Cameron Winklevoss Urges Barry Silbert to Settle the $900 Million Debt by January 8

Gemini co-founder Cameron Winklevoss published an open letter addressed to Barry Silbert, the head of Digital Currency Group (DCG). It states that 47 days have passed since payments under the Earn program for 340,000 users totaling $900 million were halted.

Earn Update: An Open Letter to @BarrySilbert pic.twitter.com/kouAviTho4

— Cameron Winklevoss (@cameron) January 2, 2023

“Over the past six weeks we have done everything possible to cooperate in good faith with you to reach a mutually agreed solution under which you would be able to pay $900 million,” the document says.

In Winklevoss’s view, Silbert is engaging in a tactic of bad-faith delay.

The Earn product offered investors yields of up to 8% per year on deposits. In mid-November, Gemini halted payments under the program. This occurred amid the financial problems of its main partner—the OTC platform Genesis Trading.

According to media reports, the firm and its parent DCG owed the exchange’s clients $900 million.

On December 23 and 27, the Gemini team said that it continued to seek a solution with Genesis and DCG, despite the holiday season.

In the letter, Winklevoss noted that the exchange had managed to reach Silbert on December 2, December 17 to present an initial version of a solution, and December 25 with an updated crisis-resolution scenario.

“Every time we call for real engagement, you hide behind lawyers, investment bankers and the process,” the Gemini founder lamented.

According to him, DCG’s obligations to its subsidiary total $1.675 billion — “the funds Genesis owes to Earn users and other creditors”.

“You used that money, belonging to schoolteachers, to carry out greed-driven share buybacks, as well as for venture investments and Grayscale’s kamikaze deals that inflated AUM of your trust. And all of this at the expense of creditors, for your personal gain.”

Silbert in response stressed that DCG did not borrow $1.675 billion from Genesis. He added that his firm had reached out on December 29 to Genesis and Gemini representatives with a proposal, but did not receive a reply.

DCG did not borrow $1.675 billion from Genesis

DCG has never missed an interest payment to Genesis and is current on all loans outstanding; next loan maturity is May 2023

DCG delivered to Genesis and your advisors a proposal on December 29th and has not received any response

— Barry Silbert (@BarrySilbert) January 2, 2023

In closing, Winklevoss urged Silbert to commit to resolving the issue by January 8.

Earlier in December, investors filed a class-action lawsuit against Gemini and its founders Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss for selling unregistered securities in the form of Earn interest accounts.

The document states that the exchange refused to make any payments, effectively destroying the remaining assets in the program.

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