Nearly Half of Korean Crypto Investors View FTX Payouts as Negative

• 41.7% of Korean crypto investors perceive FTX payouts as a bearish development, attributing this sentiment to the fading effect of the initial catalyst
• The second round of repayments to FTX creditors is planned for May 30, with over $5 billion expected to be returned
• Nearly 80% of FTX creditors plan to reinvest their repayments into cryptocurrencies

A survey by CoinNess and Cratos shows that 41.7% of Korean crypto investors perceive FTX payouts as a bearish development, attributing this sentiment to the fading effect of the initial catalyst. Almost 27% of participants have the opposite view, predicting a bullish effect due to the boost in liquidity.

The second round of repayments to FTX creditors is planned for May 30, with over $5 billion expected to be returned.

Korean Investor Sentiment: Mixed on Bitcoin, More Stable Market Hopes

The survey revealed some other interesting details as well, mainly that 37.6% of respondents think Bitcoin’s value will increase by a solid margin this week. Although, this is a decrease considering that last time, 49.4% of people had similar thoughts about Bitcoin’s growth.

On the other hand, more Korean users think positively about market stability. More than a third (36%) shares the sentiment, compared to the last survey when it was 27.3%. When it comes to overall market sentiment, 43.2% are neutral, and 29.3% are fearful that it will be negative.

FTX’s Collapse and the Contentious Repayment Process

Once a leading cryptocurrency exchange, FTX filed for bankruptcy in November 2022, following revelations of huge financial mismanagement. The collapse had a widespread impact, especially in South Korea, which accounted for approximately 6% of FTX’s global user base.

Earlier this year, FTX initiated repayments to creditors with claims under $50,000, distributing around $1.2 billion through platforms like Kraken and BitGo. These compensations were calculated based on asset values at the time of the bankruptcy filing, meaning that the cryptocurrency prices were notably lower than current levels.

For instance, back then Bitcoin was valued at around $16,000, compared to now when it’s almost $110,000.

As expected, while some investors welcomed the reimbursements, others expressed dissatisfaction due to the valuation method, feeling that the compensations did not reflect the current market value of their assets. Many feel that FTX fails to refund for the opportunity costs that happened during the market’s recovery.

Still, a different survey from a few months ago revealed that nearly 80% of FTX creditors plan to reinvest their repayments into cryptocurrencies. Interestingly, a large portion of them favor Solana for investment purposes.