📅 January 24
For almost three years, the Gemini Earn case was presented as one of the most compelling examples of how the SEC intended to regulate the crypto industry through judicial force. It was the symbol of the “enforcement first” era, where the regulator sought to set precedents through exemplary lawsuits.
📖The SEC filed with the Southern District Court of New York a joint stipulation to dismiss with prejudice its civil lawsuit against Gemini Trust Company over the Gemini Earn program.
The original lawsuit, filed in January 2023 against Genesis and Gemini, accused the program of constituting an unregistered securities offering. Gemini Earn had been launched in February 2021 promising up to 7.4% APY to users who lent their cryptocurrencies. It all came crashing down in November 2022, when Genesis froze withdrawals following the post-FTX credit crisis, leaving around $940 million belonging to 340,000 users locked.
In March 2024, a federal judge denied motions to dismiss the case, stating that the SEC had made “plausible” arguments about securities violations. At that time, the process seemed to be heading towards a trial that could set a historic precedent.
However, between May and June 2024, during the bankruptcy process of Genesis Global Capital, something happened that completely changed the landscape: users received 100% of their crypto assets in kind, that is, not in dollars, but in the same cryptocurrencies that they had deposited.
That fact was key. The SEC explicitly acknowledged that this full recovery was the determining factor in dropping the case. Previous regulatory settlements also weighed in: Genesis paid $21 million to the SEC, while Gemini paid $37 million to the NYDFS and contributed an additional $40 million to the bankruptcy process to facilitate full recovery for customers.
The dismissal “with prejudice” definitively closes the case and joins a series of similar withdrawals by the SEC under the direction of its new chairman Paul Atkins, who took office in April 2025 and has promoted the “Project Crypto” program to modernize the rules instead of continuing with the massive litigation strategy of the Gensler era.
Topic Opinion:
This case marks a before and after in the relationship between the SEC and the crypto industry. Not because Gemini “won,” but because the regulator decided to withdraw after years of building a narrative of securities violations.
💬 Is this the definitive end of the era of massive lawsuits against the crypto sector?
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