Inside Rise and Fall of Geminis, Risky Accounts Earn $900M in Money for Clients in Limbo

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Gemini co-founders Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss started last year with the intention of going big with a risky type of crypto lending account. And they forged ahead even as warning signs continued to appear.

In the first few months of 2022, the twins told the Crypto Startup Growth Team to come up with a more aggressive plan to commercialize crypto accounts, known as Earn, which look like high-end savings accounts. performance, said a person with direct knowledge of the matter. . For much of the year, even as crypto bankruptcies rose and crypto prices continued to fall, that message of growth remained unchanged, two people familiar with the matter said.

But some within the company were increasingly uncomfortable pushing Earn, two people with direct knowledge said. Part of the unease came when Gemini was targeting larger, more sophisticated customers who raised questions about the risks associated with the product, one of the people said. After customers deposited the crypto into Earn accounts, Gemini would loan the crypto to Genesis, a subsidiary of Barry Silberts Digital Currency Group, which in turn loaned it to its own customers, including large betting crypto traders. risky leverage.

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