The US Commodity Futures Trading Commission wants to settle the remnants of an old dispute with cryptocurrency exchange Gemini, with the agency insisting that claims by its own staff that Gemini made misleading statements were not properly handled.
The CFTC filed with Gemini in federal court to deny a settlement reached early last year, with the current agency essentially challenging the previous agency’s conclusions. After a review of the case, the CFTC “concluded that the complaint should not have been filed and would not have been filed under current enforcement standards,” it said in a statement Wednesday.
In January 2025, Gemini agreed to settle an enforcement action with a $5 million fine and other requirements, resolving a matter that began in 2017. In meetings with the CFTC at the time, its staff had determined that Gemini allegedly made false statements about the relative difficulty of manipulating bitcoin futures contracts, and the regulator took enforcement action in 2022.
If the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York grants the request to cancel the settlement and dismiss the case, the rest of Gemini’s requirements under the settlement will be void, including its injunction preventing the company from making false or misleading statements to the commission in the future.
The CFTC has dramatically reversed its previous relationship with the crypto industry since the arrival of President Donald Trump’s administration just days after the Gemini deal and the subsequent appointment of CFTC Chairman Mike Selig, who has embraced digital assets as one of his top policy goals.
Trump has also tried to defend the industry, including specifically welcoming Gemini founders, the Winklevoss brothers, to White House events.
The president’s previous nominee to lead the CFTC, former commissioner Brian Quintenz, said last year in posts on Trump withdrew his nomination just under three weeks later.
The president’s pro-crypto agenda was evident Wednesday in a post on his social media platform, Truth Social, where he said: “The new frontier of finance is being built in America, and ‘TRUMP’ will NEVER let cryptocurrencies down.”
