Gemini Trust Company Settles CFTC Case

Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss-led Gemini Trust Company has agreed to pay $5 million to settle a case with the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) regarding misleading statements made to the regulator.

In a proposed consent order signed by the CFTC and Gemini on Monday, the company settled without admitting or denying the allegations. Earlier, Bloomberg reported on the news.

A pre-trial conference was scheduled for January 13 with the trial expected to start on January 21, as per a previous order from Judge Alvin K. Hellerstein in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.

The CFTC sued Gemini in June 2022 for allegedly making false or misleading statements of material facts. According to the agency, these statements were made between July 2017 and December 2017 when Gemini was being evaluated for a bitcoin futures contract. The statements concerned whether the proposed bitcoin futures contract would be “readily susceptible to manipulation.”

The CFTC asserted, “As alleged in the complaint, Gemini personnel knew or reasonably should have known that such statements were false or misleading.”

In response, Gemini claimed the CFTC “unjustly accused” them. They stated, “This contract worked as intended—the reference price was reliable, no investors were harmed, no price manipulation occurred, and the CFTC has not alleged any concerns with the contract itself.”