Winklevoss Twins' Start-Up Will Pay Burned Customers $1 Billion

Emily Shugerman reports via The Daily Beast: Gemini, the crypto startup owned by the Winklevoss twins, will have to return $1.1 billion to customers who lost money in their partnership with the now-bankrupt crypto lender Genesis. In a deal with the New York State Department of Financial Services, Gemini agreed to return the funds lost by customers of its Earn program, in which users could loan their crypto to Genesis in exchange for interest payments. According to the Department of Financial Services, Gemini "did not fully vet or sufficiently monitor [Genesis] throughout the life of Earn," and the company defaulted on its loans and then went bankrupt, leaving some 200,000 Earn customers empty-handed. "Gemini failed to conduct due diligence on an unregulated third party, later accused of massive fraud, harming Earn customers who were suddenly unable to access their assets after Genesis Global Capital experienced a financial meltdown," DFS Superintendent Adrienne A.Harris said in a statement. "Today's settlement is a win for Earn customers, who have a right to the assets they entrusted to Gemini."

In a tweet, Gemini said it was "pleased to announce that we have finally reached a settlement in principle with Genesis and other creditors in the Genesis Bankruptcy that will, if approved by the Bankruptcy Court, result in all Earn users receiving 100% of their digital assets back in kind." The DFS said Gemini would also pay $40 million to the Genesis bankruptcy for the benefit of Earn customers, as well as a $37 million fine for "significant failures that threatened the safety and soundness of the company."

I guess that movie was accurate.

[Eunomion]

Of course the "Winklevi" would be crypto bros involved in a massive scam.

They are NOT returning $1.1 billion

[Ecuador]

receiving 100% of their digital assets back in kind

I assume these were worth $1.1 billion when deposited. Since they market has collapsed and users were locked out from accessing their crypto, the current value is much much less...

Re: They are NOT returning $1.1 billion

[SneedFeedAndSeed]

Your reasoning is on spot but luckily enough they'll get rougly the same (or more) value since crypto fully recovered from the previous crash lately, and it's still going up too. The news didn't went mainstream still but it will any day now because, well, that's what is actually happening right now.

Re:

[awwshit]

Bitcoin is up because of ETFs including bitcoin; there is new/fresh speculation. If you check something like coingecko and look at the trends, you will see that crypto across the board follows the ups and downs of bitcoin, whatever bitcoin does the entire crypto market does.

We are having a fresh bubble, and it is a good time for people to recover from the past, at least for a moment. The reason that this is a new bubble is that bitcoin is not like traditional investments, bitcoin requires new entrants to dr

Re: They are NOT returning $1.1 billion

[SneedFeedAndSeed]

Yeah that's all correct but the main and strongest trend has always been the post-halving golden bullrun which usually lasts approximately one year, and the next halving should appen some day in April so there's still plenty of time to take profits (if they don't delay the refunds, which is absolutely not a given).

Re:

[DarkOx]

Speaking as bitcoin skeptic who has posted similar to what you wrote several times:

I am left to wonder why that speculation is occurring in less friendly dollar interest rate environment. I would have expected higher FED prime rates to have weighed on bitcoin, more than they have.

It seems like either there is something else brewing in terms of an inflationary bubble that is currently hanging in limited asset classes (pure financial instruments like crypto. swaps, options) or people with meaningful slices

Re:

[Ed Tice]

I can make no statements about how individuals or groups of individuals are investing. Higher fed rates should have weighed on every asset including stocks. But they haven't. I would never buy anything crypto-current related. However, if the large crypto investments we are seeing represent a large number of investors putting a risk-weighted amount of their money into these funds, it's not *entirely* unreasonable and won't necessarily see large fluctuations. If, on the other hand, there are a smaller num

Re:

[swillden]

receiving 100% of their digital assets back in kind

I assume these were worth $1.1 billion when deposited. Since they market has collapsed and users were locked out from accessing their crypto, the current value is much much less...

I thought the same thing. When I saw the headline: "$1.1B, damn that's a lot of money!!". Then I read the summary: "Oh, it's not real money, okay."

Everything to do with cryptocurrencies has these huge numbers attached to it, but none of it is real. The valuation is propped up by hodlers refusing to sell no matter what and by cryptocurrency "whales" swapping their different kinds of funny money in ways designed to pump the paper value.

Also, though it's a lost cause, I'll keep making my pitch: Please d

Gemini

[backslashdot]

Oh great, only black people are gonna get paid.

Re:

[Kokuyo]

Lol.

I'll grab the popcorn. It'll be exciting to see which way the moderation goes on this one :D.

Re:Gemini

[Opportunist]

Probably neither way because by now, nobody gives a fuck about Gemini or Dunning-Krugerrands anymore.

Next in the story

[RUs1729]

The twins in their trip to the big house in matching suits.

Re:

[pete6677]

The winki's would have never amounted to anything at all if it weren't for Zuckerberg. They owe him a giant debt of gratitude.

The Winklevii SNL skit

[gavron]

There's just nothing as funny as the WInklevii that any parody could do justice.

"Gemini agreed to return the funds lost by customers of its Earn program"
How noble of them to return what the fruits of their incompetence lost.

To which "we dress alike" prison should I send the warm thank-you card?
I mean, come on, when your only claim to fame is you look like that other turd next to you...
SNL couldn't write this stuff. I vote Mikey Day plays both roles.

Re:

[nevermindme]

There is a real estate agent in the islands that already did the role... He fizzles in the role like baking soda and cola.

Dean of Students tell the brahs to give it back

[nevermindme]

It is the sequel of facebook -- Dean of Students tell the clone brahs to give the collected cash back.

But...

[whitroth]

Oh, crypto, not depending on those nasty bankers, who print money, and you can lose all your money in deflation...