By Dylan Tokar, Dave Michaels and Vicky Ge Huang
Last year, Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss lobbied the Trump administration to undo a settlement between their cryptocurrency exchange and Biden-era regulators.
On Wednesday, the president's regulators delivered.
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission, the federal agency that is poised to take the lead on overseeing much of the emerging cryptocurrency market, said it was moving to vacate its prior action against the exchange, Gemini.
The Winklevoss twins in January 2025 had reluctantly agreed to pay $5 million to settle with the CFTC, which accused Gemini of making false statements in connection with a bitcoin futures launch on another exchange. But after Trump's inauguration, like many crypto entrepreneurs, they launched a heated lobbying campaign, arguing that they were the victims of "7 years of lawfare trophy hunting."
The CFTC on Wednesday said it had completed a comprehensive review of the matter and concluded that its enforcement action never should have been brought. The regulator called into question the credibility of a whistleblower account and the strength of the evidence its attorneys had collected.
The motion requires court approval.
A Gemini spokeswoman declined to comment. The shares of Gemini Space Station, the parent company that operates the cryptocurrency exchange, gained 5% Thursday.
The CFTC's motion, filed in Manhattan federal court, offers a rare look at the history of the agency's investigation and dealings with Gemini.
The commission typically closely guards such documents, deeming them confidential and only for the eyes of its commissioners. In one of the documents, a senior CFTC attorney disclosed a friendship with a Gemini executive and said she believed the company was being treated unfairly.
The brothers last year brought their lobbying campaign directly to Brian Quintenz, whom Trump initially nominated to lead the agency, according to messages posted on X by Quintenz. They didn't like his response and asked Trump to pause Quintenz's nomination, The Wall Street Journal reported. Trump eventually pulled the nomination.
The White House later selected Michael Selig, a longtime cryptocurrency and derivatives lawyer who was serving at the Securities and Exchange Commission.
In a statement Wednesday, the CFTC cited the Trump administration's policy to pivot from the Biden administration's approach to the cryptocurrency industry. The president's family has embraced the sector and moved to capitalize on an industry-friendly environment through investments, Trump-and Melania-branded memecoins and a family-backed cryptocurrency venture, World Liberty Financial.
The Winklevoss twins have been big supporters of President Trump. They donated about $2 million in bitcoin to Trump's 2024 presidential campaign, though some was refunded after they exceeded the campaign finance limit. They also contributed tens of millions to pro-crypto, pro-Trump super political-action committees.
"The media's continued attempts to fabricate conflicts of interest are irresponsible and reinforce the public's distrust in what they read," a White House spokesman said.
It is rare for regulators to drop lawsuits or overturn their predecessors' enforcement decisions. During Trump's second term, doing so has become more routine. Selig and other Trump officials have cited government overreach and a policy of "regulation by enforcement" -- where regulators allege a violation despite the absence of a specific, articulated rule -- to justify the reversals. Earlier this year, the SEC dropped a lawsuit against Gemini over its crypto-lending program.
The CFTC this week said it determined Gemini and the Winklevoss brothers had been wrongly accused of misleading regulators related to an effort to launch bitcoin futures on an exchange operated by Cboe Global Markets. The brothers and their company were in fact the victim of a fraud scheme by Gemini's former chief operating officer, the agency said.
The executive had concealed from the brothers and other Gemini leaders that he had authorized favorable fee structures for two unnamed, large institutional clients without obtaining approval from the company's compliance officer, the agency said Wednesday.
The futures contract was to be among the first digital asset futures contracts listed at the time and the CFTC had expressed concern about whether a bitcoin derivatives product could be manipulated.
At the time it recommended the enforcement action against Gemini, the CFTC's staff believed it had found "at least 25 false or misleading statements made in written communications submitted to the commission," according to one document made public this week.
The documents made public this week show that federal prosecutors also investigated Gemini's conduct at the time. The Manhattan U.S. Attorney's Office closed its probe, partly due to "concerns about the credibility of a whistleblower," the records show.
Write to Dylan Tokar at dylan.tokar@wsj.com, Dave Michaels at dave.michaels@wsj.com and Vicky Ge Huang at vicky.huang@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
May 28, 2026 15:03 ET (19:03 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2026 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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