Cameron Winklevoss Wants Payback after SEC Ends Gemini Investigation

Cameron Winklevoss is not the forgiving type.

In announcing that the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has ended its investigation into cryptocurrency exchange Gemini, Winklevoss, the company’s co-founder and president, penned a long tirade on X, arguing that every SEC lawyer involved in similar crypto enforcement cases should be fired, and former SEC Chairman Gary Gensler should be banned from holding an agency appointment for life.

Gemini and crypto lender Genesis Global Capital were under investigation for almost two years for issuing unregistered securities via their joint Gemini Earn program. A year ago, Genesis settled its part of the lawsuit by paying a $21 million penalty.

“While this marks another milestone to the end of the war on crypto… it does little to make up for the damage this agency has done to us, our industry, and America,” Winklevoss wrote.

The SEC this week also dropped investigations into ConsenSys and Uniswap.

Describing the experience as a “Kafkaesque crypto regulatory hellscape,” Winklevoss said, “How many engineers chose to go into other industries instead of building a permissionless, open financial system? How many years of innovation were kicked down the road at the expense of Americans? We will never know.”

What he does know is that he’s not happy to just move on without some payback. For starters, he said, former SEC Chairman Gary Gensler should have a lifetime ban from working in the agency.

“It’s wholly unacceptable for an agency like the SEC to bully, harass, and attack a lawful industry and then decide one day to simply say we’re good and walk away,” Winklevoss said.

Payback Time

That’s not exactly what happened, however.

When a new, pro-crypto administration overhauled the SEC’s leadership, the agency moved 50 staff attorneys out of the crypto enforcement unit and reassigned its head, Jorge Tenreiro, to the IT department.

That isn’t enough for Winklevoss.

Saying Gemini is owed three times its legal bills, he argued that “everyone involved in these actions should be fired immediately and in a public way. Their names, roles, and the actions they participated in should be posted on the SEC website.”

Not everyone agrees with the SEC’s new direction, however. Now a consultant, John Reed Stark, founder of the SEC’s Office of Internet Enforcement, called the end of the Gemini investigation and others like it “a perpetually blaring SEC funeral dirge.”

As for the demolition of its crypto enforcement unit, Stark said, “so this is how the SEC dies.”

For his part, Winklevoss said he won’t just walk away.

“I’m glad to be turning the page here as an industry, but this is not the end, rather the beginning towards ensuring this never happens again to the crypto industry or any other exciting, new frontier industry in the future,” he said. “Here’s to continuing to reform our government and fighting the good fight.”