Cameron Winklevoss, Co-founder of cryptocurrency exchange Gemini, has published an open letter addressed to Digital Currency Group founder and CEO Barry Silbert (DCG). Winklevoss, the founder of Grayscale and crypto lender Genesis, publicly called out his business partner for the company’s role in a crisis that left thousands of consumers in a bind.
In the letter, Winklevoss speaks in favor of the 340,000 Earn users, the “real people” who “lent” their money to Genesis. Per Winklevoss, these investors put their faith in Barry Silbert and the Digital Currency Group. The letter states:
These users aren’t just numbers on a spreadsheet. They are real people […] They deserve concrete answers, and we are here to get them.
According to the letter, Gemini is owed $900 million for money it loaned to Genesis under the Gemini Earn program. “We have done everything we can to engage with you in good faith and collaborative manner in order to reach a consensual resolution for you to pay back the $900 million that you owe,” Winklevoss wrote.
Every time we ask you for tangible engagement, you hide behind lawyers, investment bankers, and process, the letter continued.
Winklevoss stated that Genesis could not pay Gemini because DCG owed money to Genesis, which it had not reimbursed. Meanwhile, on December 27th, investors filed a lawsuit against Gemini. In the lawsuit, investors claimed Gemini committed fraud and broke securities laws since the Earn program was unregistered and they had insufficient information to evaluate its risks. Earn has not made payments to investors since November.
Meanwhile, Silbert has responded to Winklevoss, claiming that Genesis has acknowledged Gemini’s proposal and that DCG is not behind on payments to Genesis. Responding to Winklevoss’s tweet, Silber wrote:
