Administrators winding up several of the previous cycle's largest failures have begun final distributions, closing proceedings that have run for years.
Recoveries have exceeded the estimates published at the outset, though the reason is uncomfortable: claims were valued in dollars at the date of collapse, while the recovered assets appreciated substantially during the case.
That mismatch has produced litigation from creditors who argue they should receive assets in kind rather than a dollar claim plus interest.
The estates have also generated a body of case law on the ownership of custodied digital assets, which practitioners expect to be cited well beyond this industry.
Fees have drawn criticism throughout. Professional costs in the largest case run into the hundreds of millions, a figure administrators defend by pointing to the volume of asset tracing involved.
