Digital Currency Group, a venture capital company focusing on the digital asset sector, seeks to dismiss a lawsuit filed by a leading crypto exchange founded by Tylor and Cameron Winklevoss Gemini, calling it a PR campaign on behalf of the trading platform. On the other hand, Gemini accused the VC firm of fraud in relation to its Earn program
According to a document submitted to the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York on August 10, the lawyers representing the Digital Currency Group and its CEO, Barry Silbert, stated that the lawsuit filed in July by crypto exchange Gemini was a “continuation of [a] public relations campaign” targeting the VC firm on social media platforms via “personal, vicious, and false” claims.
Additionally, the filing by Digital Currency Group also noted the fact that Gemini seeks to recover the funds it lost due to “DCG and Silbert’s false, misleading, and incomplete representations and omissions to Gemini” and their role “in encouraging and facilitating Genesis’s fraud against Gemini.”
It is important to mention here that Gemini and Genesis, a subsidiary of the Digital Currency Group, together debuted the Gemini Earn program, where users of the crypto exchange were promised returns if they deposited their funds with Genesis. Interestingly, the DCG subsidiary decided to halt withdrawals in November 2022 due to “unprecedented market turmoil” following the multi-billion dollar collapse of crypto firm FTX. In January 2023, Genesis filed for bankruptcy
As per the lawyers, the Digital Currency Group and Silbert “had virtually nothing to do with the Gemini Earn program.” Moreover, they also claim that Gemini does not have substantial proof to back up its fraud claims
“[T]he Complaint is a hodgepodge of conclusory allegations against non-defendant Genesis, all belied by the fact that Gemini has not filed these spectacular claims in the Genesis bankruptcy,” said the filing.
On the other hand, Gemini crypto exchange is also facing a capital shortage and recently received a $100 million personal loan from its co-founders, the Winklevoss twins.
