Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss, the billionaire twins who founded crypto exchange Gemini, didn't make their latest political donation after just one favorable regulatory decision.
By June 19, when each gave $5 million to MAGA Inc., a super PAC supporting President Donald Trump, Gemini had spent nearly five months winning favorable outcomes from both federal market regulators.
- The donations were first identified by The Lever in Federal Election Commission records disclosed on July 20.
One case disappeared
The run began on Jan. 23, when the Securities and Exchange Commission dismissed its civil lawsuit against Gemini over Gemini Earn, the exchange's failed crypto-lending product.
- The Biden-era SEC had accused Gemini of offering unregistered securities through Gemini Earn, a crypto-lending program that left customers unable to access about $940 million after Genesis Global Capital, its lending partner, froze withdrawals in 2022.
The regulator said it dropped the case after customers recovered their crypto in full and Gemini reached separate settlements with state authorities.
- The dismissal was made with prejudice, meaning the SEC can't bring the same claim again.
Then came a new license
On April 29, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission registered Gemini Olympus, a Gemini affiliate, as a derivatives clearing organization.
The license allows the company to clear fully funded futures, options and swaps, completing the regulatory structure Gemini needs to operate prediction markets and other derivatives without relying entirely on someone else.
- That followed the CFTC's December 2025 approval of Gemini Titan, another affiliate, as a regulated exchange for prediction markets.
Finally, the CFTC turned against its own case
On May 27, the CFTC joined Gemini in asking a federal judge to lift the remaining forward-looking restrictions from a separate enforcement case.
- Gemini had paid $5 million in January 2025 to settle allegations that it misled regulators while seeking approval for an early Bitcoin futures product.
- The new CFTC leadership said the lawsuit should never have been filed.
- Gemini won't receive the $5 million back. But the agency asked the court to remove the permanent injunction and other restrictions that continued to apply to the company.
Twenty-three days later, the Winklevoss twins gave Trump's super PAC $10 million. Exactly twice the penalty Gemini had agreed not to recover.
The contributions were funded with Bitcoin that was liquidated for the donation.
The timeline doesn't prove that the donations influenced any government decision. The SEC cited the repayment of Gemini Earn customers, while the CFTC gave detailed legal and evidentiary reasons for reconsidering its enforcement action.
- Still, the brothers had previously made their desired outcome unusually clear.
- Brian Quintenz, Trump's former nominee to lead the CFTC, said in 2025 that Tyler Winklevoss pressed him to make correcting the Gemini case a priority.
- Quintenz said the brothers later went to the White House after he refused to promise a particular result, and Trump ultimately withdrew his nomination.
- The Winklevoss brothers haven't publicly accepted that account.