilverCryptoBullet]

Congratulations for your refund from FTX exchange and you found a new life in investment and trading with it.

It's a truly painful and also stressful experience for you, and I hope that it is enough to change your practice entirely after that accident. You must change your stance and practice because you won't be lucky forever.

Events made you scare about custodial wallets, centralized exchanges.

[KingsDen]

I also lost money at FTX and I know your pain
It was quite hard to go without money during that time but I'm glad we got a refund

I started hearing the narrative of FTX refund for a long time, I didn't believe it will be successful. I had thought it will end up in a cock and bull stories. I am surprised and happy that you guys were refunded.

I even had BTC at the time of the FTX crash and unfortunately we were rewarded the value of BTC at 18k or 20k

If I get you right, you had BTC in FTX when the hack happened. Now, you are paid back the value of bitcoin as at 18 or 20k. This should rather be a fortunate story or am I missing anything?

If you had 0.002 BTC then, FTX should also refund you 0.002 BTC now right?

[Richbased]

Congratulation to you OP, i know how you feel now after years of thinking that your money is lost forever. You also tried for trusting bitcoin, regardless of the price you buy bitcoin it will still appreciate in the near future. If you were even opportuned to get back your money at that time i think you would have exhausted it on other things but it's good you bought bitcoin, it just look like a giveaway money now. Endeavor to use a self custody wallet to store your bitcoin, no exchange should be trusted to keep your funds for you. And remember to keep your seed phrases intact. Enjoy your ''lost but found money dude''.

[Helena Yu]

Congratulations @OP and this could be your good experience.

People have to experience by themselves in order to learn it, that's why experience is the best teacher. Even people have said to trade Bitcoin using no KYC P2P or DEX, hold Bitcoin in non custodial wallet etc, not all users are doing the same what they said.

Hopefully this could make people eyes open.

[Rikafip]

But recently, I got an unexpected surprise. The FTX Distribution gave me back that $x,xxx.

Out of curiosity, did you get the full amount back?

I have a similar experience to yours, with only differnece that i didn't get my money back. Back in 2017 I fell for phishing scam, making me losing 100% of the bitcoin I had up to that point, which made like 95% of my portoflio back then (I had a little bit of alts). For a few days I consider leaving crypto alltogether, but luckily I didn't which tuened out to be the best financial decision I ever made.

[ContentWriter]

It's good to know that you got something back. When I first saw your post I was curious since I know that the FTX trustee announced last year that they would refund depositors. It's even good fortune that we are in a bull market so no matter the circumstance of the profligacy of SBF and his team, there ought to be enough funds to repay depositors. It reminds of of the Mt Gox experience and how such misfortunes could turn to large fortune in the crypto space. Your dest the fund in BTC is certainly better then spending it. Your profit will come with time. Just HODL.