Ex-CFTC Chair Criticizes Vacating of $5M Gemini Settlement
Former CFTC chair Tim Massad called the agency’s bid to vacate a $5 million Gemini settlement “extraordinarily unusual,” citing staff errors and an unreliable whistleblower.
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission filed an amended motion in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York asking the court to vacate a $5 million settlement with Gemini, arguing that key enforcement evidence was flawed and a principal whistleblower was not credible.
The settlement, reached in January 2025, resolved a case first brought in June 2022 that alleged Gemini misreported trading activity and volumes to misrepresent user demand. The CFTC’s amended filing says the agency’s prior leadership concealed material evidence related to the original complaint.
The motion alleges the former Gemini chief operating officer, identified in the original complaint as a whistleblower, made false statements about the firm’s Bitcoin futures pre‑certification review. The filing says an internal review found “significant deficiencies” in the Division of Enforcement’s evidence and concluded “the Complaint should not have been filed.”
Tim Massad, who led the CFTC from 2014 to 2017 and is a research fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School, called the agency’s effort to reverse the settled case “extraordinarily unusual.” He wrote that the explanation appears to be that staff made errors rather than the law being unclear and added he knows of no prior instance like it.
The amended motion notes language that mirrors publicly released text messages from former commissioner Brian Quintenz. Those texts, released in September 2025, show Tyler Winklevoss discussed the Gemini litigation while Quintenz was being considered for a presidential nomination; that nomination was later withdrawn and Michael Selig was confirmed as CFTC chair.
Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss each donated $1 million to Donald Trump’s 2024 campaign, met with the president and attended White House events, including a signing ceremony for stablecoin legislation, according to the filings.
The CFTC and Gemini jointly asked the court to set aside the judgment tied to the January 2025 settlement. Court filings show there had been no public docket activity in the case since early January 2025 until the amended motion appeared.
The CFTC declined to provide comment beyond the legal arguments in its filing. Gemini did not immediately respond to requests for comment. The matter will return to federal court for consideration of whether the settlement and underlying judgment should be vacated.
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