Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss made a $100 million personal loan to their crypto exchange Gemini.
A report from Bloomberg on Monday citing three people familiar with the matter disclosed that the billionaire founders of Gemini made the cash infusion after unsuccessful attempts to informally raise funds from external investors.
Gemini is in the midst of a legal battle with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), which named both the Winklevoss-run crypto firm and bankrupt lending firm Genesis in a lawsuit earlier this year.
The SEC alleged that Gemini and Genesis raised “billions of dollars” in an unregistered securities offering through Gemini’s yield-bearing Earn product, which loaned investor deposits to Genesis.
After Genesis halted withdrawals in November, around $900 million worth of Gemini Earn users’ funds were left stranded.
Tyler Winklevoss described the lawsuit as a “manufactured parking ticket” that was counterproductive to helping the 340,000 Gemini Earn users get their funds back.
In February, Gemini and Genesis reached an agreement in bankruptcy court that would provide a path for creditors to recover their assets. As part of the deal, Gemini agreed to contribute $100 million in additional funds to Earn users. The firm is currently working on a Plan Support Agreement with Genesis and its parent company Digital Currency Group (DCG).
Gemini recorded $32 million in daily trading volume, up 282% over the last 24 hours. However, the exchange’s global market share of spot trading volume dipped from 0.20% one year ago to 0.13% as of Monday.
