FTX user needs court order to recover 2,000 SOL mistakingly deposited after collapse

Lukas Bartusek, a former FTX user from Prague, is locked out of nearly $400,000 after mistakenly sending 2,000 Solana (SOL) to his old account a year after the exchange collapsed. Now he needs a court order to get it back, according to a Monday filing in Delaware bankruptcy court.

At the time Bartusek made the deposit, Solana was worth $31, putting his deposit’s value at around $63,700. Since then, Solana’s price has surged to $198, meaning his locked-up funds are worth $396,000 as of press time.

According to the filing, FTX “knowingly and willingly” accepted the deposit. Now they’re telling Bartusek that he would need a court order to withdraw the funds.

Bartusek’s issue began when he attempted a withdrawal request on October 22, 2023, from a crypto wallet linked to BTSE, another exchange. Instead of moving his 2,000 SOL to a different account, he accidentally deposited it into his old FTX account, which you’d think would have been frozen since the company was knee-deep in the middle of bankruptcy proceedings.

But they weren’t, and by the time Bartusek realized the mistake, FTX’s legal team told him that his funds couldn’t be returned without a judge’s approval. Bankruptcy law prevents companies from distributing funds outside an approved court process, meaning even accidental deposits remain locked.

Bartusek’s attorney, Jack Shrum, said that cases like these aren’t uncommon. “Some people utilize several different crypto wallets, so depositing into one wallet that happens to be in bankruptcy is not difficult to imagine,” he explained.

Unfortunately, Bartusek isn’t the only one struggling to retrieve funds. Thousands of FTX users have been stuck in limbo since FTX collapsed in November 2022, with customer withdrawals frozen for over two years, waiting to see if they will ever recover their lost assets.

FTX’s bankruptcy team finally started paying back some customers on Feb. 8. Under the FTX Chapter 11 Plan of Reorganization, the company confirmed that initial distributions will begin on Feb. 18, but they apply only to creditors with approved claims in the Convenience Classes, meaning users who completed the pre-distribution requirements.

Customers eligible for repayments should expect their funds within one to three business days from February 18. According to its official press announcement, FTX has transferred funds to BitGo and Kraken, which are acting as Distribution Service Providers. These companies will handle retail and institutional distributions in supported jurisdictions according to the bankruptcy plan.