Famous for their spat with Mark Zuckerberg over the founding of Facebook, the Winklevoss twins plotted their next act in cryptocurrency, embracing Bitcoin before it was a popular asset class. They founded Gemini soon after Coinbase came to the market, earning one of the first crypto licenses granted by the New York Department of Financial Services in 2015.
Through the product, Gemini users could lend their cryptocurrency to the firm for yields up to 13%. On the backend, Gemini lent the assets to DCG, which in turn lent them to other firms like the hedge fund Three Arrows Capital and Sam Bankman-Fried’s FTX. After many of these companies went belly-up in 2022, the assets were frozen, leading to the bankruptcy of DCG’s lending arm, Genesis, and an ugly legal dispute between Gemini and DCG.
In the wake of the regulatory crackdown, the Winklevoss twins supported Trump’s crypto-friendly campaign. Along with their appearance at the White House digital assets summit, CNBC reported that the Winklevoss twins are founding members of a new private membership club in Washington, D.C., founded by Donald Trump Jr.
