Gemini wins arbitration ruling over collapsed Earn lending program

Gemini wins arbitration ruling over collapsed Earn lending program

Mon, August 31, 2026 at 3:33 PM GMT+3 2 min read

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Gemini Space Station won an arbitration ruling earlier this month finding the crypto exchange did not mislead users or bear responsibility for the collapse of its Earn lending program, according to CNBC.

The Aug. 12 ruling dismissed a claim filed in late 2024 by an Earn user who sought damages tied to emotional distress. The ruling concluded that the record contained nothing showing Gemini had deceived customers or skimped on its vetting of Genesis Global Capital, the firm's chief lending partner. "In the instant case, Claimant offered no evidence of an actual or perceived threat to his physical safety," the ruling said, according to CNBC.

Rather than faulting Gemini, arbitrators trained their fire on Genesis and its parent Digital Currency Group, run by Barry Silbert, whom they accused of perpetrating a fraud so sweeping that it eluded the firm's own auditors and multiple regulatory bodies right up until Gemini uncovered it. Barry Silbert and DCG did not respond to a request for comment.

Earn, which debuted in 2021, promised customers interest as high as 7.4% per year on the digital assets they deposited. Genesis served as the conduit through which Gemini placed those holdings with institutional borrowers. The structure unraveled in November 2022 when Genesis, squeezed by a sector-wide liquidity crisis, stopped processing new loans and redemptions, leaving Gemini with no choice but to suspend withdrawals for its roughly 300,000 Earn customers. Genesis filed for bankruptcy in January 2023, according to Cryptobriefing.

The bankruptcy resolution eventually returned all crypto owed to Earn users. Of that total, 97% went out to customers in May 2024, with the final 3% following in June; in both cases, assets were returned in kind rather than being converted to their 2022 dollar values, according to Cryptobriefing. Gemini said that amounted to $1 billion more than when Genesis halted withdrawals.

Gemini's legal troubles stemming from Earn were not limited to this arbitration. The New York attorney general sued the company over the program, settling for $50 million in 2024 and barring Gemini from operating crypto-lending programs in the state. As of earlier this month, more than a dozen arbitration disputes brought by Earn customers remained ongoing.

Gemini Space Station, co-founded by Tyler Winklevoss and Cameron Winklevoss, went public in September 2025 and has faced a turbulent period since, including headcount reductions and a shareholder lawsuit alleging it misled investors about its prospects around the time of its IPO.