After nearly three years of court battles, in a letter filed with a US federal court on Monday, lawyers for the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) have agreed to “completely resolve” the lawsuit against the Winklevoss twins’ crypto exchange Gemini, pending approval by the commission.
SEC Lawyers Agree to “Completely Resolve” Gemini Lawsuit
16 September 2025 - 18:31 CEST
The case
In January 2023, the SEC opened its lawsuit against Gemini and the now defunct crypto lending firm Genesis Global Capital, accusing the two of offering unregistered financial securities through the “Gemini Earn” programme. The Earn programme, which launched in 2021, promised retail investors as much as a 7.4 percent return on customer deposits, while Gemini deducted an agent fee, sometimes as much as 4.29 percent, according to SEC materials. At its peak, the Earn programme managed roughly $900 million from 340,000 accounts.
The collapse of Genesis
Customers would lend their crypto assets to Genesis through the Earn programme in partnership with Gemini. In return for loaning their crypto, Genesis promised to pay interest to investors. Following a period of highly volatile crypto markets in late 2022, Genesis announced that it did not have enough liquidity to meet withdrawal requests from Earn program customers, resulting in a total withdrawal freeze. Just months later, in January 2023, Genesis filed for bankruptcy.
Genesis, established in 2013, was a crypto lending firm that acted as an intermediary for institutional investors. It was a subsidiary of Connecticut-based Digital Currency Group (DCG), which also owns leading crypto ETF issuer Grayscale.
Gemini’s position and settlement path
Gemini, founded in 2014 by the billionaire Winklevoss twins Cameron and Tyler, is a New York-based crypto exchange and custody bank that has positioned itself as a secure, regulated, and compliant platform for trading and holding crypto. In early 2024, Gemini committed to return at least $1.1 billion to customers of its Earn programme. Then in May, the company announced it paid out $2.2 billion to users after the 18-month pause on withdrawals, equivalent to 97% of the digital assets owed to customers, according to a statement from Gemini.
The potential settlement outlined in the letter, a copy of which was seen and reported by media including Reuters, is now pending final approval from the SEC.
Shares in Gemini jumped 14 percent on Friday after the brothers rang the opening bell at the Nasdaq stock exchange in New York to celebrate the company’s debut. As at 15:16 UTC Tuesday the stock had posted an intraday decline of 7 percent and traded at about $30, in between Friday’s opening price and the prior day’s initial public offering price.
