The US Commodity Futures Trading Commission wants to tear up the remnants of an old dispute with crypto exchange Gemini, with the agency insisting its own employees’ claims about Gemini’s misleading statements were not properly handled.
The CFTC filed a request along with Gemini in federal court to overturn a settlement secured early last year, in which the current agency essentially challenged the findings of the former agency. After a review of the case, the CFTC concluded that the complaint should not have been filed — and would not have been subject to current enforcement standards, it said in a statement Wednesday.
In January 2025, Gemini agreed to settle an enforcement action with a $5 million fine and other claims that settled a case that began in 2017. In meetings with the CFTC at the time, its staff had determined that Gemini allegedly made false statements about the relative difficulty of manipulating bitcoin futures contracts, and the regulator’s action pursued an enforcement action in 2022.
If the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York grants the request to void the settlement and dismiss the case, the rest of Gemini’s claims under the settlement will be voided — including its injunction barring the company from making false or misleading statements to the commission in the future.
The CFTC has dramatically reversed its previous relationship with the crypto industry since the arrival of President Donald Trump’s administration just days after the Gemini settlement, and the subsequent appointment of CFTC Chairman Mike Selig, who has embraced digital assets as one of his key policy goals.
Trump has also tried to champion the industry, including specifically welcoming Gemini’s founders, the Winklevoss brothers, to White House events.
The president’s former nominee to lead the CFTC, former commissioner Brian Quintenz, said last year in posts on X (formerly Twitter) that the Winklevoss brothers had asked him to review the settlement and indicated they were unhappy that he refused to commit to anything other than a review of the case. Trump withdrew his nomination less than three weeks later.
The president’s pro-crypto agenda was displayed Wednesday in a post on his social media platform, Truth Social, where he said, “The new frontier of finance is being built in America and ‘TRUMP’ will NEVER let Crypto down!”
