Trump once praised the Winklevoss brothers as "male models with extraordinary intelligence."
Written by: Alexander Osipovich, Vicky Ge Huang, Amrith Ramkumar, The Wall Street Journal
Translated by: Luffy, Foresight News
Tyler Winklevoss and Cameron Winklevoss are publicly known supporters of President Trump, but they have a long-standing feud with a Trump-nominated official.
Last week, as the billionaire brothers' cryptocurrency company Gemini Space Station prepared for its IPO, their dispute with Brian Quintenz, the Trump-nominated chair of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), came to light.
Quintenz publicly revealed a private message from Tyler, in which Tyler expressed dissatisfaction with the Biden administration's crackdown on their company and asked the Trump-nominated official to help the brothers restart the investigation into the matter.
According to screenshots of the conversation posted by Quintenz on the X platform, Winklevoss wrote in July: "A seven-year legal hunt against us, what they are doing is outrageous."
Quintenz expressed sympathy but declined to comment on Gemini's recent complaint against the CFTC. According to insiders, a few days later, the brothers contacted President Trump, requesting a pause on the nomination for Gemini. Since then, the nomination has been in limbo.
The 44-year-old Winklevoss brothers have supported Trump's campaign and funded pro-Trump political groups, and they are now showcasing their influence in Washington. Like other cryptocurrency executives, they are eager for the CFTC to have a leadership that is friendly to the industry, as the agency plays a key role in regulating the digital asset market.
Quintenz is a pro-cryptocurrency Republican who has garnered support from many industry groups, while the Winklevoss brothers' initiation of a "sniping operation" against him has puzzled onlookers.
Lee Reiners, a lecturer at Duke University and a critic of the cryptocurrency industry, stated: "This is purely a tantrum, rooted in revenge and punishing others… It has no necessary relation to future policy directions."
The brothers, known as the "Winklevii," have a history of high-profile disputes. In a legal battle depicted in the film "The Social Network," they accused Harvard alumnus Mark Zuckerberg of stealing their idea to create Facebook. The two former Olympic rowers ultimately received a settlement of $65 million in cash and stock.
Since then, they have become tech investors and began purchasing Bitcoin in 2012, when the price of Bitcoin was less than $10. In 2013, they attempted to launch the first Bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF), but it was not approved due to skepticism from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
The brothers launched the cryptocurrency exchange Gemini in 2014, raising $425 million in a recent IPO. Currently, the brothers hold approximately 75 million shares of Gemini stock and control 94.7% of the voting rights.
After surging on its first day of trading, Gemini's stock has fallen more than 20% this week, dropping below the $28 issue price. Despite its high brand recognition, Gemini has faced ongoing losses in recent quarters and pressure from larger competitors like Coinbase.
In last year's election, the brothers supported Trump's presidential campaign and donated nearly $5 million to a pro-cryptocurrency group that invested heavily in industry-friendly candidates in Congress. Last month, the Winklevoss brothers donated $21 million in Bitcoin to the Digital Freedom Fund, a newly established pro-cryptocurrency, pro-Trump super PAC.
Trump has repeatedly praised the Winklevoss brothers' appearance, referring to them as "male models with extraordinary intelligence" during a speech at a Bitcoin conference last year, marking his complete transformation from a cryptocurrency skeptic to a staunch supporter. Earlier this year, the Winklevoss brothers collaborated with White House cryptocurrency director David Sacks and investors like Donald Trump Jr. to establish a private club in Washington, D.C., called Executive Branch, with a membership fee of $500,000 and an annual fee.
Tyler Winklevoss mentioned in a message to Quintenz the $5 million settlement agreement that Gemini barely reached with the CFTC in the last days of the Biden administration, which is a sore point for the brothers.
After Trump began his second term, Gemini complained to the CFTC's inspector general, alleging unethical behavior by the lawyers involved in the investigation.
In the July conversation with Quintenz, Winklevoss wrote: "I am disappointed and surprised that you haven't seen, heard, or read our complaint."
Shortly after the brothers contacted Trump, the Senate committee responsible for overseeing the CFTC canceled the vote to advance Quintenz's nomination "at the request of the White House" (the brothers' contact with Trump was first reported by Politico). Subsequently, Tyler Winklevoss criticized Quintenz in an interview with the New York Post for being "inconsistent with President Trump's position."
The Winklevoss brothers have benefited from the Trump administration's lenient regulation of cryptocurrencies. On Monday, the SEC and Gemini announced that they had reached a "principled resolution" regarding a lawsuit from the Biden era. The SEC had accused Gemini of violating investor protection laws by offering a deposit-like product (paying customers up to 8% interest), and the SEC paused the lawsuit after Trump took office.
This product collapsed in 2022 due to the bankruptcy of a partner company, and New York Attorney General Letitia James separately filed a lawsuit, accusing Gemini of misleading investors about the product's safety. Last year, Gemini paid approximately $50 million to settle with James but did not admit to any wrongdoing.
Like Trump, the Winklevoss brothers have called for retaliation against officials they believe have treated them unfairly. Cameron has called for the "immediate firing" of SEC lawyers involved in lawsuits against cryptocurrency companies during the Biden era. After their industry "rival," former SEC chair Gary Gensler, returned to teach at MIT, Tyler stated that Gemini would not hire any MIT graduates.
Cameron stated at the White House cryptocurrency summit in March this year, "It's great to see the situation change, and the scales tipping in a favorable direction."
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