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Clients of cryptocurrency firm Winklevoss will receive triple the value of their frozen assets
Joseph Nair/Bloomberg/Getty Images/File
Tyler Winklevoss, left, and Cameron Winklevoss launched cryptocurrency exchange Gemini in 2014.
CNN New York –
Clients of crypto platform Gemini can expect to recover more than three times the value of their digital assets caught in the fallout from FTX – a rare outcome for creditors caught up in a bankruptcy.
Gemini, the exchange founded by Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, said Wednesday that it has secured a 232% recovery for customers who participated in its lending program, Earn, a partnership with a third party that has blocked withdrawals while turmoil hit cryptocurrency markets in November 2022.
Over 230,000 Gemini customers lost access to approximately $940 million worth of digital assets. In the year and a half that have passed since then, cryptocurrencies have staged a comebackbringing the value of the frozen funds to $2.18 billion.
“We are thrilled that we were able to achieve this recovery for our customers. We recognize the difficulties caused by this lengthy process and appreciate the continued support and patience of our customers throughout the process,” said Cameron Winklevoss, president of Gemini, in a statement.
Gemini agreed in February to return at least $1.1 billion to customers of the lending program and pay a $37 million fine for unsafe and improper practices. part of a settlement with the New York Department of Financial Services.
Wednesday’s announcement explains the appreciation in the value of cryptocurrencies, adding more than $1 billion to the total.
If, for example, a customer had lent a bitcoin into the Earn program, they can now expect to receive a bitcoin back.
At the time FTX imploded, wreaking havoc on cryptocurrency markets, bitcoin dropped precipitously to around $17,500. A year and a half later, one bitcoin is worth just under $70,000.
Earn customers can expect to receive their remaining asset balance within the next 12 months, Gemini said.
Customers of FTX, once the second largest cryptocurrency exchange on the planet, are also expected to be made whole, with interest, thanks in part to the growing value of FTX’s crypto holdings and smart bets on the artificial intelligence that has been in able to liquidate.