Hassan Maishera
TL;DR
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Winklevoss-led Gemini Trust Co. has agreed to pay $5m to settle with the CFTC while not admitting or denying the allegations.
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The CFTC accused Gemini of making untrue statements to the agency between July 2017 and December 2017 when it was being evaluated for a Bitcoin futures contract.
Gemini Trust Co. Agrees Settmenet with the CFTC
Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss-led Gemini Trust Company has agreed to pay $5 million to the United States Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). The payment is to settle charges the regulator brought forward after accusing Gemini of making untrue statements between July 2017 and December 2017 when it was being evaluated for a bitcoin futures contract.
The "proposed consent order" signed on Monday by the CFTC and Gemini will see the company settle without admitting or denying the allegations in the agency's complaint.
Bloomberg reported that a pre-trial conference was set for Jan. 13, and the trial was expected to start on Jan. 21, according to a previous order by Judge Alvin K. Hellerstein in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York..
The regulator sued Gemini in June 2022, accusing the company of making a "false or misleading statement of material facts." CFTC claimed that Gemini made those statements to the regulator between July 2017 to about December 2017 when it was being evaluated for a bitcoin futures contract.
At the time, the CFT said,
"As alleged in the complaint, Gemini personnel knew or reasonably should have known that such statements were false or misleading."
However, Gemini countered this, claiming that the CFTC unjustly accused them. In its response, the Winklevoss-led Gemini Trust said,
"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."
Gemini is one of the world's leading crypto exchanges, with a daily transaction volume of nearly $200 million.
