Gemini Pulled $282M Earn Users’ Funds From Genesis Last Year to Protect Customers

• Gemini has responded to a New York Post article alleging that the Winklevoss twins withdrew $282 million from crypto lender Genesis last August.

• The exchange posted a response on X, describing the story as “misleading” and “pure fantasy.”

• Gemini said it elected to increase its liquidity reserves owing to the market turmoil throughout the summer of 2022, following events such as the collapse of the TerraUSD stablecoin.

Cryptocurrency exchange Gemini withdrew $282 million of its Earn users’ funds from crypto lender Genesis Global Capital in August last year to hold in its liquidity reserve, the company has said in response to a New York Post article on Thursday.

The article alleged that Gemini founders Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss withdrew more than $280 million of “their own money, whether that’s corporate funds or their personal [funds],” according to a source cited by the Post.

Gemini posted a response on social media platform X (formerly Twitter), describing the story as “misleading” and “pure fantasy.”

“Everything the Post alleges in its story is the exact opposite,” the company said. “The $282 million that was withdrawn from Genesis in August 2022 was in fact Earn users’ money.”

Gemini said it elected to increase its liquidity reserves owing to the market turmoil throughout the summer of 2022, following events such as the collapse of the TerraUSD stablecoin.

“As a result of our risk management, Earn users had $282 million less exposure to Genesis when Genesis halted redemptions on November 16, 2022,” Gemini added.

Genesis, which is owned by Digital Currency Group (also the parent company of CoinDesk), suspended customer withdrawals after the sudden collapse of crypto exchange FTX last November, thus freezing Gemini’s Earn customers’ assets. The firm filed for bankruptcy in January 2023.

Earlier this month, Gemini claimed that Genesis’ proposed bankruptcy plan will not see its customers earn “anything close [to the] real value,” of the money they’re owed.