Gemini’s bankrupt crypto lending arm has successfully recovered virtually all of its customers’ digital assets, marking one of the most successful industry recoveries from insolvency to date.
The crypto exchange, founded by billionaire entrepreneurs Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, announced on Wednesday that Gemini Earn customers had “received $2.18 billion of their digital assets in kind.”
Gemini Earn’s Full Recovery
“This means, for example, that if you had lent one bitcoin in the Earn program, you will receive one bitcoin back,” Gemini explained over Twitter. “And it means that you will receive any and all appreciation of your assets since you lent them into the Earn program.”
The announcement was well received by the online crypto community, who applauded the exchange’s leadership for acting responsibly after losing their customers’ funds within Genesis Global. “Solid commitment from Tyler and Cameron where Gemini itself has filled a $50m gap caused by losses by DCG/genesis, to make all their earn users whole,” wrote Blockstream CEO Adam Back in response.
Both Genesis and Gemini collapsed in the contagious aftermath of FTX and Alameda Research’s fallout in late 2022. Last week, Genesis received court approval on its bankruptcy plan to repay over $3.5 billion to its creditors.
One of those creditors was Gemini, which would lend customer assets within its Earn program to Genesis to generate returns.
The latter’s collapse led to a tumultuous back and forth of fraud accusations and lawsuits between Gemini, Genesis, Digital Currency Group, and a $2 billion settlement deal with New York Attorney General Letitia James last week.
Less Successful Crypto Bankruptcies
Gemini’s recovery stands out against those of other fallen crypto firms in 2022, which have only managed to recover a fraction of their customers’ stolen assets.
At most, firms like FTX and Celsius promised to reimburse customers 100% in cash instead of crypto terms, representing a massive opportunity cost for investors whose assets would have massively appreciated since the time of each firm’s insolvency.
By contrast, Gemini said its repayment is $1 billion in excess of when it froze withdrawals, marking a 232% asset recovery in USD terms.
After the successful recovery, Gemini maintained that Genesis was solely responsible for its bankruptcy.
“The Genesis bankruptcy was not a crypto problem,” the company said. “It was old-fashioned financial fraud compounded by a lack of regulatory clarity.”