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Gemini's Cameron Winklevoss Tweets $1.5B 'Final Offer' in Debt Talks Over Crypto Firm Genesis

Creditors of the crypto financial firm Genesis propose a package $1.5 billion of forbearance payments and loans denominated in dollars, bitcoin and ether, according to a term sheet posted on Twitter by the Gemini co-founder.

By Bradley Keoun|Edited by Bradley Keoun

Updated Jul 5, 2023, 3:15 p.m. Published Jul 4, 2023, 1:59 a.m.

Cameron Winklevoss, co-founder of the Gemini crypto exchange, tweeted what he described as a "final offer" in the debt-restructuring talks over the bankrupt digital-asset firm Genesis, bringing months of negotiations and mediation to a head with a plan for $1.5 billion in forbearance payments and fresh loans.

On Monday, Winklevoss posted to Twitter an "Open Letter to Barry Silbert," the founder of Digital Currency Group (DCG), which owns Genesis as well as the giant crypto asset manager Grayscale. (CoinDesk is also a holding.)

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In the letter, Winklevoss bemoaned delays on the part of DCG to come up with a satisfactory plan to repay Genesis creditors, including customers of Gemini's Earn program. DCG also has missed a payment of $630 million to Genesis.

Winklevoss tweeted a document titled "Best and Final Offer - July 3, 2023," with the outlines of a plan that calls for $1.465 billion of payments and loans denominated in dollars, bitcoin and ether. The deadline to agree to the deal is 4 p.m. on July 6, according to the letter.

"I write to inform you that your games are over," Winklevoss wrote in the letter. "In addition to dragging out a resolution, they have ballooned professional fees to over $100 million, all of which have gone to lawyers and advisors at the expense of creditors and Earn users."

In a January court filing, Genesis had listed more than $3 billion in claims to its top 50 creditors. According to Winklevoss, some $1.2 billion is owed to Earn users.

Efforts to reach DCG for comment were not immediately successful.

In the letter, Winklevoss wrote that the consequences of failing to agree to "this deal" by the deadline could include lawsuits against DCG and Silbert personally, as well as pushing to put DCG into default and working on a "non-consensual" debt-repayment plan.

Elizabeth Napolitano contributed reporting for this article.

Gemini DCG Digital Currency Group Bitcoin Genesis Capital

Bradley Keoun

Bradley Keoun is CoinDesk's managing editor of tech & protocols, where he oversees a team of reporters covering blockchain technology, and previously ran the global crypto markets team. A two-time Loeb Awards finalist, he previously was chief global finance and economic correspondent for TheStreet and before that worked as an editor and reporter for Bloomberg News in New York and Mexico City, reporting on Wall Street, emerging markets and the energy industry. He started out as a police-beat reporter for the Gainesville Sun in Florida and later worked as a general-assignment reporter for the Chicago Tribune. Originally from Fort Wayne, Indiana, he double-majored in electrical engineering and classical studies as an undergraduate at Duke University and later obtained a master's in journalism from the University of Florida. He is currently based in Austin, Texas, and in his spare time plays guitar, sings in a choir and hikes in the Texas Hill Country. He owns less than $1,000 each of several cryptocurrencies.