Gemini reaches $50M settlement with New York AG over Earn program

The New York Attorney General’s office announced that it had recovered more than $50 million from Gemini which will be returned to investors in the exchange’s Earn program.

In a June 14 notice, New York Attorney General Letitia James said the $50 million settled a lawsuit between her office and Gemini initially filed in October 2023. The lawsuit alleged that Gemini had defrauded 230,000 investors — including New York residents — through its Earn program with Genesis Global Capital, failing to disclose its risks.

“Hundreds of thousands of people, including at least 29,000 New Yorkers, had their trust broken and their money swindled by Gemini through its bogus Earn program,” said James. “Gemini marketed its Earn program as a way for investors to grow their money, but actually lied and locked investors out of their accounts.”

In May, James’ office announced a similar settlement with Genesis, requiring the firm to pay $2 billion to defrauded investors over Earn. According to the New York Attorney General, the settlements only applied to Genesis and Gemini, and the lawsuit would continue against Digital Currency Group, its CEO Barry Silbert, and former Genesis CEO Soichiro Moro.

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The settlement banned Gemini from operating any cryptocurrency lending program in New York state, and James said on X that “everyone that Gemini deceived will get their money back.” Gemini Trust said that affected Earn users could expect “100% of the assets owed to them” within seven days.

James’ office has led the charge against other crypto firms allegedly operating illegally in New York by filing lawsuits against former Celsius CEO Alex Mashinsky and KuCoin in 2023. Mashinsky faces criminal charges in the Southern District of New York and is expected to go to trial in January 2025.

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Update (June 14 at 10:35 pm UTC): This article previously included a tweet from the New York Attorney General claiming that Gemini had been banned from operating in New York. The tweet has since been updated to remove this claim.