from Hacker News

Winklevoss Twins' Startup Gemini Will Pay Burned Customers $1B

by kelt on 2/29/24, 2:04 AM with 30 comments

  • by senkora on 2/29/24, 2:57 AM

    The draw of Gemini was always that it was a New York-regulated crypto exchange that presented as similar to traditional exchanges.

    For institutional traders, they even provide a standard FIX API over cross-connect in the NY5 data center in New Jersey. This is something that institutions understand how to connect to and work with.

    (In contrast, most crypto exchanges have/had highly bespoke systems of questionable quality)

    https://docs.gemini.com/fix-marketdata/

    So the Gemini Earn thing has always confused me. If your entire shtick is legitimacy and being subject to competent regulation, then why would you release a product like that?

    I guess I’ll have to attribute it to the reality-distortion field of the crypto hype. They must have actually believed that either 1) the product was sound or 2) they would avoid the fallout when it exploded.

  • by tempestn on 2/29/24, 4:40 AM

    > Gemini said it was “pleased to announce that we have finally reached a settlement in principle with Genesis and other creditors in the Genesis Bankruptcy that will, if approved by the Bankruptcy Court, result in all Earn users receiving 100% of their digital assets back in kind.”

    The in kind bit is interesting. What are the odds that these assets have dropped in value over the period they've been in limbo?

  • by kelt on 2/29/24, 2:39 AM

    Genuinely surprise this was the outcome, I had some balances in the Earn program under redemption since Jan 2023, been a long wait

  • by skywhopper on 2/29/24, 2:17 AM

    Good! I always found it hilarious when the Winklevoss twins were raging on Twitter trying to shift the blame for the $750 million lost. If their net worth is what they claim it should be easy for them to make it right for the customers who trusted their claims of guaranteed return.

  • by sulam on 2/29/24, 2:27 AM

    How much you wanna bet that "in kind" will not reflect the runup in BTC over the last few months?

  • by bandyaboot on 2/29/24, 2:32 AM

    I genuinely don’t remember either of their first names and I find it mildly amusing that I can read a story focused entirely on them and still not learn that information.