By Jonathan Stempel
NEW YORK (Reuters) – An exchange run by billionaire twins Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss may soon resolve a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission lawsuit claiming they failed to register a cryptocurrency asset lending program before offering it to retail investors.
In a joint letter filed on Tuesday in Manhattan federal court, the twins’ Gemini Trust and the SEC asked to put all deadlines in the civil case over Gemini Earn on hold for 60 days to allow the parties to explore a potential resolution.
The letter did not say whether this might entail a settlement, the SEC dropping its case, or some other outcome.
Neither lawyers for Gemini nor the SEC immediately responded to requests for comment.
The SEC sued Gemini and cryptocurrency lender Genesis Global Capital in January 2023 over Gemini Earn, which let customers lend crypto assets including Bitcoin to Genesis in exchange for interest payments, with Gemini taking a fee as high as 4.29%.
Genesis halted withdrawals in November 2022, the same month Sam Bankman-Fried’s FTX cryptocurrency exchange collapsed, and filed for bankruptcy two months later. It held $900 million of assets from about 340,000 Gemini Earn customers at the time.
The SEC said that in creating Gemini Earn, Genesis and Gemini bypassed disclosure requirements meant to protect investors.
Genesis agreed in March 2024 to pay a $21 million fine to settle, pending the resolution of claims in its Chapter 11 case, without admitting wrongdoing. Gemini has denied wrongdoing.
The SEC has eased oversight of the cryptocurrency industry since Donald Trump became president in January, and is widely expected to remain more supportive of the industry than under the Biden administration.
In recent weeks, the SEC has ended civil lawsuits against crypto exchanges Coinbase and Kraken, and agreed to settle a case against cryptocurrency company Ripple Labs over the unregistered sale of securities.
Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss are each worth $3 billion according to Forbes magazine.
The case is SEC v Gemini Trust Co et al, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York, No. 23-00287.
(Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York; Editing by Richard Chang)
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